All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.

The first of the nearby stars to go supernova: When will Betelgeuse explode?

The astronomer Rafael Bachiller reveals to us in this series the most spectacular phenomena of the Cosmos. Pulsating research topics, astronomical adventures and scientific news about the Universe analyzed in depth.

A new study indicates that our neighbor Betelgeuse will explode in the form of a supernova much sooner than previously believed.

red supergiant

Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion and the ninth brightest in the night sky.. Its unmistakable reddish-orange color comes from the low temperature of its surface that barely reaches 3000 degrees, but despite this low temperature, its luminosity is very great due to its large size.

Location of Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion

In fact, it is one of the so-called “red supergiants”, very old stars that have already consumed the hydrogen in their central region through nuclear reactions that converted it first into helium and then into carbon.. After the depletion of this nuclear fuel, Betelgeuse became destabilized: the central region gave way under its own weight, began to use carbon as a new fuel and the outer regions swelled to the enormous dimensions that we see now.. Due to instabilities, these outer layers began to pulsate periodically, with a main period of about 420 days.

It is a matter of “a short time” that the star explodes spectacularly to form a supernova. If we look at the closest stars to our solar system, Betelgeuse, located only about 800 light years away, seems to be the first of them all to explode.. But, naturally, when we say 'in a short time' we are referring to astronomical terms, we are not talking about a year or two, but how long are we talking about? Will the human being still be on Earth to be able to see it?

oscillations

Until now, it was thought that Betelgeuse would have to explode within about 100,000 years.. This estimate was based mainly on the oscillation period of the star, which, as has been said, was considered to be 420 days.. That is, every 420 days, the star slightly inflates and deflates, a bit like breathing in and out.. This period implies that the current diameter of Betelgeuse must be about 900 times greater than the diameter of the Sun.

Betelgeuse size measured with ALMA compared to the ESO/NRAO/NAOJ/ALMA solar system

But other periods of minor changes superimpose on this period, they are species of overtones that have values of 185, 230 and 2 200 days.. A new study coordinated by astronomer Hideyuki Saio (Univ. from Tohoku, Japan) argues that the main period of Betelgeuse is not 420 days, as we thought until now, but that the main oscillation would be 2,200 days and the rest (185, 230 and 420 days) would be secondary oscillations.. According to this reasoning, the diameter of Betelgeuse would be 1200 times greater than the diameter of the Sun.. The star would be much more supergiant than previously thought, much closer to the end of its life, and therefore closer to exploding as a supernova.

According to Saio and collaborators, Betelgeuse would have fuel in the form of carbon for a few centuries.. When the carbon runs out, the core of the star will collapse again, and

will produce the supernova explosion in just a few tens of years. Therefore, according to this new study, the Betelgeuse explosion would take place in about 1,000 years, a much shorter time than the 100,000 years previously assumed.

Doubts

Betelgeuse is so close that it is possible to measure its size and even obtain rough images of its surface in infrared and radio waves.. After the publication of the work of Saio et al., their conclusions have been questioned by other astronomers.. Specifically, Lázsló Molnár has published a research note in which he argues that the existing measurements of the diameter of Betelgeuse do not fit well with the enormous size that the new study assumes for the star.

This enormous size also raises questions about changes over the 2,200-day period: the star's surface must be expanding and contracting at a rate of 5,400 kilometers per hour, and the stellar diameter must be increasing and contracting by a length about 180 solar diameters in each cycle. These are too large numbers that do not seem to agree with the observations.

However, for the moment, the reasoning of Saio and collaborators cannot be clearly contradicted, and the behavior of this fascinating star will have to continue to be studied, patrolling night after night to record its slightest changes.. In such systematic observations, amateur astronomers play an essential role, specifically the Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) which, as this link shows, has compiled 47,485 observations from 1893 to the present day. days.

The article by Saio et al., entitled “The evolutionary stage of Betelgeuse inferred from its pulsation periods”, has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the manuscript can be found here. Lázsló Molnár's research note, entitled “Comment on the Feasibility of Carbon Burning in Betelgeuse”, can be read at this link.

Rafael Bachiller is director of the National Astronomical Observatory (National Geographic Institute) and academic of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain.

Godparents, academies and money: the difficult road to Formula 1: "It is the most unfair sport"

«It was difficult for me to assume that I would not race in Formula 1, to give it up, to find another way. But there comes a point where you have to know where you belong”, acknowledges Dani Juncadella, the last Spanish rider to be one step away from the World Cup.. In the lower categories he accumulated titles -Formula 3 and the Macau Grand Prix-, in 2014 he was a reserve driver for Force India and the following year he was about to debut in the championship. He lacked a godfather or sponsor. And his childhood dream is gone. Today he is a Mercedes driver in endurance and touring car races and his story is the best example that meritocracy does not decide who makes it to the Great Circus.

The 20 drivers who will contest the race in Canada this Sunday (8:00 p.m., DAZN) have the skills to be where they are, but several of them rose thanks to their families and portfolios.. “There are two paths: that the head of a Formula 1 team falls in love with you, with your way of driving, with your professionalism for what you have done in lower categories or that your father is a billionaire or a person with influence,” he explains. Juncadella, who exemplifies that difficulty to climb in the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich. Last year he swept Formula 2, but he did not receive the contract that his former rival Logan Sargeant has, for example, fourth in the last year in the Formula 1 prelude.

Looking at Spain, in the post-Fernando Alonso era, Jaime Alguersuari, Carlos Sainz and Roberto Merhi have managed to debut while Juncadella or Dani Clos have not.. Awaiting is, at the moment, Álex Palou. “Motor racing is the most unfair sport there is.. Talent helps, it generates possibilities, but the budget you can generate is more important and the teams in which you run in lower categories also have an influence, “says Facundo Regalia, a former Argentine driver, who was also a tester for Force India in 2014 and stayed no official premiere. «I missed that step: that someone bet on me. I got to meet with the then president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, I went to Dubai to meet Diego Armando Maradona because he was interested, I visited many companies, but in the end no one took the step,” he recalls.

first thing, improve

That is why Regalia is now the drivers' manager and directs the race of kids who aspire to Formula 1, like Mari Boya, one of the two Spanish drivers in Formula 3 -along with Pepe Martí-. How to help them? «The first thing is to improve their driving, guide them in physical and mental work. For example, we are installing a simulator at Mari's house so that she can work at all times.. Then there is the work with the sponsors. In Spain right now there is a road because there is a Grand Prix, two very prominent drivers in Formula 1…. It is a challenge, but we must find interested companies”, concludes Regalia and emphasizes a maxim: pessimism cannot overcome the young pilot. “Getting there is difficult, but you always have to try,” he says.

In his mind that Boya reaches Formula 1 in 2026. Before he must get on podiums in Formula 3 -at the moment he has a sixth place as the best result- and convince some of the teams in the premier category, which mostly have driver academies. «I have realized that everything I have earned in karting is absolutely useless.. I have to stand out in Formula 3 and find a place for myself in a school this year or the next”, acknowledges Boya himself, 19, with amazing clarity about his career.. «My goal is Formula 1 and until I see that it really is impossible, I will fight hard to get there.. If not, I hope to be a professional pilot, resistance, whatever, “he adds.

