'Lo siento': Spain apologizes to Bolivia over Evo Morales debacle

In the wake of the problems caused by various European countries believing NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, was on board the Bolivian president's plane recently, Spain has now officially apologized for its part in the whole mess.

Digital Journal reported on the fact that Spain was trying to defuse the recent huge row over the Bolivian President Evo Morales' private jet being prevented from entering Spanish airspace, when leaving a gas supplier's conference held in Moscow. 

 

Spain, among other European countries had been told that Snowden was stowed away on board, and had requested authorities at Vienna airport to search the plane to ensure that the whistleblower wasn't hiding away somewhere.

 

On Monday, Spain officially voiced its regret at the diplomatic row with Bolivia. Spain's Ambassador to La Paz, Miguel Angel Vasquez, in a written note delivered to the Bolivian Foreign Ministry said: "I have to acknowledge that perhaps the procedures used at the Vienna airport on the part of our representative were not the most efficacious."

 

"We regret this fact ... the procedure was not appropriate and bothered the president (Morales), putting him in a difficult situation."

 

"Spain and Bolivia have relations that go far beyond any incident, any circumstance like the one we've now experienced and I hope and I'm sure that the Bolivian authorities understand them in the same way."

 

"Spain deeply regrets this and is sorry that it happened. We offer our apology and consider the matter closed," he added.

 

EFE reported that he also said that Spanish airspace "was always open to the (Bolivian) presidential aircraft."

 

Both Venezuela and Brazil have echoed Bolivia's indignation over the incident, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua calling it "an attack against President Morales's life."

 

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff expressed "indignation" over the treatment of Morales, calling it a "provocation" that concerned "all of Latin America."

 

Possibly due to the recent harassment, Bolivia has now joined Venezuela and Nicaragua in offering asylum to Snowden. The former IT contractor turned NSA whistleblower remains holed up in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, currently awaiting temporary asylum in Russia.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354491

'I made cash payments to Spanish PM,' says Spain's Luis Bárcenas

According to judicial sources, on Monday Luis Bárcenas, former treasurer of Spain's ruling Partido Popular (PP) party, told the court that he had given secret cash payments to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy from a "slush fund."

Digital Journal reported on the arrest and jailing of the Partido Popular's ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas recently, with no bail, as he had failed to adequately explain the money he held in Swiss bank accounts. Bárcenas was arrested and jailed after the court ruled that he was a flight risk.

 

Digital Journal further reported back in January on the major "slush fund" scandal that had emerged in Spain, where the ruling PP and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy denied that the party made payments from business donors to the PM and other party leaders.

 

Now as the court case runs in Spain's High Court, various statements are coming out which directly implicate members of government.

 

According to sources present at the hearing, who asked to remain anonymous, Bárcenas said on Monday that he handed €25,000 ($33,000) in 500 euro notes to Rajoy in March 2010.

 

One of the sources then told the media that Bárcenas then reportedly handed the court papers detailing this slush fund, and "declared that he was the author of the documents," which had been published in local newspapers showing secret payments to Rajoy in the 1990's and 2000's.

 

Yet another of the sources attending the hearing said that Bárcenas had confirmed that the money came from a secret fund, which implies that the payments were undeclared. The source stressed, "He said the whole party leadership received envelopes" of undeclared cash.

 

On Monday, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the leader of the opposition PSOE party has called for the “immediate resignation” of Mr. Rajoy, and has warned that his refusal to stand down was causing “incalculable damage to a country that is living through difficult moments.”

Rajoy, who has been in power since late 2011, has, however, ruled out resigning over the scandal. He denies any wrongdoing.

 

The latest attacks by the opposition come following the publication of several mobile phone text messages between Rajoy and Bárcenas, which were obtained by the Spanish daily El Mundo.

 

These messages show that the two men were in contact until at least March this year, which is almost two months after the scandal broke. In the last message published by El Mundo, Rajoy was apparently trying to calm down his former treasurer, saying: “Luis, I understand. Keep courage. I will call you tomorrow. A hug.” While these text messages do not prove the issue at hand, they do implicate the prime minister in the scandal.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354487

Woman rescued from suicide attempt off the beach in Fuengirola, Spain

After receiving an emergency call on the 091 number, National Police officers, with the aid of a fisherman and his boat, managed to rescue a women who was attempting to commit suicide.

The call was received at 7.00 am on Tuesday, alerting police to the fact that a woman was drowning in the sea close to the beach in Los Boliches, Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.

After notifying the Salvamento Marítimo branch of the Civil Guard, National Police officers headed immediately to the scene and with the help of a fisherman who was working in the area, went out a few hundred meters from the shore to rescue the woman.

The woman is said to be of Indian nationality and around 33 years old. She has been taken to hospital and is undergoing psychiatric observation due to the attempted suicide.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354501

Prison Break: Spanish murderer/sex criminal performs shock escape trick

Strongly resembling an episode of the US series "Prison Break," a Spanish prisoner, aided by two trusty accomplices, managed to escape while undergoing treatment at a Madrid hospital.

