Demonstrations In Spain Against Government’s Anti-Terror Policies
J.M. Guardia aka Barcepundit reports on the latest demonstrations in Spain over the latest controversy swirling around the government’s latest approach to the decades-long problem of homegrown terrorism:
AGAIN, MADRID has taken to the streets in protest against Zapatero’s anti-terror policies…The rally is organized by the conservative Popular Party, now in opposition, and follow 65 smaller demonstrations across the country’s cities yesterday evening. They’re all against Zapatero’s decision to allow one of ETA’s biggest killers, Iñaki de Juana Chaos, to serve his reduced sentence at home after being in a hunger strike for about 100 days demanding his release. Of course the term ‘hunger strike’ is an euphemism: during the last weeks he was in a Madrid hospital with a more than lax regime for visits and his girlfriend staying with him. The police officers custodying him have publicly complained they were ordered not to search her, so who knows how many power-bars or other food she sneaked in. Anyway, Zapatero took the measure for ‘humanitarian reasons’ alleging he was in a very bad physical state, though it didn’t seem an obstacle for him to take long 40-minute showers with her girlfriend (if you know what I mean) until the last day before he was sent home. Or leaving the hospital walking, as he did. Again, it’s the police officers who say it, not me.Many people, not only from the PP, view this as the last straw, as a measure in favor of a terrorist who just said he doesn’t feel any remorse for killing and who belonged to a terrorist organization that just killed 2 inocent people in the Barajas airport bombing late last year. Even though Zapatero said then that he would stop negotiating with ETA, the truth is that soon after he has declared his intention to keep doing so. That’s probably why today’s protest is probably even bigger than the several million-man marches in recent months. Madrid public regional TV says it’s 2.2 million, but Madrid regional government is PP so they’re probably stretching the figures a little. In any event, it’s another impressive gathering
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One Response to “Demonstrations In Spain Against Government’s Anti-Terror Policies”
Saw much of the protest on TV. 2.2 million is way too much, that’s close to the figures we had the day after the Madrid Train Bombings (three years ago, today). It took helicopters a good 5 minutes to transverse the sea of people that day. Yesterday was nothing like that. 300.000, which as I recall is the number given by the government is also absurd, there were at least that many in the center of the protest. I’m guessing something around 1 million people is about right. These number wars happen every single time there is a demonstration in Spain, often the differences are one whole order of magnitude. In the end all you can do is see it on TV or go and compare it to other demonstrations.
I didn’t go to the protest yesterday, which is not to say I don’t think that the liberation of De Juana isn’t obscene, it is, just not for the reasons that are given. The whole story is very long, but the upshot is that De Juana has killed 25 people. For that heinous crime he served a grand total of 20 years, less than one year for every life he snuffed out. When the time came for him to be liberated the government (PSOE) panicked, it was just plain wrong for him to leave prison but the ultra-soft laws of the land said he was a free man. So they took an article he wrote in the paper (which I didn’t read but understand insinuated that it was normal that “bad things” happen to those who oppose Basque independence) and slammed him with 12 years prison for threats. I have no sympathy for the bastard, but 12 years prison for threats is a misuse of the justice system, and that’s how the higher courts ruled, reducing it to three years, part of which he had already “served” (not in the harshest way, as Barcepundit pointed out). Application of existing law allowed for him to be liberated due to his delicate health, just as any other prisoner is allowed to.
This is all deeply wrong, but what’s wrong isn’t the ruling party, it’s the damn LAWS. PP is screaming now, but they haven’t exactly been tough as nails on etarras either, no one is, it’s shameful. Spanish law states that you cannot be in prison for more than 30 years. That’s right, you could kidnap rape torture and kill a school full of children at 20, and the law says you have to be free at 50, tops. Time off for “good behavior” (like taking pottery classes) no matter what kind of crime it was. The day a protest happens to make the laws have teeth I’ll be first in line, but no party seems interested in this.
I’ve gone on too long as it is, but I’ll say two more things, for anyone that isn’t already asleep. First off, it REALLY gets my goat how polarized Spain has become. Ask someone on the PSOE side and they’ll tell you the enemy is the PP, and vice-versa. Yesterday’s protest involved mostly signs, slogans and chants against the PSOE. Aren’t we forgetting someone, y’know ETA, the damn TERRORISTS??!!! We can disagree on how to fight them, but we should never forget that our differences are merely cosmetic compared to what separates us from the terrorists.
One more thing and this is purely personal. I see that one of the tags is “separatist ETA”. Two things are wrong with this; one is that there is no NON-separatist ETA, so the specifics are unnecessary. The main thing wrong with it though is that for some reason when people aren’t talking about THEIR terrorist threat, they’re willing to give some credence to the group. Separatist sounds like they may have a point. They don’t, they are a terrorist group, just like Al Qaeda, they’ve killed hundreds of innocent men women and children and continue to use extortion to fund they’re “cause”. I know the word it there for clarity, but I personally would remove “Separatist”. Just my evaluation.