Born in Les, in the Val d'Aran, very close to the border with France, all the children in his area dedicated themselves to skiing and mountaineering, but he was always devoted to the motor. So much so that at the age of five they changed the pacifier that he did not let go of for a trial motorcycle. So much so that he did not miss a Fernando Alonso race at Ferrari and insisted on going karting, even if it was far from home. As the Spanish kart champion in several categories, he won a scholarship to live and train at the Sant Cugat High Performance Center (CAR) and little by little he rose to where he is today: he is two steps away from Formula 1. but what two steps. «I am not deluded, I know that there are 20 seats and that I may not arrive. But I also know that if they give me the opportunity I can do it”, Boya concludes.

Mikel Merino: "As a footballer, there are behaviors that I have to avoid"

Mikel Merino (Pamplona) comes in flip flops and socks, excusable as a footballer who recovers just over 12 hours after a demanding match. In the sports city of Twente, internationals come and go in search of their journalist, and Mikel has had EL MUNDO. Friendly, extremely polite, he escapes the classic image of a footballer tense in front of a tape recorder and jokes with whatever it takes. Son of a professional soccer player, 'mad' of Formula 1 (it is known, like almost everyone in the World Cup, the Canadian circuit where Fernando Alonso runs this Sunday thanks to the simulator that has been installed at home), Merino, one of the De la Fuente's firmest bets, talks about everything before facing Croatia tonight in search of a title.

What routines do you have after the games? It's always hard for me to sleep a lot, because we drink caffeine and carbohydrate gels before the game. So when I get home I eat as much dinner as I can fit in my body, I drink a lot of water and I usually put on a pressotherapy machine with my legs raised to try to empty them as soon as possible, and while I'm doing that, I take the opportunity to watch the game on repeat.. Then I'll take a sleeping pill. Do you have to take a sleeping pill? Yes, because if not, I might get four or five in the morning and that can't be. I sleep late, but at least I try to sleep six or seven hours. Try to be around two or three in the morning. Do you live with your partner? Because he's going to leave him if he does that after every game… The good thing I have is that I have a spectacular partner, who knows my profession and my passion very well. In fact, she is the first one who, if one day I break a rule, if one day I do, slaps me and says: 'hey, be careful with this'. Is it the same one with which you trained carrying it on your shoulders for the pandemic? Yes, the Koala thing and that… What do you remember about the pandemic? To tell you the truth, I have a good memory. Most people have a bittersweet or negative memory, and it's obvious that it was a drama, but I always try to see the positive side of things, and it was the first experience of living with my partner.. We went from seeing each other from time to time to living 24 hours locked up. It was a cool experience. I also took the opportunity to learn a bit about cooking, making desserts, cakes… Ufff! What a litmus test for the couple… Yes, yes. We knew we were in a good moment…Yeah, but they needed to confirm it with a good match, right? He speaks as if he were at a press conference. Yes, yes, that. It had to be confirmed, and it is never easy. You usually start little by little, getting together for two days, a weekend… But no, this was to live together directly, and living together, where many couples are shipwrecked, because it went very well for us. We're still here, so it's been good. What's your best dish? I make very good couscous, with vegetables, peppers and salmon. I like it.

“There are good people here”Well, football. What remains of the game against Italy? Very good feeling. In the elite, victory is very important, and when you win a semifinal and have a title a stone's throw away, the feeling is unbeatable. People can be very happy with how this team is performing. Where is Spain today? Without a doubt, we are on top. I couldn't say which step, but this team can compete against any team. We have beaten a powerful Italy, and that reaffirms me in this thought. Maybe we are not Iniesta's or Xavi's team, but there are very good players, with a great future and a great present. On Thursday morning there were quite a few people who asked what the team was playing and against whom. Do you feel that detachment? Personally I feel a lot of encouragement and attachment from the fans, because I live it and I am a player, of course. can be understandable. The Nations is relatively new, people are used to a World Cup or a Euro Cup, there are two separate games, at the end of the year…. People still find it a little difficult to follow the thread, but we feel spectacular support. Matches like the one in Italy help. How have you seen De la Fuente before and after the match? I have been lucky enough to live with him for a long time, we have both followed the same process and we have spent many hours together. I have seen him serene, calm, despite what the press has reported, he has continued in his thirteen. He has never doubted, and that has strengthened us a lot. When you see that there are doubts outside, but you see the leader so serene, so calm…. that gives you peace and tranquility. Do you read the press or listen to the radio? I try not to listen to anything or read anything. In the end there are things that come to you, of course, but I try to isolate myself. Personally, the opinion that matters most to me is that of mine, of my father, who knows what this is about, and that of those of us who know about this: players, coaches…

“Leave the children alone” Does having a father who was professional help or hurt? [Her father is Miguel Merino, a player for Osasuna, Celta and Las Palmas in the 90s]. It has helped me. When I was little, he has never been on top of me. My mother forbade him to give me balls because she didn't want that to be a pressure for me, but there was a time when I was stealing balls from other children on the street, and then yes, then my mother let him buy me a ball. avoid jail then. Well almost almost! And from there it has always been an advantage. I have someone who has walked the path that I am walking now. He knows just by looking at me how I am. After the matches we always talk about the individual, the collective… That passion comes from my father. What would you say to the parents of the children who play soccer? Leave the children alone. That they leave them alone, that they enjoy themselves, that they have a good time with friends. My father had the authority to tell me things, and in my years as a child he never said anything to me. He let the coach rule. Do you think there is a lot of nonsense in football? It certainly exists, but it is what is demanded. These kinds of things are very popular today. The tik-tok, the short video. On the one hand, I am sure that lovers of old football will not be very amused, but you have to adapt to what society demands. Do you have social networks? Yes, I do, but I use them carefully because we are in a time where there is a lot of hate and desire to hurt. I use Instagram because it is a slightly less hurtful network, the content is more visual and has less interaction. I also like to be in contact with the fans. Let them see me and know about me.

“I have my studies parked” How do you live being so young and being a reference for children, in this case in Donosti? I'm thinking of Grealish and his drunkenness…If you think about it, I have a modus operandi marked by how I am, by what I do. There are certain behaviors that I have to avoid because I am a reference for many of those who see me.. You have to be aware of it. If you can avoid certain behaviors, the better. In summer, I also have my friends to have a few drinks and enjoy, but I try to do it in places where I can't be seen and can't be seen giving a negative example.. Sure, you see Grealish do everything he does, and a 10-year-old English kid might think that's okay.. That of course the kid has every right to celebrate the Champions League, but it is true that we are very exposed! What did he learn in Germany and England? A lot. They are the two experiences that have marked me the most to be the person I am. I had good times, I met new people, but there were other bad times, not being with my parents, learning to do everything on my own…. I was a very young boy and spend moments alone, that you are not playing at all, that your parents are not there to give you advice, to talk for a while…. I learned a lot. The same were not the experiences to put into a fairy tale of princes and princesses, but they helped me. On Sunday he will play or watch F1, of which he is a fan. I really like sports in general, and Formula 1. I started to see it when I was little, with Alonso in Renault. Now I bought the game, I bought a simulator. At home at night, when my partner allows me, I go out for a few runs. I spend hours there, I do circuits, I know them, I like to watch the races. Is the famous 33 close? Near and far at the same time. He has a competitive car, but Red Bull goes by plane. Are you studying anything? Back in the day I finished high school and the Selectividad. INEF caught my attention, but I decided to put all the eggs in the soccer basket, I thought that if I had to study I could later, but the soccer train only passes once. Football demands a lot from me mentally, and now coming home and having to start studying is an effort that would not allow me to give 100% where I really want to give it, which is football.. I have studies a little apart. In all this, they play against Croatia, how do you see it? I expect a very tough match. They have a lot of individual quality, well-rounded veterans and they compete very well. It is a very tough team to beat. It doesn't matter if you get ahead, even 2-0, they will continue with their plan. And those are the beautiful matches, with top teams and players, and you have to show that you're worth it to be here.

