FUNDACIÓN VÍCTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO 96 - ENGLISH

EDUCATION AND COEXISTENCE 15 mist organisations have reinvented their propaganda and recruitment methods. Florencio Domínguez , Director of the Memorial Centre for the Victims of Te- rrorism, recalled that jihadist terrorism is now Spain’s main terrorist challenge. He stressed the importance of preserving the memory of all victims, including those fre- quently sidelined in public accounts, such as people murdered by GRAPO. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Susana Crisóstomo , rein- forced this institutional dimension by noting the growing impact of the Memo- rial in Vitoria. She argued that comba- ting terrorism must be understood as a true policy of state, sustained by coope- ration between public authorities, secu- rity forces, the justice system, academia and civil society. THE SAHEL, THE NEW EPICENTRE OF THE THREAT The strategic analysis rested on this ethical foundation. Loreto Gutiérrez , Director of the Department of National Security, placed Spain’s response within the National Counter-Terrorism Strate- gy approved in 2024, built around four pillars: prevent, protect, pursue and prepare. The head of the DSN drew attention to a highly significant geographical shift: the threat’s epicentre has moved towards the Sahel, a region now accounting for a substantial share of global terrorist ac- tivity. Radicalisation and the expansion of groups linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh in Africa are already having direct conse- quences for European security. Researcher Carola García-Calvo also re- called that Spain has maintained a coun- ter-terrorism alert level of 4 out of 5 since 2015. She highlighted a distinctive featu- re of the Spanish model: placing victims at the heart of the security strategy as an ethical reference. SECURITY AND DEMOCRATIC SAFEGUARDS One of the most significant debates con- cerned the balance between prevention and the protection of fundamental rights. The President of the National Court, Juan Manuel Fernández , defended the court’s status as a specialised court within the ordinary judicial system, rejecting any interpretation that presents it as an exceptional jurisdiction. Fernández noted that successive reforms of the Criminal Code have enabled earlier intervention in radicalisation processes by criminalising preparatory conduct linked to terrorism. However, he warned of the need always to maintain a clear boundary between effective prevention and the infringement of safeguards. The Chief Prosecutor of the National Court, Jesús Alonso , provided one of the meeting’s most concerning figures: since the pandemic, the number of radicalised minors detected each year has risen from around ten to about fifty. He explained that these young people tend to become radicalised alone, through the internet, and differ from the traditional profiles associated with organised terrorism. Nevertheless, he highlighted an encoura- ging finding: rehabilitation programmes for radicalised minors have so far achie- ved virtually zero reoffending rates. TECHNOLOGY MOVES FASTER THAN THE LAW Representatives of the National Police and Civil Guard highlighted the growing difficulty of investigating terrorism in a fully digital environment. Chief Commissioner Manuel Rodríguez García Risco , Secretary General of the General Intelligence Commissariat, war- ned of the gap between the speed of tech- ` Loreto Gutiérrez, Director of the DSN ` President and Chief Prosecutor of the National Court ` Representatives of the state security forces