Spain trained over 300 ‘Gibraltar specialists’

American spies in Spain reported on secret Spanish plans to train “technicians, propagandists and military people” on issues relating to Gibraltar, according to a secret memo prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Details of the Spanish plan are contained in a declassified CIA document, one of millions of historical papers made available in a searchable online database last week.
The one-page memo is entitled “Training Course for Gibraltar Specialists” and dates back to 1954.
It is described as an information note, meaning that it is raw, unverified intelligence. The author was merely reporting what he had heard, without providing analysis on sources or assessing the veracity of the information.
“The Spanish Government has detailed 340 persons to a special training course near Madrid under circumstances of great secrecy,” the information note said.
“The participants are technicians, propagandists and military people who have specialized in details of the Gibraltar problem.”
“The course will go on until March or April 1954.”
The note offers no clues as to the nature of the Gibraltar-related training.
But the course was held just weeks before the Queen visited Gibraltar, a trip that Spain vehemently opposed.
Not only that, in the ensuing years the Franco regime pushed Spain’s sovereignty aspiration over Gibraltar onto the agenda in many international fora, not least the United Nations.