Podemos folds and accepts the secondary role given to him by Yolanda Díaz

It is not that he had many options if he wants to survive, but Podemos ratified yesterday that he will go in coalition with Sumar to the general elections. The purple party accepts the enormous sacrifice of dropping Irene Montero because it considers that the damage of its “main political asset” not going on the electoral lists is less than the risk of running alone and compromising its future politically and economically.

Podemos has fought the battle for Montero for weeks, however, now that he has lost the war, he has decided to lay down his arms and grant a truce to Yolanda Díaz to face 23-J. Thus, the general secretary, Ione Belarra, verified yesterday that her party is now surrendering to the leadership of Sumar's candidate within the coalition and that she resigns herself to playing a low profile in the new cycle that is ahead.. “From this moment on, Podemos assumes its role in this candidacy, a modest role,” Belarra solemnized before the State Citizen Council, the highest body between congresses.. This means getting “behind” Diaz and “being there” where she “asks” them.

Not without bitterness, Belarra said that this begins with the electoral campaign. For the first time since its birth, Podemos is not going to “set the strategy”, but rather it has to bury its tone and its messages to obey others. Sumar will exercise this control in collaboration with other parties in the space, such as Más Madrid, which co-directs what affects the Madrid constituency, the most mediatic of these elections.

So, Podemos goes into something similar to a hibernation. It will be diluted in Sumar and he does not even know if its leaders, with Belarra at the helm, will have a prominent role in the campaign or the parliamentary group. It is the confirmation that there is a change of cycle in space and that Podemos is only a reduced part that no longer rules.

This step by Belarra is also an order to the organization and the militancy to put an end to the noise and row in the same direction as Díaz to stop the “reactionary tsunami” and contribute at least to ensuring that the eight candidates with purple cards located in positions of exit from the lists can achieve the act of deputy. However, this is a truce that will last until the night of July 23.. Once the polls have closed, Podemos will have the capacity to reopen the internal battle in space if the result is not good. The party has lowered its weapons, but it always has them loaded.

The excluded accuses Díaz of “accepting the rules” of anti-feminists

Proof of this is that yesterday he shot Díaz at the same time that he submitted to his discipline.. First Belarra and then Irene Montero made it known that their surrender is the “most painful” and “difficult” path that the formation has taken, but that it does so because “the only possibility of revalidating the coalition government is to present a single candidacy” in space. That is why it was remarked that “the collective interest and the country are placed before the interest as a party”. “Some have tried to take advantage of this, but it will also be the success of our project in the medium term,” Belarra said.

As the decision to go with Sumar was more than taken, a large part of the morbidity of the Citizen Council had to listen to Montero for the first time, who was breaking his silence. In an unprecedented gesture, Podemos issued its intervention. The minister closed ranks with Belarra, became co-responsible for the decision to go forward and vindicated the leader of Sumar between attacks: «I want to thank you for all the support, affection and efforts to lift an unfair veto that Yolanda has wanted to maintain ».

Montero presented his exclusion as a concession to the “anti-feminist reaction”. “We cannot accept the rules of the game of reaction and the extreme right,” he reproached. And he pointed out as a victim for his “advances” in Equality, without a hint of self-criticism. Not even before the consequences of the law of only yes is yes. Montero, who was wearing a T-shirt with the face of Audre Lorde, quoted a phrase of his: “Your silence will not protect you.” And he finished: “The reaction is stopped precisely in this way, not by keeping quiet but by making us visible.” From outside, Pablo Iglesias put his stamp: “It is not often that courage and decency prevail over cowardice and pettiness.”

Jaén lights up the new 'Teruel exists': "We are like the PNV, we want what is owed to us"

For a cancer patient from Jaén to be able to do a PET TAC (a diagnostic imaging test), they have to travel the hundred kilometers that separate the capital of this province from that of Granada or Córdoba. In recent decades, in this corner of deep (and emptied) Andalusia, 90% of conventional rail services have been dismantled and the AVE avoids it on its route from Granada to Madrid. As if that were not enough, it is the only province in the entire community that has not seen up close the economic “miracle” that Juanma Moreno's PP executive sells: its population continues to decline and its economy loses steam.

The list of grievances against this province is almost endless, but it is the pillar on which Jaén Merece Más was born, and grew, a party created in the image and likeness of Teruel Exists and which, after the May 28 elections, He has become a new actor to take into account on the Andalusian political board after achieving three councilors in the Jaen capital who have given him the key to the city council and the power to wrest from the PP a government agreement that goes far beyond the consistory and that includes investment promises that are the responsibility of both the Junta de Andalucía -today in the hands of the PP- and the central government, in the event that Alberto Núñez Feijóo wins on 23J.

In last year's regional elections, 2,800 votes separated this new formation from opening a gap in the regional Parliament, but the municipal ones have compensated them. They have managed to be the key in four Jaén town halls and they are already announcing that they will contest the general elections on July 23 with the same objective that has led them here: that the province of Jaén occupy “its rightful place” ending “decades of abandonment and none”.

Juan Manuel Camacho, president of Jaén Deserves More, is forceful and clear. The goal is “to enter the institutions and decide on the budgets”. It is the only way, he argues, to achieve the “socioeconomic convergence” of the province, weighed down, he complains, by the policies of the two big parties, the PP and the PSOE, to whom he blames, equally, for the delay that it presents Jaén in practically all economic and social parameters. “Put the batteries in” is the mantra they repeat in the new formation at the provincial level.

The leader of Jaén Deserves More does not hide that they have agreed with the one who has offered them the most, although he rejects that one can speak of an “auction”, as the PSOE has done. “It is not an auction, we want Jaén to be given what is due to it,” he emphasizes, citing the number of toilets as an example, the lowest in all of Andalusia. “We do not ask for luxuries, we ask for the same rights,” he insists.

Erik Domínguez, Agustín González and Antonio Repullo, for the PP, and Juan Manuel Camacho and Manuel Carlos Vallejo, for Jaén Merece Más after signing the agreement. JMM

“It couldn't go on like this”; confirms Manuel Carlos Vallejo, the university professor signed by Jaén Deserves More as a candidate for Mayor last May. He has become the first deputy mayor and, also, the main person in charge of checking that what was agreed with the PP is fulfilled because if there are breaches or delays “our hands will not tremble.”

