Spanish General under House Arrest

by don't panic - "move along there nothing to see" Sun Jan 08, 2006 14:33

that the move to house arrest the General was suggested by his superior the Spanish armed forces chief of staff Félix Sanz Roldán, (who is himself second only to the King). A suggestion made immediately after the polemic speech on Friday 6th of January to the Spanish Minster of Defence José Bono.
In fact General Mena Aguado had only arrived home from the dinner when he recieved the prompt news that he was under arrest.

The Spanish Government in statements made to national press and media organisations has said that the speed of the arrest and the process ["is appropriate to the gravity of the remarks"..."and in keeping with a mature democracy"]

Certainly the reticence of the PP to condemn the remarks is being interpreted as an attempt by that party to further feed the fire of one of Spanish culture's most sensitive points of division.

The military dictatorship endured by the Spanish people began as a result of a civil war which itself started when Catalonia asserted her independence _within_ the 2nd Spanish Republic.

Many Spaniards are wary of the military to whom they resent approportioning extra spending, the news thus has raised the "Catalan Question" to a new level of political animosity.

The fact that the General implied the support of other members of the military [""I have an obligation to know the feelings, concerns, and preoccupations of my subordinates," ... "It is their express wish that I transmit them to the top authorities of the Army and to make them public.""] also raises fears of armed institutions who may be disloyal to the democratic state.

Though unpopular amongst right wing Spaniards, the proposals of the Catalans are supported by the clear majority of Catalans, and this weekend the Spanish Government has met several times with the leaders of _all parties_ in Catalonia to allay fears. It seems unlikely that the seperatism feared by the Spanish right will materialise especially in Europe as it is now organised.
Most fears of "Spain being Broken" are based on polemic scaremongering by the forces of the Right, the PP, the RC church and now most worryingly it might seem....
the military.

It is the first time a General or any member of the armed forces has been disciplined under Section 7 of the armed forces law.

There have been several other military officers imprisoned in the past for an aborted coup d'etat attempt on Feb. 23 1981 in which a lower ranking member of the "Guardia Civil" held the Parliament in Madrid to gunpoint and a general in Valencia put tanks on the street. That general has now died, and following the Feb23. incident, the armed forces of Spain came under scrutiny to ensure their commitment to "democratic values". Indeed.., that was the last time in history that the Madrid government called around Catalonia to "reassure". It is almost a piece of myth that the King who is credited with stopping that coup, spent many hours on the phone to the Catalan prime minister of that time Jordi Pujol.

The clear majority of Spain's economic power is found in both its northern regions which wish increased independence, have their own languages, and a history of resentment to domination by Spain, the more troubled Basque and the "left radical" Catalonia.

At issue is not only the process of democracy, of devolution of central power, the evolution of local power, but also the recent clashes between "conservative & authoritarian (Catholic) Spain" as perhaps represented by the Pope's Dec 8. donning of a "Guardia Civil" hat, and the "progressive & left leaning" (pluri-national) Spain" as perhaps represented by the current central "socialist" government in Madrid and important coaltions of "left" and "nationalist" parties which now hold sway in 3 of the most "seperatist" regions - Catalonia, Basque and Galicia.

The Spanish Opposition the PP have adopted a very confrontational posture since losing the elections of March 14th 2005, which came 3 days after the Al Qaeda bombing of Madrid which they had wrongly attributed to ETA. This has seen them ally with the RC church to oppose secular reform of education law, & the introduction of gay marriage.

But as the political party which is known to have more support amongst the armed forces, it is also their clear duty, to uphold the Constitution and allay fears of the citizens of any part of the peninsula of military intervention on either _covert_ or _overt_ level.

