GAL (paramilitary group)

The daily newspaper El Mundo played an important role in exposing GAL when it published a comprehensive series of articles about the squads.

Would-be assassin Jose Luis Morcillo received 7.5 million pesetas from high-ranking Civil Guard official Rafael Masa, as ordered by Spanish State Security chief director Julian Sancristobal.

[5][6] Prosecutors proved that the police officers who recruited mercenaries and the government officials who organized the dirty-war operations also embezzled large amounts of public money[citation needed].

[7] Investigative journalists from the newspaper El Mundo reported that Prime Minister and PSOE leader Felipe González was suspected of GAL involvement.

Several years of investigation concluded that "Señor X" was the chief official of an organization supervising Interior Minister José Barrionuevo and Vera, but Gonzalez was not named or tried.

[9] The death squads were an important issue during the 1996 election, when the PSOE was defeated by José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) for the first time.