The CNI, an instrument for security

For many, the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia may be an unknown institution. However, our students had the opportunity to learn about the organisation and day-to-day life of the centre, in an event organised by the Ateneo Alumni Association, with the help of the CNI's former director, General Félix Sanz Roldán.

In an event in which Abel Benito Veiga Copo, Dean of the Faculty of Law (Comillas ICADE), began by introducing Sanz, emphasising that "we are dealing with a public servant" and thanking the former Director for his closeness and transparency. Sanz Roldán began his speech by stressing the important role that each one of the students plays in the future of our society, as they themselves are the driving force behind news related to security and defence.

The former director then described and explained the objectives of the CNI and described how it works, bringing the students closer to a reality that at the beginning of the presentation they perceived as distant. He stressed that "the secret services are the best parameter by which to measure the value of a democracy" and that the CNI was, until very recently, one of the few centres with a code of ethics.

The CNI's main objective is to provide the government and the president with the elements of judgement to enable them to make strategic decisions, thus being an instrument for security in a broad sense. It is a very rich institution, as Sanz Roldán points out. A richness that lies in the quality of its human resources and the resources it has.

General Felix Sanz Roldán is one of the people who knows the CNI best, an institution which he himself defines as unique, which complies absolutely with the law and which "is much more of a service than a secret".