Jaén Deserves More ran for the first time in elections in June last year, in which Juanma Moreno achieved an absolute majority. But he wasn't born then. Its origin is the platform of the same name that emerged in 2017 as a response from civil society to the deafness of the traditional parties in terms of their investment and infrastructure claims.

It promoted large demonstrations and mobilizations, but the year 2021 marked a turning point. It was that year when the central government of Pedro Sánchez granted Córdoba the headquarters of the defense logistics base, to which Jaén also aspired.. “It was a great finger,” says Camacho, who points directly to the former vice president Carmen Calvo, from Cordoba, as the person responsible for that last affront. And from platform to party.

Facing 23J, Jaén Merece Más is not only going to present a candidacy, but it does so with the forecast of obtaining a seat in the Congress of Deputies from which, faithful to its philosophy, its sole objective will be to sweep home, for Jaen. “We are like the PNV, we want what is owed to us,” says the leader of Jaén Deserves More.

Jaume Collboni: from questioned candidate of the PSC to mayor of Barcelona to the third attempt without winning an election

Even without an electoral victory on 28-M, with 10 councilors out of the 41 that make up the Barcelona City Council and with an investiture in extremis, Jaume Collboni can now say that “the third time's a charm” is real.

After the dismal result in the 2015 municipal elections (four councilors) and the insufficient recovery in 2019 (eight), the socialist mayor in the elections of May 28 picked up his long-awaited command rod yesterday when everything seemed ready for Xavier Trias to , the candidate for Junts per Catalunya, recovered it after having lost it eight years ago, also at that time to his surprise, at the hands of the then newcomer to politics Ada Colau.

Collboni, who reconquered the Mayor's Office 12 years later for the PSC, which had governed the city for 32 uninterrupted years until 2011, now begins a term with an opposition that triples the mayors of his group. Hence, in his first speech he left “the doors open to all councilors except the extreme right [for the two representatives of Vox].”

Governing with that squalid minority seems to be a difficult path, but for now the new mayor wants to savor the triumph achieved at the last minute behind the scenes. Obtaining the baton allows him to make up for a bad start as leader of the socialist ranks in the Consistory in 2015, when the PSC obtained the worst mark in its history in Barcelona. They were bad times for the party, out of place in the first years of the process. But it was Collboni's own particular story that had started off on the wrong foot a year earlier, with the shadow of a punch during the primaries to choose a candidate due to the controversial massive participation of members of the Pakistani community who brought with them today's ballot. mayor.

It is also a new compensation for the so-called Blackberry generation, the young socialist leaders who grew up politically in the offices of the tripartite governments of Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla and who, despite being called upon to lead the PSC in the past decade, saw that possibility in a few years. The Collboni mayor's office now gives luster to the triumphs that, little by little, that batch has been able to exhibit, with the presidency of the Congress of Deputies of Meritxell Batet, the absolute majority of Núria Parlon in Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) or the access of several of them to high executive positions in the central Administration or in companies with state participation since the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to the Government.

A trained lawyer, his oratory ability has allowed him to climb the rungs since he first began his career in trade unionism (where he was chief of staff for Pepe Álvarez, the eternal general secretary of the UGT in Catalonia and, from 2016, throughout Spain) and later in politics, with the entry into the socialist ranks at the age of 25. With Pere Navarro at the head of the PSC, Collboni, who was a deputy and deputy spokesperson in Parliament, was appointed communication secretary and party spokesperson in December 2011, a position he held until 2014 and which coincided with the first years of the sovereignist process , which he caught with the foot changed to the formation.

Pressure on Salvador Illa

The name of the socialist candidate for the 2023 municipal elections had become in the middle of last year one of the main topics of conversation in the Barcelona cenacles. One of the names that appeared in the pools was that of the first secretary, Salvador Illa. The also head of the opposition in the Catalan Chamber received pressure from economic and business sectors that asked him to change his face at the head of the list and even to present himself to repeat the Illa effect of the 2021 regional elections. The objective was to oust Colau and a better letter of introduction was needed than to be the number two mayoress in the local government and having been fifth and third in the two previous electoral appointments.

Despite the fact that some voices from within the party also shared this questioning, Illa resisted. Both have been united by a strong bond of friendship and collaboration for years. The leader of the PSC was Collboni's chief of staff between 2014 and 2016 and, that same year, with the incorporation of the Socialists into the Executive of Barcelona en Comú, he was appointed manager of Business, Culture and Innovation of the City Council, the department that Collboni led as second deputy mayor during the coalition year, truncated by the decision of the commons, in November 2017, to expel the PSC for the PSOE's support for the application of article 155 of the Constitution in Catalonia.

Since the pre-campaign of 28-M, in which he suddenly resigned at the end of January as first deputy mayor to focus on his candidacy, Collboni had been playing a balancing game to sell himself as an alternative to Colau's city model, with who had shared Government for more than five years in the last two terms.

Now, without the company of his former partners, he can present himself as the business-friendly mayor of post-pandemic Barcelona, with tourism active again, the Mobile World Congress established in the city for the next few years and the America's Cup sailing as reverie of a new Olympic spirit.

Collboni's government team

The municipal government of the new mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni (PSC), will have four mayoral tenures and will be led by Laia Bonet, Maria Eugènia Gay, Albert Batlle and Jordi Valls, according to the City Council in a statement.

Laia Bonet will be the first deputy mayor and will be in charge of the area of Ecology, Urban Planning, Infrastructures, Mobility, Public Space and Housing, and Maria Eugènia Gay will be second deputy and will assume Life Cycles, Social Rights, Culture, Sports, Education and Territorial Coordination.

The third deputy mayor will be Albert Batlle, who will once again manage Prevention, Security, Coexistence and Internal Regime, while Jordi Valls will be the fourth deputy mayor and will be in charge of Economy, Finance and Economic Promotion.

As for districts, the councilor for Ciutat Vella will be Albert Batlle; Jordi Valls, from the Eixample; Raquel Gil, from Sants-Montjuïc and David Escudé will be from Les Corts and Sant Martí.

Maria Eugènia Gay will be the councilor for the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district; Laia Bonet, from Gràcia; Lluís Rabell, from Horta-Guinardó; Rosa Alarcón, from Nou Barris and Marta Villanueva from Sant Andreu.

Collboni has signed the first decrees of the municipal government, which will also have Albert Dalmau Miranda as municipal manager of Barcelona, and the City Council will complete its political structure in the “coming weeks”.

Bildu assumes the "veto" of the PSOE in the Pamplona Mayor's Office to protect Sánchez in the general elections

“I hope we are companions on the road,” said Joseba Asiron, the EH Bildu candidate who on Sunday, May 28, achieved the best electoral results in the history of the nationalist left in Pamplona yesterday.. The “comrades” that Asiron has are the Navarrese socialists and the “path” must lead to the re-election of María Chivite in Pamplona and, even, to that of Pedro Sánchez in La Moncloa. To this end, the PSOE of Navarra maintained its commitment yesterday not to vote for Arnaldo Otegi's candidate and, with five blank votes, made it easier for Cristina Ibarrola (UPN) to take over the leadership of the Pamplona Mayor's Office.

