Antonio Fernández de Mazarambroz got wind
that internal affairs were investigating his little sideline, and
promptly filed a complaint alleging that some of his staff had been
fiddling the accounts.
However, on investigations, Madrid discovered that it was Antonio who had been slipping the Congolese.
Several other members of staff are under investigation for helping him. Mr. Antonio had been in Kinshana since May 2012.Although he was fired in January, officially he’s “resigned with immediate effect”, notes El Mundo, who pointed out that he’s allowed to keep his pension and his honour. Also, the Ministry didn’t announce the scandal until El Mundo started sniffing about,
although it seems it was an open joke in Kinshana, and several other EU
embassies in the city had privately complained to Madrid about his
activities.
Thing is, this crook had a track record of this sort of thing which
had been hushed up. In 1987, he was removed from his post as Consulate
General of Nador without reason or explanation given – El Mundo says
that “off the record” he’d “exceeded his duties”, most probably to do
with arranging express transit through Spanish customs of shipments
arriving at the port.
He’d also been reprimanded for having an affair with the wife of a Spanish military official.
Spanish newspaper La Razón first asks if Catalan referendum should be prohibited, but when they didn't get the answer they wanted, they changed the question to whether the referendum should be allowed.
Spanish journalist Alfonso Ussía, in a recent article published in La Razón titled The Tank, threatened the citizens of Catalonia and boastfully said they are all a bunch of cowards.
“A few months ago many separatist town mayors in Catalonia were scared because jet fighters were flying over their hometowns. Those were just military maneuvers by the Spanish Air Force, and they take place to defend Catalonia from the attacks of hostile Mediterranean nations. In Catalonia the army and the navy are also there to defend the national territory.”
But which is this hostile Mediterranean enemy he is referring to?
“Sending the Tanks? Sending just one tank would be enough. During the II Spanish Republic, twenty guardia civiles were enough to disarm thousands of Catalan policemen, while the separatist politicians scurried away into hiding. Tanks? We will send them only if they are necessary to enforce the law.”
It is clear from Ussia’s statements that the ‘hostile’ Mediterranean nation he is talking about is no other than Catalonia. As he clearly states, Spain has already used the force of the army to quench Catalan democracy in the past and it may well do so again if Catalans insist onpursuing independence.
According to the Spanish National Institute of statistics (INE), the Spanish economy has been shrinking for 8 quarters in a row. Another record to add on top of one of the highest unemployment rates of the EU. However the Spanish Government has recently conceded a credit of 877 million Euros to the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of heavy military equipment. This is another example of how the Spanish Government has just given up on the suffering of its citizens and keeps on spending on superfluous but dangerous and expensive toys to please the army. Why, in the middle of the biggest economical crisis ever, is Spain wasting such amount of money on mass-killing devices? Are they going to invade the rock of Perejil again?
Pedro J. Ramírez, editor of the "El Mundo" Madrid-based newspaper, has issued a scarcely veiled threat to the Catalans via Twitter.
"81% of ElMundo.es voters support the army having disposed of the Islamists [in Egypt]. The key: ballot boxes don't allow just anything. Is it clear?"
The Catalan digital newspaper Vilaweb has reported the tweet. It also reminded readers that shortly after the massive September 11 2012 demonstration organised by the Catalan National Assembly, which brought together 1.5 million people in the streets of Barcelona, Ramírez wrote an editorial calling for a change in the penal code to allow the Spanish authorities to amend the Penal Code so that President Mas could be imprisoned if he called a referendum on independence.
Another Catalan digital newspaper, Nació Digital, has also added its horrified comment on the tweet.
TELEMADRID, the public news station owned by the region of Madrid, governed by exactly the same ‘People’s Party’ (PP) of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, which disappoints people all over Spain on a daily basis, broadcast last Tuesday (04/30) a news item (Zoom, within the Daily News program), in which the members of the Catalan Parliament who defend the right of self-determination were insulted as ‘nationalists,’ thus comparing their democratic claim with Stalinism first and with National Socialism in the following sentence. Catalan and Basque politicians, democratically elected, are accused of perversely misusing the language and are shown with no hesitation alongside images of Stalin and Hitler right before Artur Mas (CiU, Prime Minister of Catalonia), Oriol Jonqueras (ERC, Head of the Opposition in Parliament) and Alfred Bosch (also ERC) are shown on screen.
