All posts by Cruz Ramiro

Cruz Ramiro- local news journalist and editor-in-chief. Worked in various media such as: EL Mundo, La Vanguardia, El País.
SPAIN

Spain’s Political Landscape Tense Ahead of Investiture Decision

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Felipe VI’s consultations with the different political forces are advancing, but some do not want to show all their cards and others admit they are unable to clear up the question of whether or not there will be an investiture session next week.

Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo will attend the round of meetings at Zarzuela this Tuesday without having guaranteed the necessary support, after a month of discreet conversations and a contact that resulted in the formation of a Board controlled by the majority of the parties that support the government in office.

Feijóo maintains his willingness to submit to the vote despite the weak situation in which he finds himself and with the support of Vox now in doubt. Sánchez, for his part, threatens to leave him free to delve into the wear and tear of another parliamentary defeat. But it is the King who has the ball in his court. You have three options: propose Sánchez, Feijóo… or delay the decision. The PNV points out that the round of contacts will not serve to designate a solid candidate.

UPN and the Canarian Coalition have shielded their support for Feijóo, but he would not even get out of the siding by adding Vox. In this scenario, other parties consulted by El Confidencial are already agitating the scenario of a second round of consultations, which would give the leader of the PP and, above all, Sánchez, more time to try to tie up the support they need.

They require an absolute majority in the first vote, more yes than no 48 hours later. And, of the four parties that have excluded themselves from the talks with the monarch, Junts per Catalunya is the great unknown. Puigdemont continues to hold the key for the coalition to remain in Moncloa.

On Monday, the acting second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, criticized that these formations have “declined” to go to consultations to “explain” their positions. The leader of Sumar was very careful not to venture what Felipe VI will do, after his interview with the monarch, but he also made it clear that there is only “one real possibility” of obtaining the majority: that of the block of which he is a part.

For their part, acting Executive sources acknowledge that, although the negotiation is expected to be difficult, Junts has taken “very important steps”, not only with its support in the voting of the Table. They also point out that the position that Vox adopts this Tuesday, after his appointment with Felipe VI, will be decisive in clarifying whether the King will designate Feijóo as a candidate.

If it has 172 endorsements, they say, it would make some sense that it wanted to make them visible. Although they are not enough to make him president. The PSOE, as it did since the general elections of 23-J, steps on the brake.

This Monday, the acting Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, demanded to give the King “time” to decide on the candidate, almost in parallel to the fact that his party communicated to Feijóo that it will not make efforts to prevent him from running for a “fake investiture “.

On the one hand, the Socialists charged against the Popular Party for pressing the monarch “daily” to propose Feijóo and, on the other, they gloated that the conservative leader attended an investiture without having his support tied up, assuming that will crash against the parliamentary majority.

Sánchez’s little haste collides with Feijóo’s accelerated roadmap. Despite the doubts that important party leaders express in private, the PP leader will ask the King to propose him as a candidate to go to an investiture session, even with the almost certainty that it will end in failure.

Some barons of the PP support the decision of the leadership, understanding that Feijóo must reverse the feeling of defeat that has settled in the ranks of the popular and fight as the “winner of the elections”.

Despite the more than possible failure, the party leadership reiterates that starring in an investiture would allow Feijóo to present “a model of the country”. A session with campaign overtones before a possible scenario of a return to the polls in December.

In the PP there are other voices that warn, however, that exposing themselves to another parliamentary defeat after the “ridicule” of the Congress Table would be “suicide” for Feijóo.

The same sources urge the popular leader to “assume reality” and prepare for a “tough” opposition to Sánchez to bring down a government as soon as possible that, if consummated, would be mired in “instability”.. “We lack a logical and solid parliamentary majority to govern,” say critics of Feijóo’s strategy.

As El Confidencial announced, the PP leader’s plan goes from the outset to achieve the King’s order to force an investiture in the last week of August. If, as everything indicates, it is unsuccessful -Feijóo needs an absolute majority-, a period of two months would automatically open to light a government majority.

