- The revelators La Directa and El Salto have reported twelve policemen who have infiltrated different collectives of the Spanish state since 2002. The most recent case that has been made public is the case of the Spanish police who used the false name of Nieves López. El Salto reports that between 2023-24 he spent about six months infiltrating ecological movements such as Rebelión o Extinción (XR) and Fridays for Future in Madrid.
The way in which Nieves acts coincides with that of other infiltrated policemen: He began to approach social movements as a recent graduate of the Academy of Ávila, participating first in training sessions and then intervening in direct actions such as the protests against the cutting of trees in the Arganzuela Park. El Salto has received reports that members of environmental movements soon realized that Nieves’ behavior contained something suspicious. "We know that even in movements where we only do civil disobedience, there are police infiltrates and we have learned to be vigilant," Victor de Santos, a member of the Rebellion or Extinction group, told El Salto.
He also began to participate in the assemblies of the Friday for Future movement. "His profile didn't fit: He was about 30 years old, he was on a motorcycle and said he worked at Carrefour. Most of us at Fridays are students, many from high school, and no one comes on the bike,” says Carla. "We were suspicious from the beginning. A friend asked him about his Instagram and said he didn't have an account." The lack of social networks or the absence of old publications is characteristic of the infiltrated agents, as highlighted by the journalists Alex Méaude and Tomás Muñoz.
Later, the infiltrator police was fined for the action of Arganzuela, who, like many others, appealed against him to the XR team. Due to the false DNI he issued, members of the environmental group continued to tie the strings. In June 2024, Nieves participated in a protest in Madrid.That's when they last saw him. "That day we were followed by secrets in a very visible way," says the activist named Nefer. A member named Ara, when asked why he thought Nieves had failed to infiltrate, says: "Either the Information Brigade did everything on purpose to make us think that we were already able to intercept the infiltrated police; or it was simply silly." In any case, "this form of repression is very cruel," he adds, "it causes a lot of paranoia."
Movement members are now thinking about how to handle what happened. "We want to take care of the people who shared space with Nieves, but also the new entrepreneurs who are afraid of them," explains Cerve from XR.