How can you be a spy in Spain? The CNI has even placed advertisements in the press to find its agents

Sean Connery como James Bond.

Among the alleged Spaniards infiltrated in Venezuela to destabilize the Maduro Government and the film-like operations carried out by the Israeli secret services against the terrorist group Hezbollahmore than one person may be fantasizing about the idea of ​​becoming the next James Bond. However, despite Hollywood’s efforts, the life of a spy little resembles the adventures of agent 007. “Am I ready to serve my country? Am I ready to long working hourswith a high level of demand? Do I not mind that the peculiarities of the job interfere with my private life? Am I a discreet person, capable of maintaining the necessary confidentiality regarding the performance of my work? These are the questions that the National Intelligence Center (CNI) before submitting the application to become a spy in the service of Spain.

The CNI makes things very easy for those who want to be considered for the Spanish intelligence service. When entering its website, the section “Work with us” is quickly found at the top right of the computer. Following the virtual path, you end up on a page where it is explained to us that the vocation of service It is essential to be a good secret agent and the skills that the institution is most interested in are detailed: knowing languages ​​​​- at least a B2 -, having knowledge in telecommunications, being a hacker capable or skilled in obtaining information through procedures not entirely legalFrom there, all that remains is to apply for one of the available offers.

“That is a long and complex procedure Because what an intelligence service fears most is that a mole gets in,” he warns in dialogue with Infobae Spain Jorge Dezcallarwho headed the CNI between 2001 and 2004. “Imagine a russian “The one who, on holiday in Spain, is recruited and then convinced to apply to the Russian SVR. Naturally, they do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen and we also do everything possible to ensure that it does not happen here. Therefore, the filters are very, very strict,” he explains. In fact, on its website the CNI warns that the job interview can be prolonged. up to six months.

“There are many different types of spies. There are analysts, who are the majority; field agents, who are the ones who They come in through the windows at night; the translators; those who work in the cyber world; and those who handle the satellite issue, what is called image intelligence,” explains the former head of the Spanish intelligence service. “What we are looking for at any given moment is what we need at any given moment,” he says, when asked about the capabilities and characteristics that the agency expects from its staff.

Sometimes, however, the needs of an intelligence service can be so specific that it is not easy to find the spy you are looking for. Dezcallar, for example, had to lead the CNI during the war of Afghanistan and was faced with a lack of interpreters for languages ​​from that region of the world. “After the attacks on the Twin Towers There was a paradigm shift. We had a lot of people who spoke Basque (because of ETA), Arabic and North African dialects, but we didn’t have people who were specialized in Tajik or Pashto“, recalls the man who was also ambassador to the United States and Morocco.

Former CNI director Jorge Dezcallar (left) in the cloister of the University of Deusto, in Bilbao. (Europa Press)

Faced with this dilemma, the solution that Dezcallar found was the same one used by companies or stores looking for staff at the beginning of this century: a newspaper advertisement. “I did it because I spoke to my colleague, the head of the British MI6and he told me ‘boy, the same thing happens to me and I’m advertising in the press’. Well, look, I’m going to do the same, because Where can I find a Pashto translator?”.

Another thing to keep in mind before applying for a job at the National Intelligence Center is that the profession of spy implies, as Dezcallar says, “a very solitary life.” “You don’t tell anyone that you work at the CNI, but that you work for administrationthat is the usual coverage. One cannot in a barbecue with friends to comment on their work as others do. In many cases they don’t know it either nor the family “It is more intimate,” explains the former director of the center. “Sometimes you have to go on a trip and be away for three weeks and when you come back you cannot say where you have gone. You cannot talk not only for reasons of security of the mission itself, but also to avoid complicate life “the people you love,” says Dezcallar.

Furthermore, if it is already complicated to become a secret agent, it is even more so stop being so. “First, because it is a very special type of life and it is not easy to adapt to other ways of life; and second, because it is something tremendously vocational that is done out of conviction and patriotism,” says Dezcallar. “Naturally, if one wants to leave, one also has to meet certain requirements.” confidentiality commitments and he cannot talk about what he has done during his years of service. That is also controlled.”

Putin gives honorary welcome to spies released in prisoner exchange with US

Perhaps the loneliness of a spy is best understood at the moment when his true identity is exposed. While spies sometimes enjoy diplomatic immunity, especially when they are agents of friendly countries, they are often simply expelled from the country victim of espionage, as was the case of the American spies those who, in 2023, Spain demanded to leave the national territory after discovering that they had conspired with a double agent of the CNI. However, at other times the country cannot recognize that the captured spy was one of its agents. “The person who is doing that job knows that, if they catch him, He can’t be defended Because that would imply admitting that something illegal was being done,” says Dezcallar.

These situations lead the countries involved to sit down and negotiate a spy swapsuch as the one recently starred by United States and Russia. “Negotiations are not usually easy, it is something that is done in secret and, many times, these exchanges do not even appear in the newspapers,” explains the former director of the CNI. “Everyone is interested in recovering their people and all the intelligence services have a duty of loyalty for their spies.”

The CNI investigated the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, because it believed that he was the one who directed the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) and, for this reason, the software ‘Pegasus’ was installed on his mobile phone. (Source: Europa Press / La Moncloa)