Back to Urdangarin’s bodyguards: first they said they were taking them away and now the opposite

On the question of the bodyguards Iñaki Urdangarin There has been a lot of talk, to the point that the same media have published one thing and the opposite. At the beginning of the year it was reported that the process had begun to remove the security of the husband of the Infanta Cristina, an assertion that we denied after verifying that Don Juan Carlos’s son-in-law was still protected. Now it is rectified and where one thing was said the other is affirmed, and what we already announced is published as great news: he never retired.

In any case, Iñaki Urdangarin can ask for whatever he wants or suits him, but he does not decide whether or not he should have security at the expense of the public treasury. They are officials and officials of the Ministry of the Interior who make that decision based on risk scales, protocols and other variables that have been perfectly studied and for which reports are provided. If an official decided on his own behalf, without objective arguments, to maintain escorts for the former Duke of Palma, he could even incur a crime when we are talking about public money.

At the beginning of last March we reported citing sources from the Interior, which is exclusively the ministry, through the Secretary of State for Security, who evaluates the risks and assesses whether a person should have an escort or not. They explained to us that the decision is applied in each case based on these evaluations. “There is no procedure to start,” they assured, because “the evaluations are constant, periodic and the decisions are applied or not applied immediately and Urdangarin will have them as long as the Interior considers it appropriate.” There’s no more.

The same sources pointed out that “an escort’s opinion on whether or not he would like to continue in a destination simply does not exist,” they concluded. “An agent does not decide in front of a superior to continue in a service from which they intend to relieve him because he is happy or dissatisfied”, they pointed out from the Marlaska ministry. “In addition, the shifts, in most cases, are rotated and there is not a specific group assigned much time,” they clarify. “And the person under surveillance, whoever he is, does not decide whether or not to maintain surveillance, which depends exclusively on the Secretary of State for Security,” he insists. “He is sometimes asked about questions that are relevant, such as if he has observed any danger or something suspicious, if for some reason he fears for his safety and this type of thing, but not if he wants to continue having escorts or No”.

Read also: Ainhoa ​​Armentia, Urdangarin’s girlfriend, speaks after the latest news: “It seems disrespectful to me”

The Ministry of the Interior never reports on the devices for security reasons. The Official Secrets Law protects against reporting data relating to the Royal Family. Not even these types of questions have been answered to parliamentarians who have raised them in Congress. And proposals to reform this law have never been accepted even though there have been attempts.

Last February 2, in the program of Sonsoles Onega, on Antena 3, and in many other spaces on this and other channels, it was said that Iñaki Urdangarin His escorts had been withdrawn. Until that moment, the fame of the character and his situation had led the Interior to make the decision to keep him protected after his time in prison, that is, due to his public position and media exposure, which could put the physical integrity of him.

For this reason, the ministry responsible for her security decided that the husband of the Infanta Cristina, even after having been removed from the Royal House, kept his bodyguards. That situation did not change either, in the opinion of the Secretary of State for Security, after the end of his coexistence with the infanta. However, according to the Atresmedia space, something changed and on February 2 they made public that the 8,000 euros spent every month by the Ministry of the Interior in protecting Felipe VI’s brother-in-law, we were going to save them.

But the truth is that Iñaki Urdangarin and Ainhoa ​​Armentia They are still under surveillance, as is now recognized by the same media that accepted the news that his bodyguards had been removed. Paparazzi who usually accompany them with some frequency in search of those photographs that we later see in magazines like Hola, they assured us that they do have bodyguards. Even when they travel to one of the getaways or go out to have a wine in Vitoria. “They watch them, although they are more discreet,” explained a photographer who works a lot in the capital of Álava. “I would say that the agents have been told to be less visible, not to do errands such as bringing them food or not to confront the reporters who usually follow Iñaki or Ainhoa ​​unless they see danger to their physical integrity,” he added. he.