In the event that no vote has prospered within that period, the Cortes would be dissolved and elections would be held at the end of the year, with the horizon set at December 17. PP parliamentary sources confirm that if they receive the green light in the Zarzuela, the session could be set for next week, on August 30 or 31.

In this case, it would be the new president of Congress, Francina Armengol, who must give the final go-ahead to Feijóo’s calendar. But the popular do not believe that the socialist leader put obstacles. “The more time passes, the more expensive Junts and ERC can make their support”, they trust.

In Ferraz, in fact, they confirmed this Monday that they will let Feijóo walk towards his “third setback” if he is chosen by the King. “We are not going to elbow each other,” added socialist sources.

Genoa insists that Feijóo will arrive at the meeting with the King with more support than Sánchez has, since he does not yet have the explicit support of the PNV, Junts or ERC. But the game could be more complicated for Feijóo due to the break with Vox.

Santiago Abascal will be the first of the leaders who will meet with Felipe VI this Tuesday, and the party has not yet confirmed whether it will convey to the monarch that its 33 deputies will support Feijóo if he is proposed or, on the contrary, avoid compromising that support.

At this time, Feijóo has 139 tied votes. Only with Sumar, Sánchez adds 152. If this scenario is confirmed, the option that Felipe VI chooses to delay the decision and repeat the round of consultations later would win integers.

Vox has made its support for Feijóo conditional on him “picking up the phone” and clarifying whether he “opts for the Murcia or Valencia route” in his relationship with Abascal. The ultra party has not forgiven the PP for leaving it out of the Congress Table, and demands “urgent explanations” before clarifying the meaning of its vote.

“If Feijóo wants to raise a sanitary cordon for Vox, he will not have our support,” warn sources close to Abascal. So far, Genoa has not given in to pressure and there have been no contacts between the two directions. They trust, however, that Abascal “keeps his word” and does not get out of the equation at a key moment.

SPAIN

Spain’s Sweltering Heat Wave Persists: 42-Degree Temperatures, Multiple Alerts

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Except for the Bay of Biscay and the southeastern coast, the heat wave that is plaguing Spain will keep the country on alert for another day with values of up to 42 degrees and 14 communities under warning, of which 10 are in orange (significant risk), especially the northeast and the western fringe of the territory.

As of noon, the following communities will activate the orange alert for suffocating heat: Andalusia, Aragon, both Castillas, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Navarra and La Rioja, according to the predictions of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet). , in his web page.

On the other hand, in yellow level, slightly lower than the previous one, will be the Balearic Islands, with maximums of 37 degrees in Mallorca; and also the Canary Islands, with 34 degrees on several islands.

La Rioja Alavesa (Basque Country), with 39 degrees, and also Valencia and Castellón (Valencian Community), with 36 degrees. In large areas of the community of Extremadura the nights will be very hot, with values of 22-24 degrees, according to the Aemet.

Also in the Community of Madrid the temperatures will be suffocating, with 40 degrees in the southern, vegas and western areas.

Likewise, in Navarra the same levels of heat will be reached, according to the predictions of the meteorological authority.

In Andalusia, the thermometers will reach 40 degrees in large areas of the community, such as the Cádiz, Cordoba and Seville countryside, and that record will also be reached in Aracena (Huelva) and the coast of this province, as well as in the Guadalquivir valley ( Jaen).

The Andalusian community is also on alert for wind and maritime storms in Cádiz, given the prediction of gusts of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

The three Aragonese provinces are warned of temperatures above 40 degrees in a good part of the region, which may occasionally reach 42 degrees on the banks of the Ebro (Zaragoza), in the Huesca Pyrenees, storms are expected that may be accompanied by hail.

In Castilla y León, temperatures will be 35-39 degrees in practically the entire community and the nights will also be very hot, between 20 and 22 degrees in almost all the provinces of the region..

In Castilla-La Mancha, the threshold of 40 degrees will be exceeded in the Tagus Valley (Toledo), with 41 degrees, and it will also be very hot in the Guadiana Valley (Ciudad Real), with 40 degrees, as well as in La Mancha.

In Catalonia, 41 degrees will be reached and occasionally 42 degrees in the central depression of Lleida.