The solemn gesture with which the new mayoress of Pamplona grasped the symbol of her power separated the two sequences of a tense investiture. Ibarrola arrived at the Pamplona City Hall after observing the extensive police deployment deployed in the surroundings. A broad operation to avoid incidents between the two concentrations of UPN and EH Bildu militants held during the plenary session.

Inside the Pamplona Town Hall, the uncertainties about the final result in the rich liturgy of the act of proclamation of the mayor or mayoress dissipated before the twelve bells sounded at noon. Asiron's election was deflating after a very last phone call on Friday to Elma Sáiz (PSN) while the third way to make Koldo Martínez (Geroa Bai) mayor also vanished before the plenary session began. Inside, the Socialists kept their word and gave a political wink to their left-wing “comrades” by using their ballot papers to vote blank and not their spokesperson.

Ibarrola added 11 supports (9 from UPN and 2 from the PP) and Asiron gathered his 8 votes plus the 2 from Geroa Bai and Txema Mauleón from Contigo Navarra. Ibarrola's proclamation and his speech were applauded, also by Joseba Asiron, elegant in the plenary hall and before the media.

And it was in that second sequence of the investiture where the EH Bildu candidate sweetened the consequences of the “veto” he had suffered from the PSOE of Navarra. “It is a bad principle”, he acknowledged about the consequences of the socialists not facilitating their investiture when EH Bildu allowed María Chivite's inauguration in 2019 as president of the regional government. Asiron, but also the rest of the spokespersons for the parties that call themselves “progressive” in Navarra, took it for granted that Chivite will repeat as president with the votes of PSN, Geroa Bai and Contigo Navarra and the abstention of the 9 parliamentarians from Otegi.

“Start a new time”

Asiron and his socialist “companion” Elma Sáiz share the objective of joining forces in the “opposition” to condition the leadership of Mayor Ibarrola. The socialist spokesperson and former counselor for Chivite came to appeal to “coexistence” while the cries of “UPN, kanpora!” (UPN, out in Basque) of the nationalist supporters overlapped their words. “A new time begins in Pamplona,” warned Sáiz enigmatically, who also avoided charging the inks against Asiron for not supporting a third way used as a political mockery by the PSN after whitewashing Bildu in Navarra. Sáiz, shocked when he left the City Hall between whistles, has avoided photos with Bildu and the explicit pact to support Asiron to protect Sánchez in the middle of the pre-campaign for the generals.

Basque independentists and Navarrese socialists recognized the “fluid contact” in recent weeks and will reactivate it when, after 23-J, the investiture of Chivite in the Foral Government is faced. Bildu, PSN and Geroa Bai rule out, for the moment, an imminent motion of censure against Ibarrola that, as soon as the plenary session ended, the Podemos spokesman announced as a solution after the “failure” of the negotiations to prevent the investiture of Ibarrola. The new mayor, smiling, appealed to the “responsibility” of all groups. Aware of the huge challenge he faces, he recalled that “we all build Pamplona”.

The PP sees itself closer to La Moncloa after exhibiting municipal muscle: "M-28 was Sánchez's humility cure; J-23 will be his reality check"

First it was the 28-M with the celebration of the municipal and autonomic elections. Then on 17-J with the constitution of the town halls and the verification of the municipal power of the PP, on many occasions, yes, in the company of Vox. And the next thing is 23-J with the general elections. The Spanish political map and the state of mind of the formations is measured through these key dates, which could rather seem like coordinates. With the political leaders already launched in the electoral campaign, the popular ones consider that Spain dyed blue is one more tile, important, yes, on the path they want to travel towards La Moncloa.

A euphoria in the ranks of the PP that was consummated not only because of the access to emblematic mayoralties for the PSOE such as those of Seville, Valladolid or Toledo, but also because in Barcelona, where the socialists achieved the command rod in the figure of Jaume Collboni , the popular vote was decisive, determining. “That even in order to achieve a Mayor's Office like Barcelona, the PSOE knows that it is in the hands of the PP must be hard for Pedro Sánchez,” they reflect from Genoa.

There were several milestones in the constitution of the municipalities. In addition to the tangible: the PSOE's loss of territorial power and, on the contrary, the PP's quota increase; The need for the popular to agree with Vox to reach power or unseat their socialists was also evidenced.. While the pacts between the right-wing formations have cooled down as a result of the controversy in the Valencian Community, at the municipal level that alliance was consolidated except in places such as, for example, the city of Valencia itself.

“Not even Puertollano has survived sanchismo”, they joke in the PP, along the lines that fiefdoms of an established tradition such as Morella or the aforementioned town of Ciudad Real that have not been able to be retained by the formation led by the President of the Government. “There is a PSOE that is dying to separate its initials from Pedro Sánchez,” they add.

To know more
28-M. The constitution of the town halls and the new mayors already reflect the rise of the PP and Vox in the municipal elections

The constitution of the town halls and the new mayors already reflect the rise of the PP and Vox in the municipal elections

PSOE. The Government accuses Feijóo from Las Palmas, the last socialist “symbol”, of “selling women's policies” to Vox

The Government accuses Feijóo from Las Palmas, the last socialist “symbol”, of “selling women's policies” to Vox

The decisions made yesterday by the PP were intended not only to be read in terms of holding power, as the PSOE accuses them, but also to give up their votes for free in towns like Vitoria or Durango to prevent Bildu from having power, seeking to convey a message to their voters and to society. And, by the way, leave a message to the PSOE regarding the entry of Vox into the institutions. “The PP is a state party that works for national integrity from the Government but also from the opposition.”

“Not only do we have power where we govern, but we have shown that we also have it in some places where we do not, such as Barcelona or Vitoria,” sources from the PP leadership emphasize.

The verification of municipal power is seen in the PP as a checkpoint. «March 28 was Sánchez's humility cure; 23-J will be his reality check”, is the analysis of the situation made by the popular leadership. “We hope that on 23-J we will complete the electoral turnaround that we started on 28-M”.

Barcelona, in discount time

In the PSOE, for their part, they focused their message yesterday on congratulating themselves on obtaining practically in discount time the Mayor of Barcelona, where they remained as the second political force, after one of their priority objectives of the campaign of the municipal It would have been to stay in first position precisely to be able to authoritatively lead the formation of the new Government. After seizing the baton from Xavier Trias, they presented themselves as “the only alternative to independence.”

“The result obtained by the PSC in the whole of Catalonia in the last elections shows that the measures taken by Pedro Sánchez to normalize social and political life in this territory after the events experienced under the PP government are giving results and are recognized by the citizens and citizens “, stressed in Ferraz.

In addition, despite the support they obtained yesterday from Genoa, in the socialist leadership they censured “the doubts until the last minute” of the popular “between giving the mayoralty to a constitutionalist like Jaume Collboni or to Puigdemont's party” who, they stressed, “do not say nothing good” from its president. “The final decision, forced and reluctantly, will be good for Barcelona, and will avoid Mr. Feijóo a new ridicule in his policy of post-election pacts,” they added without thanking them for allowing them to recover a position that had resisted them since 2011.