Please watch the first 30 seconds of the program with English subtitles. The full video can be seen (without subtitles) directly on TELEMADRID’s image archive: here
Read this article & video in German, French and Spanish
To burn a Spanish flag can earn the perpetrator five years in prison in Spain. But to burn a Catalan one is not only not illegal, but can even be broadcasted live. A Spanish digital outlet recently broadcasted an interview where a man burned a Catalan flag saying: “Its best destiny is to be purified by fire.” The TV director commented that it was “a brave action.” Although usually we'd tend to ignore such provocations, we think the international public should get a glimpse of the kinds of threats, insults, and denigratory treatment Catalans get from some sectors of Spanish society on a daily basis.
El Mundo (second most widely read news source in Spain) compares the Catalan Ministry of Interior, Felip Puig, with the nazi leader Ernst Röhm, founder of the Sturmabteilung¸ the criminal SA. Will anyone bring it to trial?
Enough, do we have dignity as a country?. What else must we put up with from this hatemongering media outlet that carries on with their campaign against the Catalan democratic process for independence?. Today it is El Mundo, yesterday La Razón, tomorrow ABC or Intereconomía or Libertad Digital. Is the Government willing to do anything about it?. Will the regional ombudsman act?. That’s enough of being quiet, that’s enough of not denouncing those who offend us without evidence or justification. As Miquel Roca said in an article, being angry is not enough. Is your law firm thinking about denouncing it?. In Rwanda, a radio station instigated hatred amongst their citizens and provoked one of the worst killings in the last years and became the radio network of hate. Comparing Catalans to Nazis is a very serious and highly irresponsible act.
Accusing the Minister Puig of being Nazi is an offense; should we allow it?
We have to remember that they are accusing us, the Catalans striving for freedom, of being like the Nazi. Precisely those who have never apologized for the assassination of Catalan President Lluís Companys, who was surrended by the Nazi to the Francoist regime. It would be nice if the Catalan Government acted against any accusation of Nazism or any other lies that stimulate hatred against Catalonia, and better late than never, or we can lose the train to freedom. Europe will hear us and will be on our side.
Statements made by Catalan tenor Josep Carreras on Catalan TV didn’t go unnoticed by the Spanish media. They have asked to boycott the leukemia charity foundation named after him.
Antonio Jiménez, host of the debate in Intereconomía (a Spanish television channel), referred to those statements and mentioned the impact of his words on the social networks by some of the members of the Foundation Josep Carreras, which would be withdrawing from it in protest of his sovereignist opinions.
The program didn’t give any specific data about this alleged boycott, but the guests gave their opinion. Just a few days ago social networks were also brimming with comments in defense of Mr. Carreras—comments made by people who were shocked about anti-Catalan reactions at the tenor's words.
During an interview recorded last summer in Switzerland, Carreras had said: “I’m in favor of independence, and I’m not ashamed of saying it. I would like to see an independent Catalonia—still maintaining a wonderful relationship with the Spanish state—but I think we have the right to become independent. The proof is that these last few years, surveys indicate that more than the fifty per cent of Catalans think like I do. My views are not the exception anymore. Thirty years ago, perhaps, but not now.”
The announcement made last Monday on TV had a precedent. On September 2009, Josep Carreras shouted ‘Visca Catalunya lliure!’ (Long live free Catalonia) in front of a Gol TVcamera in Barcelona (see video above).
Juancho Armas Marcelo is not just an unknown character. Besides being a renowned journalist for the Spanish press in all different formats and a well-known writer, he is also a member of the Hispanic American Academy of Sciences and Arts. That is the reason why his last writing under the name of “An extraterrestrial duel,” which has just been published on the second most important newspaper in Spain, has turned into an outstanding one.
When he moved to Jerusalem, he took with him a team of native guards composed of Catalans;
This team of native guards was the one executing Jesus Christ.