Occasionally it can reach 40 degrees in large areas of the community, such as the central depression of Barcelona, Ampurdán (Girona) or the pre-coastal area of Tarragona.

In Galicia, in the Miño basin (Ourense) 41 degrees will be reached and in the rest of the community, values of 34-39 degrees.

SPAIN

Catalonia’s Leaders Gather in France to Pay Tribute to Pau Casals Amidst Political Dialogues

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Carles Puigdemont met this Monday in the south of France with the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés, and several former leaders.

Jordi Pujol, José Montilla or Quim Torra have attended the tribute to Pau Casals, which is organized by the Catalan Summer University (UCE) in the abbey of Sant Miquel de Cuixà, in Codalet, with the negotiations for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as a backdrop in the background. There they have left an unpublished image at a crucial moment.

In full conversations between the PSOE and Junts, the sovereign leader who fled after 1-O has launched a notice between the lines, although without directly mentioning the ongoing negotiation process.

“Casals did not seek a personal solution for himself, but for the country, we have the duty to continue doing the same for the country, for the language and for its people,” he said at the end of his speech.

“When we ask that Catalan be a language of Europe […] we do it following the same thread as the generations that preceded us, but thinking of others and not only of ourselves,” he added..

Pere Aragonès, for his part, greeted Puigdemont and immediately called for “more than ever” amnesty and self-determination to resolve the “political conflict”, in his words, caused by the State’s refusal to recognize the right of Catalonia to decide freely about their future.

He has assured verbatim that this Monday is an exceptional act because it has to take place outside of Spain “because of the repression that is still going on”.

“It is essential that the resolution of the political conflict be advanced and progress is made within the framework of a fully democratic solution so that this act ceases to be exceptional and becomes a democratic normality,” he added.

Aragonés has highlighted the figure of Pau Casals and his “commitment to democracy and freedom, being an icon of pacifism and anti-fascism”.

In addition, he has assured that he is “a universal figure, a benchmark and a source of pride” for Catalans, since he defended institutions, harmony and world peace.

Regarding Casals’ nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, Aragonés highlighted: “It is surely one of the moments that, as a country, we have engraved in our collective memory”. “He kept the flame of dignity through his talent and work.

He could have been one of the presidents of the Generalitat. It is a meeting point for Catalanism, a cornerstone of the country, one of the Catalans with the most squares and streets in the country”, he added.

“Regression of Catalan”

Aragonés has denied being able to speak of “national plenitude because there is still no democratic plenitude”, and has lamented the decline in the use of Catalan and has urged to promote it again.

“It is undeniable that we have made a lot of progress, not as much as we would like, but we have overcome stages of resistance, although it is clear that we still have a long way to go,” said Aragonés, and has literally urged to continue building the Catalan nation with an inclusive perspective.

Former President Jordi Pujol, of the former Convergence, also present at the event, has shown his “particular appreciation” to Puigdemont at a time when, in his opinion, the identity and the Catalan language are “in danger”. For this reason, he has called on all the citizens of Catalonia to defend it.

Quim Torra, another Junts president who took office after Puigdemont, has also valued Casals’ ability to “distinguish morality in politics” and his idea of Catalanness. Although one of the most controversial moments has come in the turn of José Montilla.

The former Catalan president, from the PSC, has spoken of “dialogue and pacts”, in reference to the support of pro-independence parties for the investiture of the government of Pedro Sánchez.

Montilla’s intention was to appeal to a plural and diverse Spain, something that did not sit well with those present at the event.

“The homogeneous and excluding Spain has to give way to a fraternal Spain, respectful of diversity and capable of to manage its plurality”, the expresident literally said.

After his speech, the most radical attendees have shouted “independence” and have whistled with greater intensity.

SPAIN

Patricia Guasp Steps Down as Ciudadanos Spokesperson to Return to Private Sector

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The spokesperson for Ciudadanos (Cs), Patricia Guasp, has announced this Sunday that she is leaving office to return to the private sector as of September 1 —for which reason she will continue in that formation “as one more affiliate”— without going into detail about the reasons for your decision.