It remains to be seen, whether the PP are capable of such a final rite of passage to full democratic awareness. (= knowing when they have lost the vote or debate )

It also remains to be seen, how many others of the Spanish military and other armed forces have nursed the same temptations...

by being an ally of civilisation Mon Jan 09, 2006 14:28 bcn

One cartoon in a Spanish newspaper (but most popular in Catalonia) yesterday put it succintly next to an opinion piece on the role of the military in democracy, was a depiction of a playing card, the usual type of King, Queen, Jack with symetrical design. But the number was "11". For a Catalan reader, that was perfect. September 11 is the national day of Catalonia (look it up in the archives) when Catalans make "their statements". & of course, March 11 was the most traumatic day in modern Spanish history. "11" means something to us.

So today's papers published "correspondents abroad" along the lines of "I talked to my friend in Paris / London / Berlin" .... "and they were shocked"....."are you in a coup"..... "are there tanks on the street, military music on the tv"...."???????". Also one local and generally "right in the sense of the Sindo" journalist in his column has pointed out that the military are "emotional" because of what they see as a "crises" which was never really a "crises" but rather the PP playing games with public opinion and scaremongering, his final line is worth repeating "they did it with the best intentions, but then all coup organisers always have the best intentions".


So, the news that today a 2nd general of the armed forces has been put under arrest by the Minister for Defence Sr. José Bono, is interesting. The arrestee has not been identified to the public, but the "offence" has.
On the 10th of December a Hercules C-130 flew from Zaragoza military base with a human cargo of.... "more than twenty waiters".
Wow! we're not talking torture or extra-ordinary rendition, we're talking about the high speed delivery of a team of waiters to "serve aperatifs" at the annual religious (RC) patron celebrations (Mary of Loretto) of the Spanish Air Forces. anyway, Minister Bono is well pissed off. He says its an abuse of state and military resources. And he's pissed off enough to make the second arrest of a mlitary high ranking commander in the history of Spanish democracy.

Meanwhile Lt. Gen Mena is said to be relaxing in his well appointed flat at General HQ in the third day of "house arrest" as we imagine, the "true defenders" of the democratic state go through the weblogs, phone records, and examine the true opinion and democratic comitment of the "men in arms". And so far the signs from the Government are "Lt Gen. Mena is an isolated case". Seemingly its the other old-fashioned problems which are more worrying - "abuse of company resources".

by iosaf - "cough cough, we are the people, its our democracy" Tue Jan 10, 2006 13:05

It was published this morning in the right wing and notably catholic Madrid daily newspaper "La Razon"
http://www.larazon.es/noticias/noti_nac1986.htm

And in the "centre" Barcelona dailly "La Vanguardia" the minister for defence José Bono has seen published an interview in which he denies the rattling of sabres, or threat of non-democratic action in the Spanish military.
http://www.lavanguardia.es/web/20060110/51216640283.html

& yesterday the leader of the opposition and PP, Rajoy accused the government of playing "russian roullette" with the "estatut of Catalonia". & this morning their spokesperson declared "Bono is a master of propaganda". quite. Isn't that what they say about Bono? Great name for a defence minister. That ZP government must have done a lot of "psycho-thinking".

This was my local reaction to what's gong on
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/227853/index.php (and I have noted the prominent presence of RC authoritarianists in the list of supporters to Mena, and the excessive number of Opus Dei activists. As I try to get across to you all, the threat to European democracy and Civil rights now comes from sentimental far right Catholics, as much as it comes from the contempt of "centre left" governments (such as Blair's) for the ordinary public. (C/F
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73733

by iosaf Fri Jan 13, 2006 17:51

The council of ministers of the Spanish government (Cabinet) meet every Friday morning, and then afterwards the vice PM, (tanaiste) the wonderful ex smoker Mrs Fernandez de la Vega goes on telly and tells us all what great ideas they've had.

And today's was to impose "maximum penalty" on the general who said all the sorts of things none of us want to hear in a democracy. Why indeed, a few very insecure and paranoid Catalans might have been going to bed in fear of a dirty war this last week. Accordingly over 12 Catalan groups got together a petition and sent it to Madrid including such groups as "ex political prisoners" and "reclaim memory" and people like that.