As a conclusion this demagogue says: Catalans killed Jesus.
Obviously this theory should be considered as ridiculous. Marcelo is talking about something that happened in the 1st century AC, and Catalonia did not become a nation until the 9th-10th century. Furthermore, in those days Catalonia was inhabited by Romanized Iberians whose language is not known. Afterwards, other people arrived in Catalonia and the resulting mixture of them all brings to the current Catalans. Much more, we do not have any records of Pilate taking guards from the Tarraconensis region to Jerusalem.
Juancho Armas Marcelo
Marcelo’s writing disaffirm by itself. Its existence is used to demonstrate a residue of the Spanish rotten society where Catalans are constantly being demonized, and any excuse is good to blame them for everything. Besides, we need to remember that all throughout history many progroms against the Jewish community started by accusing them of killing Jesus. One of the worse cases was that of the Nazis. Well, oddly the editor of the newspaper where this writing appeared also accused Catalans of being Nazis just for the fact of bringing Catalan flags to a football match. This is the same person who celebrated the victories of the Spanish national football team by asking everybody to display Spanish flags as a symbol of national pride.
Twitter account of the editor of the newspaper where he tweets "Sieg Heil!!!" referring to Catalans
So in the short span of three days, the same newspaper (again, let's point out that it is the second most important Spanish newspaper) has accused Catalans of being Nazis and of killing Jesus. That is just a new record for the xenophobic demagogy, anti-Catalan manipulative discourse, which just foretells Spanish society to drift. All of this bring us to the point that any attack against damned nation, Catalans, is able to generate many problems, much more if they are invented. Si non è vero... Jordi Vàzquez
The retired Spanish army officer Francisco Alamán reiterated and elaborated his threats against Catalans in a new interview to Alerta Digital. This time he went even further and demanded that the Catalan MPs who have placed charges against him (Joan Tardà, Alfred Bosch, and Uriel Bertran) be detained “for wanting to fracture Spain and for high treason.” He also demanded that “all political parties that have as their main goal the fracturing of the [Spanish] nation be made immediately illegal.” Alamán claims to have received many messages of support after his first interview, and he declares himself openly a Franco admirer. When they ask him “Do you admire Franco?” he answers “Which Spaniard could not admire him? [...] I hope that the 21st century brings us another providential Spaniard [like him].” Once more, he declares himself faithful to the Spanish Constitution, which consecrates Spain's unity above the will of elected representatives and the people. “Evidently we must obey the law, not Mr. Rajoy.”
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These words generated a huge hullabaloo in the social networks, and these news were among the most closely followed ones in Catalan media. We at Help Catalonia wish to denounce the fact that such pro-fascist pronouncements might be tolerated in Spain, which would be unthinkable in other parts of Europe. So far, the Spanish government has said nothing about it!
However, we are equally worried that Spain's public opinion (and even that of some active military personnel) might be too favorable to ideals close to fascism, jingoism, and radical nationalism. In other words, non-including, prejudiced, partisan, anti-democratic ideals. As several people have denounced in the past (among them, writer Matthew Tree in Spain’s Secret Conflict), Spanish hatred and xenophobia are a danger we must be aware of and denounce. That is the main motivation behind our blog. That is why we demand that the international community put pressure on the Spanish government in order to correct these snowballing, pro-fascist, anti-democratic tendencies growing at the heart of the European Union.
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Concerning retired colonel Alamán's statements, Catalan Business Circle (Cercle català de negocis—CCN) international law expert Albert Pont recently published an article on the digital newspaper Directe.cat titled Independence is not constitutional, in which he concedes that the 1978 Spanish constitution gives legal backing to a military uprising against a democratically elected government. The Spanish constitutionwas written during the Spanish transition to democracy, right after Franco's dictatorship, and was heavily influenced by the army's stance on many issues. Mr. Pont admits that even military intervention could be understood as a constitutional duty, but he says that the state's political and civilian institutions would hardly order a military intervention of Catalonia in the event of it seceding, for the serious consequences this would have. Among these consequences we could count the violation of international laws concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity. This would place the burden on the Spanish State internationally, and could implicate the head of state or government directly. Mr. Pont also stresses the great “difficulty in assuring the subordination of the army to civilian power, and in controlling a body that believes it is only bound by God's law.”