Until the time trial negotiations that yesterday afternoon ended up leaving the Mayor of Barcelona in the hands of their candidate, the only one of the 10 most populated cities in Spain in which the PSOE had secured the government was Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The former Minister of Health Carolina Darias, Pedro Sánchez's own personal commitment to retain control of this municipality, was able to seize the mayor's rod after reaching an agreement to reissue the tripartite agreement with Nueva Canarias and Unidas Sí Podemos, which has been in charge of the town council in the last eight years.

Severe punishment for socialist acronyms

The officialization of the investitures that have covered the majority of the municipal map in blue have been the confirmation of the severe punishment that the citizens inflicted on the socialist acronyms in the elections of 28-M. In addition to the loss of a dozen provincial capitals -among them Seville, the symbol of hegemony that it maintained for four decades in Andalusia-, the party that won the 2019 polls has been evicted from some of its more traditional strongholds such as the Castellón town of Morella, where the still acting president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, was mayor for 17 years, and Puertollano, in Ciudad Real, which had not had a councilor under other acronyms since the beginning of the democracy.

Yesterday's meeting also showed the distancing that the PSOE now wants to mark with Bildu, who has been its most stable parliamentary partner in this legislature of the coalition government at the head of La Moncloa. The understanding reached with the PNV and the PP closed the path to the formation of Arnaldo Otegi in Vitoria and the Biscayan town of Durango, despite having been the list with the most votes, and cleared the ground for Cristina Ibarrola (UPN) to be the first mayor of Pamplona for the next four years. Instead, the popular ones consolidated their collaboration with Vox by needing their help to gain access to more than a hundred municipal governments.

Among the last-minute script twists that were recorded, the re-election of the mayor of Orense and winner of the elections stood out. The PP had offered the PSOE and the BNG a pact to evict Gonzalo Pérez Jácome after the publication of some audios about the alleged irregularities in his management, but in the absence of an agreement, the councilors of the Núñez Feijóo party chose to vote for themselves thus paving the way for the candidate from the most voted list to undertake his second term.

There were no surprises in Madrid, where the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida premiered his absolute majority yesterday after four years of coalition with Ciudadanos and dependence on Vox supported by the president of the region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. His fellow ranks Francisco de la Torre revalidated his for the third time, which will allow him to continue holding command of the City Council of Malaga as he has done without interruption since 2000.

On the other side of the coin, the political reversal in Barcelona that displaced Ada Colau and in Cádiz – where the PP will govern again after the departure of José María González, Kichi – yesterday certified the end of the city councils of change. This was the name given to a generation of councilors that burst into force in 2015 in the heat of 15-M and that Podemos turned into its catapult for the following generals, in which Pablo Iglesias was close to managing to defeat Sánchez.

In Zamora, the only provincial capital with an IU mayor, Francisco Guarido will continue to lead the City Council although now he will need the support of the PSOE, with whom no agreement has yet been reached. And in Gijón Carmen Moriyón, from Foro Asturias, became the first non-socialist councilor thanks to the support of the PP and Vox, who enter the Government of the most populous city in Asturias for the first time.

Data

PP. Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party has tripled its power in provincial capitals and has governed since yesterday in 3,193 municipalities, which represent 46.5% of the population.

PSOE. The formation of Pedro Sánchez reduces its local presence by half in the big cities and does not achieve its objective of retaining Seville, although it has finally achieved that of Barcelona.

Joel Domínguez, the stain of Las Palmas on his return to Primera: "He is an abuser and they are rewarding him"

In September 2021, Joel Domínguez had just turned 17 and had not even made his debut in the RFEF Third Division with the UD Las Palmas C team. At that time, this youth squad player, one of the most talented promises of the yellow club, began a relationship with a 15-year-old teenager whom we will call Eva here, a fan of the ball since she was little and the great-niece of a historic Canarian soccer player.. What could have been a naive love, so impregnated with the magic of the first time, soon deteriorated until it degenerated into an abusive relationship.. Today, despite a firm conviction and two other cases pending with the Justice, Joel is preparing to start the preseason with UD Las Palmas, recently promoted to First Division, while Eva -who is not called Eva- fights to get out of hell and continue with a life already torn apart forever.

On March 5, 24 hours after playing 35 minutes with the Las Palmas youth team, Joel's fate would also turn fatally. That Sunday he was arrested at his home in Tamaraceite, where he lives with his mother, after brutally beating Eva. That night, like the next, he would sleep in the dungeon.. Until Tuesday the 7th, the Court for Violence against Women No. 1 of Las Palmas, sentenced him, for a crime of gender violence, to 40 days of community work, one year away and two more without a weapons permit.. He himself had confessed the facts, but the UD did not execute any disciplinary measure against him.

The entity limited itself to emphasizing that the attack had occurred in the “field of her private life”, so the statement did not include a single mention or message of support for Eva. The president of the club, Miguel Ángel Ramírez, also did not allude to the victim on June 9, when he confirmed Domínguez among the footballers who will start working under the orders of Francisco Javier García Pimienta. “If we have not thrown him out, it is because we believe in him sportingly and we understand that he is a player with significant potential,” argued the top yellow shareholder, who already entered 41 million euros between 2017 and 2019 for the transfers of Roque Mesa (Swansea). , Jonathan Viera (Guoan) and Pedri (FC Barcelona).

“Something terrifying”

In light of these facts, the atmosphere on the island has been heating up in recent weeks. And in the crossfire, between explicit denunciations and deafening silences, some questions arise: Does Joel need another chance to rehabilitate himself? What should be the commitment of UD Las Palmas against gender violence? Does the club normalize the presence of a convicted aggressor and with two other open processes, for breach of the restraining order and for psychological violence?

Faced with these issues, Margarita Alejo, Eva's lawyer, offers EL MUNDO the perspective of her defense. “Joel's call for the preseason is something terrifying, because it seems that they are rewarding him,” explains the lawyer, who defines the character of the footballer as “controlling and very jealous.”. “Someone dominant, capable of doing very wild things”. In fact, the psychologists who worked on the investigation diagnosed Eva with traumatic shock, distortion of reality, emotional dependence and Stockholm syndrome.. “At the beginning, what surprised me the most was that he told us that he did not want to upset his football career,” adds Alejo about the minor's struggle to escape the nightmare. That stage over, today Eva has opened her eyes and she keeps repeating to herself: “How could she be so submissive?”. Not uncommon in victims of abuse.

Domínguez, for his part, also envisions other horizons. She has just completed a course on gender violence and can't wait to train with the elders. «Since he was four years old, Joel's life has been football and his dream is to play in the first team. Due to a specific error we are not going to throw the boy's future overboard. Because, if he doesn't play, he doesn't do anything with his life,” Víctor Brito, the man who took over his defense at the end of April to replace José María Aranda, assures this newspaper. «After the bombardment of lies and half truths we have decided to change our strategy. We are not going to shut up. We are going to put everyone in their place, “he warns.

“He made a mistake and was judged”

Alicia Pérez, Domínguez's representative and visible head of the Lilium by APS agency, adds to this reproachful tone. «We are so tired of all this… But I can't tell you more. We will only speak when we manage to clean up our image”, Pérez ditch, very close to the corridors of power of the Nuevo Insular.

