Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont takes part in a debate at the Political Science Department at the University of Copenhagen on Monday Jan. 22, 2018 . The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27.
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont takes part in a debate at the Political Science Department at the University of Copenhagen on Monday Jan. 22, 2018 . The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. Ritzau Scanpix via AP Tariq Mikkel Khan
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont takes part in a debate at the Political Science Department at the University of Copenhagen on Monday Jan. 22, 2018 . The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. Ritzau Scanpix via AP Tariq Mikkel Khan

World

The Latest: Spain works to prevent Puigdemont slipping in

The Associated Press

January 23, 2018 05:07 AM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark

The Latest on former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont's visit to Denmark (all times local):

11:00 a.m.

Spain says it will step up surveillance to ensure the arrest of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont if he decides to return home to seek re-election to his old job.

Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said Tuesday that security experts are designing a plan to prevent Puigdemont entering the country undetected. Puigdemont faces an arrest warrant in Spain amid an investigation into his government's secession attempt in late October.

Zoido told broadcaster Antena 3 Tuesday: "We are very worried, because we don't know what a person with this behavior might do." He said security forces face a difficult challenge given the large number of possible ways to enter Catalonia.

He said: "We are analyzing all the possibilities. ... We are going to make sure that he can't even enter in the trunk of a car."

9:50 a.m.

A Faeroese member of the Danish Parliament who plans to meet Catalan ex-leader Carles Puigdemont says that listening to him is the best way to understand what is going on in Spain's Catalonia region.

Magni Arge is a member of the left-wing Republican Party from the Faeroe Islands, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. He plans to meet Puigdemont Tuesday and says it's best to hear his views from "the horse's mouth."

Arge scolded Danish government and opposition lawmakers for rejecting invitations to meet Puigdemont, who traveled from self-imposed exile in Belgium to Denmark on Monday and spoke at the University of Copenhagen. A Spanish judge refused to ask Danish authorities to arrest Puigdemont.

Arge said "one can start understand each other by talking together, not by ignoring each other."