& that is how the story is to end.

by Mago Merlin Fri Jan 13, 2006 19:46

Mr. Bono interviewed on tv on 11th October:

"Aspiro a decir cosas que tengan sentido común y dije, y desde luego lo reitero, que yo no puedo sentirme molesto porque un militar coja la Constitución la lea y la defienda. Que lo que me preocuparía es el militar que no quiere leer la Constitución porque está en contra de ella. Aquí en este país nos ha preocupado siempre cuando los militares no han sido constitucionalistas, pero, claro, que los militares se declaren defensores de la Constitución, pues sólo faltaría que les arrestara el ministro de Defensa por defender la Constitución, por defender la igualdad, por defender los valores constitucionales. !Hasta ahí podíamos llegar!"

Roughly: "By no means I could arrest a militar for defending our Constitution. My concern would be the militar who is not a constitutionalist".

by highly polished boots Sat Jan 14, 2006 13:01

Lt. Gen Pedro Pitarch Bartolomé. He has since the election of the PSOE in 2004 been responsible for the "political direction" of the armed forces, a job which saw him check out and approve loads of recruitment adverts and indeed a job which was given him by the minister for defence José Bono. So one could presume the new general is "Bono's man" and .....

thats how the story ends.

by attention! Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:15

The decision to place the spanish army officer under house arrest at the international barracks of the western alliance NATO/OTAN at Brussels, Belgium was taken by general Félix Sanz Roldán of the Joint chiefs of staff in Madrid.
The sanction is a response to the colonel's letter to the centre right daily ABC published in Madrid, in which he was highly critical of the lt. gen. Mena (the soldier who started all this). Amongst the sentiments he wished make public, were his belief that no military officer may fulfill his duty and at the same time lay claim to patriotism if he is making personal political statements through the public podium afforded him by the armed institutions. The Spanish military have confirmed that no further action will be taken against the colonel, he's not up for peeling potatoes or scrubbing the chewed gum off the pathway to NATO world HQ just yet. He's just been house arrested and will now have to watch crap belgian tv for a week, or have a go at finishing Doom on the playstation, or who knows? - "what would you do if you were house arrested?"

and thats how the story ends....

by iosaf Thu Jan 19, 2006 22:23

Thats the thing if you start arresting military at the higher ranks, you can work down, and sort of feel secure, safe in the knowledge that most brutal dictators did not follow the franco-ist model of selection by being promoted after African campaigns to youngest general in Europe and then getting pissed of in the canary islands starting a coup d'etat. In fact most brutal dictators who came from military backgrounds were just a few steps above the real soldier.

Infantry Captain Roberto González Calderón of the Legion stationed in Melilla thought to add his tupence to the story by writing a letter to the local press in the spanish enclave in North Africa. Readers who understand español may read it here where it has been reproduced with glee by the ABC newspaper.
http://www.abc.es/abc/pg060119/actualidad/nacional/nacional/200601/19/carta-capitan-legion-melilla-hoy.asp
the minister Bono took the opportunity of speaking to the press after he had met with the president of the "autonomous community" [there are 17 such regions in Spain and none of them are newsworthy] of the Canary islands to re-assure all that there really is no problem in the military.


& thats how the story would end if I didn't keep updating it.

by Mago Thu Jan 26, 2006 16:52

Editorial
Army Troglodytes in Spain

Published: January 24, 2006

It is a basic principle of democracy that army officers do not publicly challenge the legitimacy of elected governments or talk about marching their troops into the capital to overturn decisions of Parliament. Yet that is just what has happened twice this month in Spain, a country whose 20th-century history compels it to take such threats seriously, even when the chances of insubordinate words' leading to insubordinate actions seems quite unlikely.

The response of the center-left government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been appropriately firm, including the dismissal and arrest of one of the culprits, a senior army general. Regrettably, the center-right Popular Party, the main opposition group, seems more interested in making excuses for the officers than in defending the democratic order in which it has a vital stake.

Spain's swift and smooth passage to modern democracy after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975 makes it easy to forget the horrors of the civil war and the brutal dictatorship that preceded it. Those nightmares began when right-wing army officers rebelled against an elected left-wing government they considered to be illegitimate and too deferential to regional separatists.

