Maybe it’s because of the condensed format, maybe because he was talking to a non-Spanish newspaper, or perhaps he was just in a particularly open mood, but Mariano Rajoy’s interview with the The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth seemed unusually revealing. The Popular Party leader, now three weeks away from an apparently certain general election victory, was hardly expansive, but some of his answers were relatively bold for a politician who has made hiding his hand something of an art form. When asked whether he would go beyond Zapatero’s spending cuts, Rajoy is quite forthright: Yes, there is no other way out. I am in favor of reducing all budget items. But the item I don’t want to … [Read more...] about Rajoy vs The Washington Post
terrorism
How history will judge Zapatero
Jordi Sevilla, a former minister in the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, recalls how his then boss once told him about a massage he had enjoyed a few days after becoming prime minister. “The masseur was amazed at how little tension he had,” Sevilla said. “This guy had spent a week in La Moncloa (the prime minister’s residence) and that’s enough to leave anyone completely spent!” The anecdote, recounted to writer José García Abad, reflects a couple of popular, not entirely accurate, perceptions about Zapatero: that he is a detached, even cold politician, whose meteoric career has been driven purely by calculation; also that he is a featherweight who doesn’t understand the … [Read more...] about How history will judge Zapatero
Bombing the road to democracy
It was the biggest terrorist attack on Moroccan soil since 12 suicide bombers killed 33 people in distinct locations in Casablanca eight years ago. Since the carnage on April 28, Moroccan police have arrested three men, and according to the information so far released by the Interior Ministry, the main suspect, believed to be a Moroccan man in his twenties, had planned to experience jihadist combat abroad in places such as Chechnya and Iraq, before turning his attention to a home-made bomb which he apparently took six months to construct. The location of the café made it certain that most of the victims would be Westerners, as was the case. But was this just a desire to spill … [Read more...] about Bombing the road to democracy
Common sense prevails as Bildu is allowed to run in elections
Just as the campaign leading up to the May 22 local elections was starting, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Friday that the Bildu Basque nationalist coalition should be allowed to take part. A vote of six votes to five reflects the intense political pressure surrounding this landmark vote. While there will inevitably be outraged voices in Madrid, the ruling is an encouraging sign that Spain’s highly politicised courts can take tough decisions based on the evidence before them, rather than vague suspicions that ETA terrorists must be at work behind the scenes. The izquierda abertzale, the pro-independence Basque left, has made substantial moves to prove its own democratic … [Read more...] about Common sense prevails as Bildu is allowed to run in elections
A shift in the Basque Country despite Sortu’s prohibition
On the face of it, the Supreme Court’s March 23 decision to deem the new Basque nationalist party Sortu illegal was yet another instance of Spain’s justice system refusing to give an inch to those it suspected of having links to the terrorist group ETA. Sortu had hoped to represent the birth of new hope for those wanting an independent Basque Country. The new formation unveiled itself in February, insisting it was not simply a continuation of Batasuna, ETA’s outlawed political wing. To prove this, the party’s statutes explicitly rejected the use of violence, including that of ETA, an unprecedented move for a group representing the izquierda abertzale, or radical Basque left. But on … [Read more...] about A shift in the Basque Country despite Sortu’s prohibition
Sortu puts spotlight on Spanish justice system
There have been many signs that genuine change is afoot in the Basque Country in recent months, as ETA’s political support has repeatedly urged the organisation to give a clear statement showing it is committed to a non-violent future. For the most part these expectations have not been met, with ETA failing to deliver – most recently in a January ceasefire statement that contained some new resolutions, but ultimately not enough. But the unveiling on February 7 of a new party, Sortu, suggests that with or without ETA’s backing, the pro-independence landscape in the northern region has changed. Sortu, which means “to rise up” or “be born” in euskera, is a reincarnation of sorts … [Read more...] about Sortu puts spotlight on Spanish justice system
Overcrowding leaves Spain’s prisons on the brink
Madrid’s Valdemoro prison, known as “Madrid III”, sits amid the arid badlands south of the capital, a few miles off the main road to Andalusia. Like all of Spain’s 87 prisons, Valdemoro is overcrowded. It was built to accommodate 980 prisoners, but now holds more than 1,500. A further 20 jails in the country are at more than twice their original capacity. Valdemoro is a holding centre for suspects in cases led by the investigating judges of the High Court. That principally means those accused of terrorism, along with suspected drug and arms traffickers. It is where the men responsible for the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings were held while awaiting trial. Among the foreigners … [Read more...] about Overcrowding leaves Spain’s prisons on the brink
Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
When Nobel Peace Prize laureates F.W. de Klerk, Desmond Tutu and John Hume all back an initiative together with the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, it is bound to carry some weight. It is also likely to be a project with major international repercussions. But when South African human rights lawyer Brian Currin presented to the European Parliament a resolution backed by the above and another 17 figures from the world of politics and conflict mediation on March 29, the issue at hand was the relationship between the Basque Country, the small region in northern Spain, and Madrid. The statement sought to contribute to resolving what it called “the last remaining conflict in … [Read more...] about Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
FARC, ETA and Al Qaeda: the terror connection
When the US Drug Enforcement Administration announced in December that it had arrested three suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Ghana and brought them to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, investigators unveiled some astonishing allegations. The defendants had offered to help rebels of South America’s oldest active guerrilla front, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), traffic cocaine into Spain using North African routes. While there had been speculation regarding such a connection in the past, this was the first time US law enforcement authorities had linked the dots between Islamic extremists and the FARC in a criminal indictment. Then in early March, … [Read more...] about FARC, ETA and Al Qaeda: the terror connection
March 11’s divisive legacy
In the middle of February, the Spanish government announced that it was going to “repair” the memory of the poet Miguel Hernández, a Republican former goatherd who was jailed by the dictator Francisco Franco and died in prison in 1942, at the age of 31. The Socialist government pledged to offer Hernández, whose centenary is being celebrated this year, “the tribute, the memory and the admiration that his work merits,” said Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega. “We all share that same rejection of any form of oppression, that same rebellion in the face of injustice and that determination to dream and create a decent country and a better world.” The news of this homage … [Read more...] about March 11’s divisive legacy