Albert Pont concludes by pointing out the “incompatibility of Spain remaining a member of cooperating and integrating organizations, such as the European Council and the European Union, with the establishments of a de facto government imposed by the force of arms, or with the establishment of anti-democratic regimes.”
CCN goes even further in a memo and says that “King John Charles I, as general in chief of Spain's armed forces is responsible in the international arena for any aggression by the Spanish army on Catalonia, whether he agrees to it or not,” and it remarks that “Catalonia's independence is not a Spanish internal affair, but a question of international law, and therefore it is subject to decisions by international lawmakers, who severely penalize those governments that restrict the right of self-determination—a widely recognized right by international legislation.”
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On the other hand, Miquel Sellarès, president of Catalonia's Strategic Studies Center (Centre d’Estudis Estratègics de Catalunya), who is also former chief of public safety for the Catalan government, and who participated in the creation of Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), just published an article in which he dissociates the statements by a pro-fascist, retired colonel from the mainstream sentiment at the Spanish Armed Forces, “who are composed of countless professionals who just do a wonderful job [...] who cooperate within NATO [...] and who have never even thought of dying while trying to kill the very citizens and government they are sworn to protect.” “I cannot even imagine a professional army, member of NATO, becoming the executioner to backwards, Francoist, fascist, Spanish nationalists, which could lead to tragedies such as those that happened in the 20th century,” said Mr. Sellarès.
He goes on to argue that the Spanish Armed Forces “are equipped with modern and efficient intelligence services,” and democratic, and that it will be necessary to reach an agreement with them. “At a future time when Catalonia decides to reach for its freedom as a nation, I hope that the modern, 21st century Spanish Armed Forces are the ones negotiating, together with the government they serve, about Catalonia's defense and security.”
From Mr. Sellarès’ article we'd like to highlight that he is convinced that “a strong campaign is in place aimed at tarnishing our government, our leaders, and the very foundations of our national project. In order to bring it to fruition, they'll use all kinds of traps in order to provoke violent and reckless responses from the people.” He says that recently he has been the object of slander and veiled attacks, which he thinks are connected with the retired officer's statements in “the Spanish electronic media backwaters” and warns that Catalans must not fall for these provocations. The organization Joan Creixell recently published some of these articles hinting at which events are suspected as being connected with this activity, and they connect them clearly to “actions by the Spanish state's apparatus to disparage the Catalan government.”
We must needs to be alert to current events and denounce any kind of unfair play.
The chairman of the Spanish Supreme Judicial Council, Carlos Dívar, compared Catalan to Mandinga. Catalan congressman Joan Tardà denounced on Twitter that Dívar, referring to linguistic rights in the Justice Committee Congress, said that he is “sensitive to languages. I once asked for an interpreter because of a person who spoke Mandinga.”
Mr. Tardà said "Incredible! The chairman of the Spanish Judiciary Council says, referring to the regression of the Catalan language, that he can read in Catalan."
Meanwhile, another member in Congress, Àlex Saez, also regretted the intervention by Dívar. “These are outrageous declarations coming from the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, who compares Catalan to Mandinga when it comes to linguistic rights. An apology is in order,” he said on Twitter.
Catalan is spoken by more than 13,000,000 people, and Catalonia has a centuries-old culture and literature.
Spanish members of the European Parliament vilified a Catalan congressman last Wednesday, November, 16th for speaking in English. Ramon Tremosa, a member of the Catalan centrist party CiU was speaking in English concerning an amendment, when two PSOE congresspeople began to shout: “In Spanish, in Spanish, you speak better in Spanish.” PSOE will be the ruling party until the upcoming November 20th elections, when PP, the ultranationalist Spanish party, is expected to win by a landslide. Tremosa wondered whether this is what it was like to be back in 1939—the year when Spanish fascists won the war. Another Catalan congressman from the leftist ICV-EUiA party said: "I was there. It was a really pathetic and unpleasant situation.” What's interesting is that Spanish is not a working language at the European Parliament, but English is. So, in essence, these Spanish zealots were trying to impose a non-working language. Nowadays, there are three working languages in the EU: English, French, and German. Why is it that Spanish supremacists do not shout at British, French or German members when they use these languages? Because they are bullies who only dare attack those whom they perceive as weak.
