A worrying publication slipped into a forum for buying and selling second-hand goods in Ceuta in September 2021. In one of the accompanying photos, a backlit man can barely be seen touching a young man’s ankle. In the text, a user says he is speaking through the mouth of a mother from Castillejos (Morocco), who denounces that her child, who is under guardianship in the city, is being touched in an “ugly way” by Javier Guerrero, a renowned doctor and minister of health until January of the same year. . Hardly anyone in the city believed this accusation, because of its inconsistency – it was eventually wiped out – and above all because of the good reputation that the head of the university hospital’s digestion service still enjoyed.
A year and four months later, already in the autonomous city of 84,800 inhabitants, few are closing in on Guerrero, who ended up in temporary jail without bail on January 13 for alleged sexual abuse of migrant minors under guardianship centers for minors in Ceuta. “He is a man who knows everyone here, the most sociable, but only one knows the darkest side of everyone,” explains a man from Ceuta who is close to the investigation of the civil guard and the youth welfare prosecutor.
The Court of Inquiry 3 of Ceuta sent him to prison after the Guardia Civil arrested him at his home two days earlier. Guerrero himself reported this in a tweet he allegedly authored, in which he said he was being arrested in front of his wife and daughters while shooting at an alleged political conspiracy to take him out. In the more than six months of investigations, however, the Civil Guard has not found any attempt by the PP or the PSOE to tarnish Guerrero’s reputation. But they have found evidence of possible “sexual assault” on minors under guardianship. This took the form of touching, without violence, intimidation or penetration, another legal source points out. The Autonomous City is presented as a private lawsuit defending the interests of minors.
After the massive arrival of migrants from Morocco in May 2021, Guerrero came into contact with minors cared for by institutions such as the La Esperanza centre. At that point, he had already had to resign as health minister in January of this year. for obtaining the Covid-19 vaccine in violation of the Ministry of Health’s protocol. But his prestige as a professional close to his patients remained nearly unblemished, and he offered to look after the young newcomers at a time when nursing services were overwhelmed. But as the months went by, professionals at the youth centers began to grow suspicious.
Portal of the home of the former Health Minister of Ceuta, Javier Guerrero, where he was arrested on January 11 Antonio Sempere (Europa Press)
“You will be told [a Guerrero] on various occasions that he must comply with the visitation protocol for minors, and when he saw that he was not complying with it, it was decided that this collaboration was no longer necessary,” said Alberto Gaitán, current Minister of Health and spokesman for the Government of Ceuta, in an appearance after the doctor’s arrest. In fact, the city even went as far as barring Guerrero from juvenile centers in January last year, but officials realized he continued to have contact with them outside of the centers and eventually informed the Prosecutor’s office last March Shortly thereafter, the health manager of the Territorial Directorate of Ingesa – the unit under the Ministry of Health that manages the health service in Ceuta – also prohibited the specialist from continuing to see minors without authorization and to give them gifts.
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Guerrero’s behavior made headlines in El Faro de Ceuta, the media outlet that reported on the problems with the doctor from the start. The newspaper speaks of cellphones being given away to youngsters, deals with former guardians going to the peninsula, and even the fact that the person being investigated even paid a young man a pension for months. The suspicion coincided with the doctor’s political aspirations, who in May 2022 decided to found a new political party, Ceuta Avanza, with 24 other former PP fighters. By doing so, he intended to return to the gathering he attended in 2015 and marched out the back door from because of his confusion with the vaccine.
Ceuta Avanza now prefers to remain silent “at the request of Javier and his family”. His lawyer also does not answer questions from EL PAÍS. The secrecy contrasts with the noise that populates the social networks of Guerrero himself and the support profile he has on Facebook – with more than 800 followers – in which they discuss plots and conspiracies by the PSOE, the PP and even the Guardia Civil talk to them to incriminate him. . It’s the same argument he used to defend himself against the first allegations before he was taken into custody. “It was crazy moves, it was surprising that he didn’t make a normal statement. From the beginning he was a victim of all powers bent on destroying him,” explains a local journalist, who asked not to be identified.
More than a week after he landed in temporary jail, the social climate is very different from the first ripples of his arrest. Court sources say the investigation is continuing, albeit under a secret that has prevented knowing how many are the doctor’s alleged victims for the time being. By now, Ceuta has largely assumed that his famous doctor, Guerrero, will have to answer to the judiciary for the nature of his relationship with these boys under guardianship. “Here in the area, the association fell little by little,” says the same journalist.
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