The “PP's nemesis” exposes Kitchen

The “PP’s nemesis” exposes Kitchen

After almost six hours answering questions in the trial for the ‘Operation Kitchen’ held at the National Court, National Police Chief Inspector Manuel Morocho was eager to speak more. During the two sessions that his testimony lasted, the officer who led investigations such as Gürtel or the Bárcenas Papers recounted how he corroborated the existence of “a police operation without judicial authorization” targeting the former treasurer of the Popular Party Luis Bárcenas, how he suffered pressure not to include the name of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in one of his reports, how the Ministry of the Interior at the time deployed “a strategy to dismantle” his police group, and how he found “indications” that his office and vehicle were monitored to conduct surveillance on him. “I don’t know if I can say something,” he asked the court president, Teresa Palacios, as she was dismissing him. At that moment, a nearly unanimous “no” was heard from the defendants’ bench, almost entirely. “The PP’s black beast,” as he recalled they called him yesterday, left without revealing that “thing” he still had to say. Although what he did say, exposing Kitchen, was not few.

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Catalonia recorded two shootings a week last year, seven with fatalities

Catalonia recorded two shootings a week last year, seven with fatalities

For some time now, the police, including the Mossos d’Esquadra, have been deciphering, analyzing, and interpreting all the data that can be extracted from an incident. This is what is called “police intelligence,” which is recorded in reports prepared by analysts and helps to understand objectively what is happening. This information is taken very much into account in decision-making or in the design of prevention policies. Every firearm incident is dissected, literally. And some data from that analysis show the real proportions of a problem that concerns the population and security officials. In Catalonia, an average of two shootings occur per week.

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The former Chief Operating Officer of the Police, Eugenio Pino and Villarejo testify in the 'Kitchen' case

The former Chief Operating Officer of the Police, Eugenio Pino and Villarejo testify in the ‘Kitchen’ case

La Audiencia Nacional resumes the Kitchen trial, which this week will have only one session, this Monday, in which the former deputy operational director of the Police, Eugenio Pino, and the former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo are scheduled to testify about an alleged parapolice operation between 2013 and 2015 to spy on the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas.

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Junts, along with PP and Vox, strikes down the rental decree and the investment consortium

Junts, along with PP and Vox, strikes down the rental decree and the investment consortium

Junts inflicted a double defeat of enormous political significance on the Government in Congress this Tuesday by joining its votes with those of PP and Vox to overturn, with only a few minutes’ separation, two of the most sensitive initiatives of the legislature. These were the housing decree promoted by Sumar and the investment consortium agreed between ERC and the PSC to strengthen the Generalitat’s participation in state investments in Catalonia. The setback hits the coalition hard on the eve of the Andalusian campaign, with polls already very adverse for the left against Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla’s PP, which aims to revalidate its absolute majority.

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