Spanish society, Spanish politicians and, for the most part, Spanish military officers have come a long way from that era, moderating their views and deepening their commitment to democratic give-and-take. But the Popular Party has had a hard time getting over its electoral defeat nearly two years ago, days after the terrorist bombings of commuter trains in Madrid. It has never really accepted the democratic legitimacy of that vote. It is time for the Popular Party to move ahead. Spanish democracy needs and deserves vigorous bipartisan support.

by iosaf Sat Jan 28, 2006 13:10

For it was the very same newspaper that described Zp's election win in 2004 as "accidental".

I'd like to tweak the message from the NYT a wee bit and put it in context of the lambasting of the Spanish military in the recently published biography of Bremmer the former "US Occupation governer" of Iraq. His criticism of the spanish "not engaging" the "enemy" though they had been brought in as a "peace force" has upped "anti-hispanic" feeling in the US over the last month. & this is in no small part related to the new "left" regimes of South America. For the very same americans who now praise ZP for dealing harshly with the generals, have also blocked the supply of US made hardware in a military order to Venezuela. That order pacted last year saw Spain agree to supply high tech hardware to Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela. But the US will now not allow their little gyroscopes go into the Venezuelan shipment. Took a few weeks of shopping around, and as is usual, some little factory in the EU makes those gyroscopes ("sure they look like kettle factories mostly").


The link to both the NYT article and a blog spot comment on it are here
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/231891

by Mago Sat Jan 28, 2006 15:23

When Mr Rajoy accused the government of playing "russian roullette", he said "these things happen for a reason" and demanded explanations as to "what happened for this statements to occur"
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/79953/0/rajoy/mena/estatuto/
One would say "what happened for his friends slap him in his face".

by iosaf Sat Jan 28, 2006 15:40

my local reaction to that russian roulette comment can be read here
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/227853

by Mago Sat Jan 28, 2006 16:04

With Rajoy's petition for a referendum for the one Spain. Now he is actually very keen of public consultations.

I reccommend you the following reading (in Spanish):
http://www.javierortiz.net/jor/apuntes/unas-infinitas-ganas-de-gresca
http://www.javierortiz.net/jor/apuntes/del-referendum-como-excusa
Javier Ortiz is an independent journalist. He writes for 'El Mundo' newspaper twice a week.

I had seen your link above, thanks.

by io Sat Jan 28, 2006 18:28

For the benefit of the irish readership, Mariano Rajoy is the leader of the PP, he suceeded Aznar and indeed was personally appointed by him.
He's a galician, bit of a murky past on the "gender politics" thing, but no-one mentions that anymore. His approach to opposition has been "mendacious" (he spent a year claiming her had been cheated of the job) and he has done more than any other figure in recent spanish democratic history to fan hatred of "catalanism".
He now has proposed a "nationwide" (his nation = españa) referendum on accepting the Catalan estatut. For a variety of reasons, I don't think he's going to get it. Those reasons are judicial rather than executive. & in the last months I've become pally with constitutional lawyers (incidently members of CiU) who concur with the other bunch I've always been pally with (ERC school teachers) that there's not going to be a referendum. In a way thats a pity, as an anarcho-syndicalist I'd be happy to see referenda everyday as a first step to true democracy. and its been 2 years since I campaigned against Rajoy and I really enjoyed being part of the team that beat him. So... In the last hours we just did a radio programe on this in barcelona on one of the independent stations we play a part in, and to push our anarchosyndicalist agenda of [helping to legitimise democracy in line with the 1st international's condemnation of exercising franchise to perpetuate non representative oligarchy] we've proposed:-

a referendum on Catalonia please (si us plau)
a referendum on the Basques (bake!)
a referendum on gay marriage (lovey dovey)
a referendum on NATO membership (bang bang)
a referendum on the continued existence of the guardia civil.
a referendum on the secularisation of education.
a referendum on the changing of salic law so princess leonor may ascend the bourbon throne without hassle.
a referendum on abstention of military tax revenue.
a referendum on disallowing non-nationals buy property.