According to his own environment, the boy has also suffered episodes of anxiety. He is afraid of going out and receiving insults. Or debut with the first team and be booed by his fans. “He made a mistake and he has already been judged for it.. Now he intends to move on with his life, even if they want to destroy him civilly. He is aware of what happened and his repentance is sincere.. Enough of lynching. Leave him alone, because he has taken note and he is not going to repeat it again, ”Brito proclaims.. About the prematureness of this assessment, it is worth asking the victim's family.

I am not going to speak out of revenge, but to give visibility to a very serious problem that is being tried to whitewash.

Mara López, mother of the victim

Mara López, Eva's mother, attends EL MUNDO after “two days crying and without the strength to see anyone”. “But I am not going to speak out of revenge, but to give visibility to a very serious problem that is being tried to whiten,” starts López, a trained criminologist and worker in a center for minors.. By a tragic wink of fate, Mara has given her life to educate minors at risk of exclusion. Among them, abusers. Today, after a year off work, he still lacks the strength to return to everyday life.. And she can't even pronounce Joel's name. So when referring to Domínguez, he always opts for the same filler. «From the club and from their environment they have promoted a campaign to victimize the young man, who has not made a mistake, but a crime. They talk about reinsertion, but the young man has neither been in prison nor does he have a problem with his surroundings. The young man has to be treated and the board should have forced him to apologize,” López abounds..

When this newspaper asks about the aggressor's regret, the victim's mother reels off a string of shocking episodes. Of recent videos in which Joel makes fun of the mistreatment of others, in the middle of a party, where he makes murky accusations about the nocturnal habits of the Las Palmas first team. “On May 16, he appeared at my mother's house, 83 years old, who lives in a nearby town, screaming with his head out of the car.. And I have not seen that he has apologized, ”reveals Mara.

Joel Domínguez, in the City of Justice of Las Palmas. Elvira Urquijo

The climate of fracture that is palpable in Las Palmas in no way resembles that of a city that should still be swimming in the euphoria of the rise. After trying to obtain, unsuccessfully, the official version of the club, this newspaper made a dozen calls between its clubs. Only three were served. Two of them, to excuse themselves, and the other, to charge harshly against the rest. “I'm only going to say two words: zero tolerance,” reveals JMR, president of Sentimiento Amarillo. A subscriber for 36 years, with the UD shield tattooed on his skin, this supporter of the club considers that the rest of the groups are limited to “continuing calmly”, to the tune set by the president. Ramírez, a humble guy who started selling fruit in a van and became a millionaire with the private security business, has never left anyone indifferent.. Joel's case is the latest example.

“Last summer we also wanted to talk to the club, but they didn't receive us.. Through a common acquaintance, we passed them the messages my daughter had on her mobile, but they told us she was a minor and they couldn't do anything,” Mara recalls.. “It is evident that Ramírez has no interest in the victim, but neither in the young man.. I am very sorry that he has to be so exposed to whistles when he receives the ball, “concludes López.

“Shoves, kicks and strong hold”

Yesterday, Domínguez spoke for the first time about the events, in an interview for the newspaper Tiempo de Canarias. In it, he was “very sorry” and claimed to have “learned” from the mistake. He also apologized to his victim, whom he admitted to having given a “push”. A somewhat sweetened version of what can be read in the sentence signed by Judge Luis Fernando Ocaña García, to which this newspaper has had access.

In his proven facts, Ocaña declares that the soccer player, “moved by the purpose of causing an impairment to the physical integrity of the victim,” gave him “several blows in the form of shoving, kicking, and forcefully holding his shoulders.”. Likewise, the magistrate maintains that the minor “did not want to report, did not testify against her partner in the Violence Court, did not want to be recognized by the forensic doctor or take criminal and civil actions against the defendant.”

If from a referent like the UD this matter is whitewashed, what reaction can we expect among the citizens?

Mey Ung, president of the Young Women Association of Gran Canaria

“My daughter did not want to be explored because at that time she was still defending her attacker,” says López. “If we can finally recover the deleted conversations from their cell phones, one can read: “Because of you I broke a finger,” “reveals the mother, with a vivid memory, without ever losing sight of the decisive intervention, as a witness, of a plainclothes policeman. And Joel's kicks, with her on the floor, “lifting her up by the hair, pushing her against the phones and putting her inside.”

The mother's story causes more than outrage among feminist groups on the island. “All this causes us a lot of astonishment and rejection,” says Mey Ung, president of the Association of Young Women of Gran Canaria, Ágora Violeta.. “We do not understand how a great value generator, like UD, rewards a convicted player, promoting him to the first team and withdraws any show of support for the victim himself.. If from a referent of this magnitude you whitewash this matter, what reaction can we expect among the citizens? ”, asks Ung.

To the criticisms against his management, Ramírez will have to add the tangled judicial horizon that awaits him in the coming weeks. Besieged since October 2020, when the Prosecutor's Office asked him for 21 years in prison and a fine of 105.4 million euros for five crimes against the Public Treasury and three more against Social Security, the president of UD Las Palmas must sit in the bench on the 4th of july. Just six days later, Joel will train for the first time with the first team at the Ciudad Deportiva.

Joel Domínguez, the stain of Las Palmas on his return to Primera: "He is an abuser and they are rewarding him"

In September 2021, Joel Domínguez had just turned 17 and had not even made his debut in the RFEF Third Division with the UD Las Palmas C team. At that time, this youth squad player, one of the most talented promises of the yellow club, began a relationship with a 15-year-old teenager whom we will call Eva here, a fan of the ball since she was little and the great-niece of a historic Canarian soccer player.. What could have been a naive love, so impregnated with the magic of the first time, soon deteriorated until it degenerated into an abusive relationship.. Today, despite a firm conviction and two other cases pending with the Justice, Joel is preparing to start the preseason with UD Las Palmas, recently promoted to First Division, while Eva -who is not called Eva- fights to get out of hell and continue with a life already torn apart forever.

On March 5, 24 hours after playing 35 minutes with the Las Palmas youth team, Joel's fate would also turn fatally. That Sunday he was arrested at his home in Tamaraceite, where he lives with his mother, after brutally beating Eva. That night, like the next, he would sleep in the dungeon.. Until Tuesday the 7th, the Court for Violence against Women No. 1 of Las Palmas, sentenced him, for a crime of gender violence, to 40 days of community work, one year away and two more without a weapons permit.. He himself had confessed the facts, but the UD did not execute any disciplinary measure against him.

The entity limited itself to emphasizing that the attack had occurred in the “field of her private life”, so the statement did not include a single mention or message of support for Eva. The president of the club, Miguel Ángel Ramírez, also did not allude to the victim on June 9, when he confirmed Domínguez among the footballers who will start working under the orders of Francisco Javier García Pimienta. “If we have not thrown him out, it is because we believe in him sportingly and we understand that he is a player with significant potential,” argued the top yellow shareholder, who already entered 41 million euros between 2017 and 2019 for the transfers of Roque Mesa (Swansea). , Jonathan Viera (Guoan) and Pedri (FC Barcelona).

