The director of the Civil Guard presents herself as a "victim" of Santos Cerdán

MadridThe Director General of the Civil Guard has returned to the National Court to testify as an investigated party for prevarication and obstruction of justice within the framework of the Leire Díez case. Her name surfaced after the Central Operative Unit (UCO) discovered that she had met with the person known as the PSOE's "plumber", even though she has distanced herself from the alleged plot to torpedo judicial investigations from the outset. According to what ARA has been able to ascertain, she stated before the judge that she is a "victim" of Santos Cerdán, who was the party's number three and with whom she "never" had a "good relationship," and assured that if she had known that Leire Díez was coming on his behalf, she would have refused to receive her. She added that she saw "nothing suspicious" in the contacts with her and that they never spoke about internal investigations within the Civil Guard.

Furthermore, she downplayed the activation of temporary messages in the WhatsApp conversation with the PSOE's plumber" – days after admitting internally that she knew her – arguing that she uses it with more than eighty people. She also explained that on May 5, the DAO of the Civil Guard, who is also being investigated, informed her that they were aware of the existence of an alleged plot orchestrated by Leire Díez, and she explained to him that she knew her and had seen her recently: "It was a devastating moment, my world fell apart," she recalled. And she also defended the "impeccable" work done by the UCO.

Santiago Pedraz imputed her after the Prosecutor's Office suspected that she made a “repeated and improper use” of internal investigations as a “pressure mechanism” to “obstruct or alter” the “freedom” of investigators. But she defended the need for the proceedings that were opened. First, “an explanation had to be requested” for the appearance of Begoña Gómez's email in a report on the case of Pedro Sánchez's brother. And then they had to investigate the leak of the WhatsApp chat between José Luis Ábalos and Pedro Sánchez because “they were not certain” that the material was not part of what the UCO had seized.

Although the report from the armed institute details three meetings between Mercedes González and Leire Díez, the director of the Civil Guard denies that the second one took place. The first was in September 2024, the first time they met in person. The second was in April 2025, but she put an end to the conversation when she was asked to reinstate Rubén Villalba, the commander investigated in the Koldo case: “There the meeting ended, I asked for the bill and left. I don't know what she intended, I didn't give her a chance to explain,” she recounted. 

The DAO appears before the Senate

In parallel to Mercedes González's statement before the judge, her number two appeared at the Senate's Koldo case commission. The deputy operational director of the Guardia Civil, Manuel Llamas, went there 24 hours after the hearing at the Audiencia Nacional, where he denied having pressured the UCO. Regarding his continuity in office, he alleged that he has not resigned for “coherence” with the defense of his “innocence” and assured that he will make a decision when he believes his honor “has been reasonably questioned”. And he maintained that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, finds his imputation “unfair”: “Coherently with this, he keeps me in office”. He also said that he does not know and has never spoken with Leire Díez.

“Playing it safe”

A witness assures that the DAO told UCO investigators to "stand aside" in cases with political impact, but he has denied it: "I do not recognize myself in this expression if it means stepping aside to avoid investigating, inhibiting myself from my responsibilities [...] or doing absolutely nothing, it has never been my style".

Not being proactive

The other accusation against him is having invited the UCO agents not to be proactive. He has acknowledged saying this, but has downplayed its importance: “I am tired of saying that the investigator is the judge, not us. Sometimes there is an excess of protagonism and a certain vanity, and we assume papers or roles that do not correspond to us,” he justified. He considers that the Civil Guard investigators cannot have “so much proactivity” that they “steal the direction of the investigation” from the instructing magistrate.

Marlaska's call

He also reported that Marlaska called him to talk about the leak of Begoña Gómez's email. It was not to urge him to investigate it, but to give him a “dimension” of the “scope and impact” of this “slip-up” and of the “pernicious effect” it had had: “The emails had been bombarded and filled with all sorts of insulting and abusive material,” he reported.