Everything is so funny to Spanish politicians!. Spaniards laugh when they remember their bombings on the Catalans, or when they point out that Catalonia is just another conquered nation. It happened again, not at a friends' party, but during an official conference for Spanish lawyers a few days ago. The guest speaker was Gregorio Peces-Barba, one of the so-called ‘seven fathers of the Spanish Constitution.’ The constitution is considered a sacred text by Spanish extremist unionists. It clearly states that the Spanish armed forces have the right to kill the people of any territory wishing to secede from the Spanish union.
During that conference the Spanish constitution was shown to be a fiasco because Catalan and Basque interests are not well represented in it, what with their aspirations of becoming their own independent nations. Gregorio Peces-Barba, who used to be the president of the Spanish Congress, and member of the left-leaning PSOE (currently ruling Spain) did not agree. He said:
“I often like to fantasize jokingly about what would have happened had we incorporated Portugal instead of Catalonia to Spain. Perhaps it would have been a better deal for us."
He was referring to the 1640-1659 war when Portugal and Catalonia both fought against Castile to secede from Spain—rather, the Castilian empire. Castile was not able to fight on both fronts, which resulted in Portugal becoming independent. However, Spain decided to ally itself with the French in order to defeat Catalonia.
A group of Catalan lawyers that were attending the conference left the room right away after Peces-Barba's uttered these words. Upon witnessing this, Peces-Barba added: “Let those who wish to leave us leave." The public laughed and applauded the sarcastic humiliation of the Catalan lawyers.
After the Catalan lawyers had left, Peces-Barba went on with hate speech against Catalonia. Speaking about the possibility that Castile end up losing all of its last colonies (Catalonia, Galicia, Basque Country) Peces-Barba said:
”I believe that we'll be in a better position than in the past. I don't know how many times we had to bomb Barcelona in the past, but next time we'll be able to find a solution that does not involve bombing that city.
For many centuries now, that has been Spain's main concern regarding this issue, ever since Count-Duke Olivares had to confront the Portuguese and Catalan uprising. By the way, it seems to me that Catalans celebrate a defeat on their so called national day.
At that point in history a decision was made, namely, letting go of the Portuguese and retaining the Catalans. I always like to joke about this. What would have happened had we retained the Portuguese, but let the Catalans go? Perhaps it would have been a better deal for us. Well, that's all in the past now, we can't... anyway, it might've been a huge problem. We wouldn't have had Madrid vs. Barcelona soccer matches. Of course, that's always of the utmost importance."
And what if this wasn't possible? Then it’s clear that he thinks that Spain would have to bomb Barcelona all over again. His last sentence does neither appear in the conference's video transcript. nor is available on the organizers' web site, because it was removed. However, many news agencies, including EFE, vouch for the fact that he did say those words.
When a Catalan radio journalist asked Peces-Barba to explain himself, he answered it was just a joke. It is hard to believe that a lawyers' conference opening ceremony is the right place to be making jokes of this kind. The video can actually be watched by everyone, and it is not a joke. Perhaps, he should joke about the German bombings on London. Or he could suggest the bombing of Mecca to resolve the middle-eastern conflict. Or perhaps he could joke about the bombs that killed many people in Madrid on the 2004 terrorist attacks.
When pressed on this point, Peces-Barba said that it's not the same when bombs are against the Catalans, as when they are against Spaniards. “Come on, man, it is not the same thing!” He was referring to the Spanish Civil War bombings of Gernika and Barcelona.