The man is doing some serious time for murder and sex crimes in the Alcalá Meco penitentiary, near Madrid.

 

He suffered an apparent wrist injury while playing on the prison's football field and was taken to the emergency room at the Principe de Asturias hospital in the town of Alcalá de Henares, just outside the city.

 

It was necessary for the prisoner's handcuffs to come off while his arm was put in plaster. Once the plaster was complete, police officers accompanied the man back to the police car, parked at the entrance to the emergency room of the hospital.

 

Turns out that two of his closest friends were on the scene and as soon as the prisoner and his escorts stepped outside, the prisoner's accomplices attacked. Apparently at first the officers hesitated, but when they tried to intervene, they were pushed to the ground by the two accomplices.

 

The prisoner then found a handy use for his newly-plastered arm, using it to hit the two police officers on the head. The trio then escaped in a waiting BMW.

 

On reviewing CCTV footage, it was possible to see the prisoner's two accomplices arriving in the hospital grounds shortly prior to his arrival.

 

Police believe the men were alerted by the prisoner’s family, who had previously received a call from Alcalá Meco penitentiary, as required by prison protocol when a inmate requires medical treatment. 

 

There is now an urgent manhunt underway, as well as an investigation of the officers who had accompanied the prisoner.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354425

Reverse trend: Now Spaniards head to Morocco for work

Moroccans have been crossing the Med looking for a better life in Spain for decades. Now the trend is turning in a different direction, as out-of-work Spaniards head south to Morocco's shores.

The economic crisis continues in Spain, with unemployment and austerity wreaking havoc with the people, who are just trying to get by and make a living. Now Spaniards are heading south to Morocco, seeking employment opportunities. In the video (original article), we hear from 36-year-old Marcos Martinez Bacelo, an unemployed mechanic, who six months ago moved to Tangier from his hometown in Vigo, Spain, to get a job there. 

 

The hardest part has been the decision he made to leave his wife and two young children in Spain while he headed over to Morocco: “The most difficult part about living here is not having my family by my side,” Martinez, said, while looking at photos of his children, Soraya, 10, and Nicolas, 3.

 

Emilio Rodriguez is another Spaniard who has made the move and now runs a small construction company in Tangier, northern Morocco, where he also sought greener professional pastures.

 

He told AFP, "In Spain at the moment things are going badly."

 

"Over there I sold everything. There is no work, no bank financing," he added, explaining that he had moved to Morocco's port city of Tangiers, just across the Straits of Gibraltar from the southern tip of his home country, Spain, at the start of 2012.

 

Another recent emigrant from Spain is José Manuel Fernandez, who is presently exploring his options in Morocco. Fernandez works for a Spanish company specializing in building golf courses.

 

"I came to see how it goes here. I saw there were lot of facilities, ways of doing things to develop the country, especially in the construction sector," said Fernandez.

 

It seems ironic that for many years, Moroccans have been heading north to Spain looking for a better life, and in fact, they form one of the largest immigrant populations in Europe and Spain has the second largest community of Moroccans.

 

But in recent years, Spaniards have been making similar moves, albeit in a different direction geographically. Apparently it is difficult to assess numbers. as many Spaniards travel to Morocco as tourists and return home every three months to collect unemployment benefits, and also to make sure they do not overstay their visas. 

 

A young Spanish intern with a local NGO said, "Many work informally and regularly travel to Spain to receive unemployment benefits and to avoid being illegal" in Morocco.

 

The Interior Ministry in Morocco, however, is attempting to keep a tighter rein on the back-and-forth process, by urging Spanish arrivals to comply with all the necessary formalities.

 

Officially, 2,660 Spaniards have reportedly registered for social security in Morocco in 2012, which is slightly up from 2,507 in 2011. However, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher. 

 

In the economic world, Morocco's key trading partners are Spain, and also France, the latter country having divided and ruled the country as a protectorate in the past. Morocco does, however, have economic problems all of its own, and despite a growth rate of between 2.5 and 5.0 percent in recent years, youth unemployment in the country currently stands at more than 20 percent.

 

However, this isn't deterring Spaniards from trying to find work there.

 

Marian Gallande told the media, "I arrived in Tangiers with my daughter three months ago. I'm looking for a job."

 

She was also finding it hard to get by in Spain. "I earned €1,000 euros ($1,300) a month, but the cost of living is too high there," she says. "I prefer to be in Tangiers. Spain is my country, it's true," she adds, watching the ships leaving the port, "but I am more at ease here, where society is not closed as some people think." 

 

Spanish King Juan Carlos will be starting a three-day state visit to Morocco on Monday. Relationships between Madrid and Rabat have apparently steadily improved in the more than five decades since Morocco achieved independence.

