Infiltrated into the Heart of the Squatter Movement

More than 25 years ago, authorities were overwhelmed by the emergence of a protest movement of unprecedented force. Suddenly, demonstrations against the economic order took to the streets of Seattle during the World Trade Organization meeting. Prague also became the scene of a movement against an IMF meeting that turned the city upside down. The epidemic spread to Genoa, Barcelona, and other major cities.

Western police commanders were perplexed. Where did this motley crowd of trade unionists, environmentalists, indigenous people, and peasants come from, challenging the security forces? In Lavapiés, the epicentre of Madrid's squatter movement, anti-neoliberalism and anti-real estate speculation protests were brewing, with an unknown Pablo Iglesias stirring the waters of anti-system activists. The police decided to infiltrate someone among those who sheltered in squatted buildings. Journalist and writer Daniel Campos has recreated in the novel 'Guerrilla Lavapiés' (Península) the story of the official who blended into the heart of these new dissenters to uncover their secrets.

Alfonso, a policeman who adopted the war name David to blend into the movement, had just graduated from the Ávila Police Academy when his superiors assigned him the mission of infiltrating the squatters, who had their base of operations in the Laboratory, a building taken over by anti-system activists. Alfonso was brimming with energy, was from Lavapiés, and had the audacity to pass himself off as one of those long-haired youths who intimidated the security forces.

"Part of the anti-globalisation movement's demands are now officialised in the 2030 Agenda. Its members have gone from being rebels to becoming part of the establishment. But back then, they were very frightening, because at their debut, they sent shivers down the spines of security force leaders worldwide," says Daniel Campos.

While their demands are now part of the ideology of many left-wing forces, the emergence of the 'black bloc', hooded figures who outwitted the National Guard in Seattle with their urban guerrilla tactics, terrified world leaders. Spain was not immune to this fear, and the then Secretary of State for Security during Aznar's first government, Pedro Morenés, ordered an investigation into the new movement's inner workings. "They understood nothing, neither its nature nor its objectives," asserts the journalist.

In the case of Alfonso/David, the infiltrated agent found himself without the protective cloak of his superiors. Unlike the figure of the undercover agent, who must answer to the judge, the infiltrated policeman was adrift, with no other protector than his skill to avoid detection.

"Once he had to go to Genoa (Italy), where a protest against globalisation was called, to follow Pablo Iglesias and company. His boss then told him: 'If something happens to you, you can't even say you're a policeman.'"

During the time he remained hidden among the squatters, the agent provided top-notch information about the movement's inner workings to his superiors, who passed it on to their Italian colleagues, who were very pleased. "He moved in a world where most were blind."

His manoeuvring ability among the squatter collective was so astute that he had some romantic encounters with some militants, although he was in a stable relationship for a long time. "That's what kept him psychologically afloat from that adventure, unlike what happened to other infiltrators. In fact, when she left him, he began to spiral into self-destruction."

In the heart of the anti-globalisation movement, he even met with GRAPO members, who were seeking new recruits for their cause in the urban guerrilla fishing grounds. "He enjoyed an upward trajectory within the movement that coincided with another upward trajectory at that time, that of Pablo Iglesias."

"When he left the mission, the first thing he did was request a post in a radically different place: the riot police."