“Something terrifying”

In light of these facts, the atmosphere on the island has been heating up in recent weeks. And in the crossfire, between explicit denunciations and deafening silences, some questions arise: Does Joel need another chance to rehabilitate himself? What should be the commitment of UD Las Palmas against gender violence? Does the club normalize the presence of a convicted aggressor and with two other open processes, for breach of the restraining order and for psychological violence?

Faced with these issues, Margarita Alejo, Eva's lawyer, offers EL MUNDO the perspective of her defense. “Joel's call for the preseason is something terrifying, because it seems that they are rewarding him,” explains the lawyer, who defines the character of the footballer as “controlling and very jealous.”. “Someone dominant, capable of doing very wild things”. In fact, the psychologists who worked on the investigation diagnosed Eva with traumatic shock, distortion of reality, emotional dependence and Stockholm syndrome.. “At the beginning, what surprised me the most was that he told us that he did not want to upset his football career,” adds Alejo about the minor's struggle to escape the nightmare. That stage over, today Eva has opened her eyes and she keeps repeating to herself: “How could she be so submissive?”. Not uncommon in victims of abuse.

Domínguez, for his part, also envisions other horizons. She has just completed a course on gender violence and can't wait to train with the elders. «Since he was four years old, Joel's life has been football and his dream is to play in the first team. Due to a specific error we are not going to throw the boy's future overboard. Because, if he doesn't play, he doesn't do anything with his life,” Víctor Brito, the man who took over his defense at the end of April to replace José María Aranda, assures this newspaper. «After the bombardment of lies and half truths we have decided to change our strategy. We are not going to shut up. We are going to put everyone in their place, “he warns.

“He made a mistake and was judged”

Alicia Pérez, Domínguez's representative and visible head of the Lilium by APS agency, adds to this reproachful tone. «We are so tired of all this… But I can't tell you more. We will only speak when we manage to clean up our image”, Pérez ditch, very close to the corridors of power of the Nuevo Insular.

According to his own environment, the boy has also suffered episodes of anxiety. He is afraid of going out and receiving insults. Or debut with the first team and be booed by his fans. “He made a mistake and he has already been judged for it.. Now he intends to move on with his life, even if they want to destroy him civilly. He is aware of what happened and his repentance is sincere.. Enough of lynching. Leave him alone, because he has taken note and he is not going to repeat it again, ”Brito proclaims.. About the prematureness of this assessment, it is worth asking the victim's family.

I am not going to speak out of revenge, but to give visibility to a very serious problem that is being tried to whitewash.

Mara López, mother of the victim

Mara López, Eva's mother, attends EL MUNDO after “two days crying and without the strength to see anyone”. “But I am not going to speak out of revenge, but to give visibility to a very serious problem that is being tried to whiten,” starts López, a trained criminologist and worker in a center for minors.. By a tragic wink of fate, Mara has given her life to educate minors at risk of exclusion. Among them, abusers. Today, after a year off work, he still lacks the strength to return to everyday life.. And she can't even pronounce Joel's name. So when referring to Domínguez, he always opts for the same filler. «From the club and from their environment they have promoted a campaign to victimize the young man, who has not made a mistake, but a crime. They talk about reinsertion, but the young man has neither been in prison nor does he have a problem with his surroundings. The young man has to be treated and the board should have forced him to apologize,” López abounds..

When this newspaper asks about the aggressor's regret, the victim's mother reels off a string of shocking episodes. Of recent videos in which Joel makes fun of the mistreatment of others, in the middle of a party, where he makes murky accusations about the nocturnal habits of the Las Palmas first team. “On May 16, he appeared at my mother's house, 83 years old, who lives in a nearby town, screaming with his head out of the car.. And I have not seen that he has apologized, ”reveals Mara.

Joel Domínguez, in the City of Justice of Las Palmas. Elvira Urquijo

The climate of fracture that is palpable in Las Palmas in no way resembles that of a city that should still be swimming in the euphoria of the rise. After trying to obtain, unsuccessfully, the official version of the club, this newspaper made a dozen calls between its clubs. Only three were served. Two of them, to excuse themselves, and the other, to charge harshly against the rest. “I'm only going to say two words: zero tolerance,” reveals JMR, president of Sentimiento Amarillo. A subscriber for 36 years, with the UD shield tattooed on his skin, this supporter of the club considers that the rest of the groups are limited to “continuing calmly”, to the tune set by the president. Ramírez, a humble guy who started selling fruit in a van and became a millionaire with the private security business, has never left anyone indifferent.. Joel's case is the latest example.

“Last summer we also wanted to talk to the club, but they didn't receive us.. Through a common acquaintance, we passed them the messages my daughter had on her mobile, but they told us she was a minor and they couldn't do anything,” Mara recalls.. “It is evident that Ramírez has no interest in the victim, but neither in the young man.. I am very sorry that he has to be so exposed to whistles when he receives the ball, “concludes López.

“Shoves, kicks and strong hold”

Yesterday, Domínguez spoke for the first time about the events, in an interview for the newspaper Tiempo de Canarias. In it, he was “very sorry” and claimed to have “learned” from the mistake. He also apologized to his victim, whom he admitted to having given a “push”. A somewhat sweetened version of what can be read in the sentence signed by Judge Luis Fernando Ocaña García, to which this newspaper has had access.

In his proven facts, Ocaña declares that the soccer player, “moved by the purpose of causing an impairment to the physical integrity of the victim,” gave him “several blows in the form of shoving, kicking, and forcefully holding his shoulders.”. Likewise, the magistrate maintains that the minor “did not want to report, did not testify against her partner in the Violence Court, did not want to be recognized by the forensic doctor or take criminal and civil actions against the defendant.”

If from a referent like the UD this matter is whitewashed, what reaction can we expect among the citizens?

Mey Ung, president of the Young Women Association of Gran Canaria

“My daughter did not want to be explored because at that time she was still defending her attacker,” says López. “If we can finally recover the deleted conversations from their cell phones, one can read: “Because of you I broke a finger,” “reveals the mother, with a vivid memory, without ever losing sight of the decisive intervention, as a witness, of a plainclothes policeman. And Joel's kicks, with her on the floor, “lifting her up by the hair, pushing her against the phones and putting her inside.”

The mother's story causes more than outrage among feminist groups on the island. “All this causes us a lot of astonishment and rejection,” says Mey Ung, president of the Association of Young Women of Gran Canaria, Ágora Violeta.. “We do not understand how a great value generator, like UD, rewards a convicted player, promoting him to the first team and withdraws any show of support for the victim himself.. If from a referent of this magnitude you whitewash this matter, what reaction can we expect among the citizens? ”, asks Ung.

To the criticisms against his management, Ramírez will have to add the tangled judicial horizon that awaits him in the coming weeks. Besieged since October 2020, when the Prosecutor's Office asked him for 21 years in prison and a fine of 105.4 million euros for five crimes against the Public Treasury and three more against Social Security, the president of UD Las Palmas must sit in the bench on the 4th of july. Just six days later, Joel will train for the first time with the first team at the Ciudad Deportiva.