 

Possibly he should rather be exploring why so many of his own people are leaving for those same northern African shores.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354379

Spanish father found guilty of murdering his two young children

On October 8, 2011, two children, six-year-old Ruth and two-year-old José "disappeared" while visiting a park with their father, José Bretón, who claimed that he had merely lost the children. Investigations proved a different story indeed. 

Bretón, the father of the two children, was born in Córdoba in 1973, and was an unemployed former army driver.

 

He was always the main suspect in a case that had the police searching for their bodies for months, using both trained dogs and also ground-penetrating radar. 

 

 While the children were never found, investigators did eventually find the remains of a large bonfire on the estate owned by Bretón's parents outside the southern Spanish city of Córdoba. The bonfire was so hot it destroyed DNA evidence, but teeth were found in the ashes, which were later identified by forensic experts as belonging to two children, aged two and six years respectively.

 

Bretón was arrested 10 days after reporting the children missing and has been in jail ever since.

 

In previous court appearances, Bretón denied all charges and told officers imperiously, "You have nothing on me."

 

Finally justice has been served in the case, as on Friday a jury has unanimously found José Bretón guilty of murdering his two small children and burning their bodies to cover up the crime. A jury of two men and seven women delivered the verdict this week, after hearing all the facts surrounding the disappearance of the two children.

 

While Bretón remained cool during the court trial, and always claimed that he simply lost his children, the prosecution presented a case that he killed the children as revenge against his wife, who had recently asked him for a divorce.

 

Psychologists describe Bretón as "extremely cold and detached," and police officers who had interrogated the man also remarked on his apparent lack of concern about his own children and also his harsh verbal attacks against his wife, Ruth Ortiz.

 

Reports from the psychologists described Bretón as "highly intelligent," with an IQ of 121 and that he showed "signs of being excessively manipulative" and was "exceptionally clear minded."

 

He had apparently told the police, "Outside I'm a nobody, but at home I'm the boss."

 

144 expert witnesses at the trial corroborated that Bretón had purchased the sedatives Orfidal and Motiván to put his children to sleep.

 

Proof was also shown that he bought large amounts of diesel fuel to incinerate their bodies at Las Quemadillas, his parents' Córdoba estate. It was from that estate that Bretón made one last phone call to his wife, who did not pick up the call, before going ahead with his dreadful plan.

 

As can be seen in the video (original article), Bretón listened totally impassively as the judge pronounced his guilt and is now awaiting sentencing. Both the public and private prosecutors are asking for a 40-year sentence.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354344

Panic and injuries in 'Running of the Bulls' pile-up in Pamplona

Local television showed scenes of sheer chaos as piles of fallen runners blocked the entrance to the bullring in Pamplona on the seventh day of the famed San Fermín Festival, or the "Running of the Bulls."

This event was the second to last day of the San Fermín fiesta, which draws festival-goers and daredevils from around the world for a week of perilous bull-runs, partying and fun.

Towards the end point of the frantic dash through the cobbled streets of Pamplona, some runners at the front tripped, then spectators watched in horror as ten half-ton bulls plowed into the back of a huge scrum of around 200 people, all piled on top of one another.

Due to the crush of people, several of the bulls were unable to get through to the arena, causing even more chaos, with runners trying to pull their companions free, while bulls jumped over the crowd, crushing and goring people in their wake.

According to Javier Sesma, health spokesperson for Navarra province, 21 people were injured, some gored by the bulls, and others who were hurt in the stampede itself. Sesma said that one runner, a 19-year-old Spaniard from Vitoria city, was seriously injured when his thorax was crushed.

“It is a very grave situation. He’s in a stable condition, but it’s very serious,” Sesma said.

An 18-year-old Spaniard was gored in the armpit, and a 35-year-old man American was gored in his buttocks during the 928-yard dash through the narrow streets, but reportedly these injuries are not so serious. Other injured parties suffered cuts and bruises, and Sesma said that one spectator suffered a heart attack whilst watching the incident.

Runners being gored by the bulls does happen from time to time, but apparently stampedes of this nature are luckily quite rare. According to Reuters only 14 people have died in the last 100 years in the San Fermín festival, which dates back from the 13th century.

The "Running of the Bulls" is characterized by runners, dressed all in white with red neckerchiefs, watched by hundreds of spectators, who stay up drinking all night in the bars, presumably to get up the courage to run with the huge bulls. 

Author Ernest Hemingway, a great fan of Spain, gave publicity to the event after writing about it in his book "The Sun Also Rises."

Apparently this year, Hemingway's great-grandson, 16-year-old Michael Hemingway, attended the event, 90 years after his famous great-grandfather Ernest first visited the city, and was seen to be taking plenty of photographs of the event.

For interest, below is a black and white photo of Hemingway, taken in 1925 with the persons depicted in the novel "The Sun Also Rises." In the photo we can see Hemingway, Harold Loeb, Lady Duff Twysden, Hadley Richardson, Ogden Stewart and Pat Guthrie. 

Photographer not specified, owned by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354283