You see Mago, politics generally (and Irish and Spanish politics {and Catalan} in particular) are a constant game of balances. "café con leche para todos" = "café amb llet i amnestía per tothom".

& if Rajoy gets that referendum then we get ours.

By the way, Mago, we've got a bit "BB" = "buletin board" today by exchanging thoughts on the newswire. I welcome input on my coverage of both Spanish and Catalan affairs, I really do, but if you want to contact or chat to me best by email. I'm on the indymedia maling lists, (oh and I know who Ortiz is, but I do write & think from Barcelona not Madrid. which incidently makes me wonder where you are from, noting you're in ireland)

= ponte allí!
http://www.indymedia.ie/mailinglists.php

by i Thu Feb 23, 2006 21:27

its timely to reflect on those soldiers of the Spanish armed forces from Madrid to Brussels NATO HQ to Ceuta who were arrested and disciplined over voicing their opposition to the proposed catalan estatut. That regional reform quasi-constitutional document was overwhelmingly supported in the Catalan parliament but saw small amendments made in Madrid. The "nation clause" was moved to the preamble, rather like De Valera moved God to the preamble of the bunreacht. And the democratic parties argued over the exact share Catalonia as the richest section of the iberian peninsula would give to the poorest regions in western Europe (the south of Spain). At end the PSOE government of Zapatero and its Catalan sister PSC under Maragall pacted a solution with the largest Catalan party the CiU who have ruled that region for the most part of democratic history. This did not please the radicals of the ERC (an independence party which sometimes claims lineage to the party of the same name during the civil war). Its leader Josep Carod Rovira had of course resigned from the coalition after it was revealed he had met with ETA in the French pyrennes, going to meet them in his official car no less and negotiation a "ceasefire" for Catalonia alone. Carod Rovira though imprisoned in the early 1970s for seperatist activity has always been considered somewhat of a maverick. The son of a member of Franco's Gaurdia Civil and a native of Aragon it is sometimes wondered how he came to lead the independence party of Catalonia. At end he mobilised between 50,000 an 70,000 people, half of whom were children to call for independence the weekend of the 18th of February and march under the banners "we are a nation", "we have the right to decide" and "no to this estatut". It seemed a bit odd, to enter government and negotiate a reform his grass roots were opposed to. It seemed even odder to enter government and negotiate with a terrorist grouping. It seemed even odder that his supporters claimed they had assembled between 700,000 and a million people.

But in political jingoist fantasy land, generals and soldiers think by kissing a flag they talk for a nation of over 30 million people, or they can justify the investment of the European Union in the motorways under which the poor sleep and not adhere to the common values of democracy.

At end though it is not Spanish army or seperatist who ought merit our attention, but rather the skornese of Sweden and the Northern League of Italy.

by iosaf Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:43

Joan Herrera is a deputy to the Spanish Congress for the Catalan party ICV which is the Catalan equivalent of IU. (the post marxist republican greenies). On Tuesday 14/3/06 he pressed charges against Jesús Flores Thies, a retired artillery colonel of the Spanish Armed Forces after receiving an email the previous 1st of March in which the military type threatened him gravely for having voiced the suggestion in Congress that the "valle de los caidos" (the valley of the fallen) a memorial to Franco's troops, and also the burial place of Franco, which was hollowed out of the mountains overlooking Madrid [by slave labour drawn from republican prisoners].
Herrera agrees with many others, that time has past to change that place, so that it becomes one of memory for all. This morning Mr Flores Thies has apologised publically for his threats and insults but still maintains his Franco-ist Fascist apologist opinions. All very well, he's an old soldier and an ex one. He can think what he wants. Just as Mr Herrera is a young up and coming politician at only 35 years (or so). He'll no doubt not change his mind on the Franco dictatorship soon. What is not ok, is the use of email or snail mail to threaten others for their political expression.
So none of us are going to do that.
http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/ex_coronel...7.htm
http://www.europapress.es/europa2003/noticia.aspx?cod=2...ch=66