"Would you prefer to have a black, gay, or Catalan son?". That was the question asked of a participant on a TV show on Spanish TV on October 18th. In the original, the question was: "Si tuvieras un hijo, qué preferirías: que fuera homosexual, que fuera negro o que fuera catalán?" which translated means "If you had a son, which would you prefer: that he were gay, black, or that he were Catalan?"
The xenophobic question was aired on Tele 5, a channel that has also signed a manifesto against other languages in Spain other than Spanish. The text argues that the Spanish language is superior to Catalan, Basque or Galician because it can be understood by all the Spanish people. It forgets that the Spanish Constitution obliges all Spanish citizens to know Spanish, as Franco had done (Franco also forced everybody to use it,) and that all the languages are equal.
Only two weeks ago the same channel broadcast a program about Catalanophobia in Spain. The program showed some examples of the hate that many Spanish people have against the Catalan nation. The question of this article shows that Catalanophobia is rampant. It's a pity that Catalans, and other social minorities, have nobody to go to for justice when TV channels show homophobia, racism or Xenophobia/Catalanophobia. That's why we ask you to... Help Catalonia.
About the author of this article for Help Catalonia
Dr. Juan Carlos Moreno Cabrera
Spanish Linguist and Professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
The recent verdict of the Spanish Supreme Court, which establishes that the Spanish language must be the language of teaching, together with Catalan, in Catalonia’s educational system, entails yet another attack by Spanish nationalism against the Catalan people. Catalonia’s educational system, known as “linguistic immersion”, was democratically approved by the Catalan Parliament after having undergone all the usual processes required by modern, democratically elected and constituted parliaments.
Thus, the current educational system of Catalonia is founded on a decision freely taken by the legitimate representatives of the Catalan people. Catalan is the language of teaching in Catalonia’s educational system. This is because a clear choice was made for a policy of linguistic integration, not one of segregation, so that all Catalan citizens could use Catalan, the official language of Catalonia, without any problems. The aim is to avoid any Catalan citizens not knowing Catalan, a similar policy to that of all European countries: the educational systems of France, the United Kingdom, Germany or Italy want to make sure that the citizens of these countries know their respective languages. For this reason teaching in these countries’ schools is done through the medium of these languages.
Why is this right not recognized in the case of Catalonia? The answer is obvious. The Kingdom of Spain, by means of the 1978 Constitution, does not recognize the Catalan people on an equal footing to the people of Spain, because it considers that the Catalan nation is an inalienable part of the Spanish nation, and that the latter is the only sovereign nation. This is the doctrine established by the Constitutional Court’s 2010 verdict on the new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.
This entails that the Catalan people does not see recognized a right internationally established long ago: the right to self-determination. In today’s Spain, the Catalan people is not recognized as a sovereign people, but instead it is subordinated to the Spanish people. For this reason, decisions adopted by the Catalan democratic institutions can always be questioned, modified and even annulled by Spain’s judicial power, which for the most part expresses a Spanish nationalist conception of Spain, based upon a refusal of full recognition of the different nations that make up the current Kingdom of Spain.
The place of Catalan (and Spanish) in Catalonia’s educational system should be a matter exclusively for the Catalan people to decide. Of course, as happens everywhere, not everybody in Catalonia has the same views on issues like this. But it is precisely for this reason that democratic institutions like the Catalan parliament exist, so that proposals are discussed and decided upon through consensus and democratic processes, exactly the same as in any other parliamentary democracy in the world. The current educational system in Catalonia is based upon a decision adopted by the Catalan parliament, a democratic institution that represents Catalan society, and therefore enjoys all the guarantees required from this kind of political system. The establishment of Catalan as the official language of Catalonia and the language of teaching in its educational system is certainly a democratic decision taken by the Catalan people through its legitimate representatives. The same cannot be said of Spanish, for it is not possible for the Catalan people democratically to decide whether Spanish should be an official language in Catalonia: this is a matter enshrined in the Spanish constitution and it may not be discussed or questioned. Spanish, therefore, is official in Catalonia by means of imposition, not as a result of a democratic decision of the Catalan people. For this situation to change, the Constitution would have to be revised in order to allow each nation in the Kingdom of Spain freely to determine whether Spanish should be official in its territory.