In a letter to her colleagues on the social network X (formerly Twitter), Guasp is “firmly convinced that bipartisanship, supported by extremists and exclusive nationalists, will never be the solution”.

He assures that “Spain needs a transformative, reformist, liberal and progressive project that is defended from the political center so that our democratic system stops continuing to divide and collectivize the Spanish people”.

The still spokeswoman affirms that “sooner rather than later” the liberal center will once again be decisive for the future of Spain and defends her vision of politics as an activity based on service, as well as the belief that “another way of doing politics it’s possible”.

For her, it is a way of acting “without dogmatism, nor sectarianism, nor reductionism, but always with courage, with the truth ahead, with tolerance and, of course, with firm liberal ideals and convictions”.

Guasp, who was a deputy for four years in the Balearic Parliament and appointed spokesperson for the party in 2023, expresses her gratitude to her colleagues and to the members of the party, whom she considers the “soul” of the party.

SPAIN

Magnitude 4.1 Earthquake Near Palafrugell: IGN Monitors Effects and Reaction

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The National Geográfico Institute (IGN) recorded during the night of this Sunday, August 20, an earthquake of magnitude 4.1 near Palafrugell. Seismographs have located the epicenter of the tremor far from urban centers.

Specifically, it has been located 51 kilometers away from Begur and has been located in the sea, kilometers deep. Its effects could also have reached, to a greater or lesser extent, nearby areas such as Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Roses or Palamós..

The IGN makes a macro-seismic questionnaire available to citizens so that they can report their situation in case they have felt the tremor. Through it, those affected can declare what they were doing at the time, if they were asleep or awake, what their reaction was and if the objects moved or fell to the ground.

These data, together with those collected by the seismographs, are “essential” for the agency to alert the population of the intensity of the earthquakes and calculate the damage they may have caused.

As a curiosity, it should be noted that it was Fernando VI who introduced this questionnaire in Spain after the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, which caused nearly 100,000 deaths throughout the Peninsula.. However, it has changed over the years. This Sunday the 20th is the first earthquake to be recorded in the area in the last month.

SPAIN

Guardians of a Quiet Town: Ana and Alberto’s Struggle to Keep La Riba Alive

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Ana and Alberto are the guardians of a town that struggles not to become extinct in the oblivion of winter.. Settled in La Riba de Santiuste (Guadalajara), this administrator and this bricklayer have become the only people who live in a municipality with 12 registered people.

Together with his two children, his life pivots between car trips to Sigüenza and daily walks through the town to make sure that there is no damage to the houses.. They like their life, but they would also like the Administration to take more care of the rural world. This is the story of two people from Madrid who fled the capital to become a reference for dozens of families.

When they wanted to send Alberto Martínez out of Spain for work reasons 18 years ago, his family found a new home in the house that he himself had built in La Riba to spend the weekends. His own hands raised and sculpted the stone that now shelters the only people who continuously inhabit this enclave crowned by a medieval castle that delights locals and visitors.

“There were few bricklayers in the area and since we started coming here they were asking me for jobs.. Although income dropped when we left Madrid, we saw that we could live well here”, he recounts at the door of his house.

Now it has been converted into the pedestrian mayor, since the town administratively belongs to Sigüenza. He takes care that the comforts that are more than established in the cities also reach the town: “Before there were only 14 telephone lines and I managed to get the internet to arrive, a little in that way. This has allowed people to stay a little longer teleworking”, says the bricklayer.

His day to day is easy, nothing out of the ordinary, except that the car becomes essential to survive. Without any premises or shops, in La Riba the only business there are two rural houses that almost every weekend have guests.

The closest thing to the market that they have is the baker, the greengrocer and the one with the frozen food truck that, when they arrive in town, sound their horn to warn of their arrival.

The only child

Both he and Ana Martínez work in Sigüenza, so any unforeseen event can be solved in the city of reference. But they are not alone. They live with Dani, 22, and Darío, the youngest in the house who, at 11, begins to feel the ravages of being the only small child living in the town.

“A few more kids always come on weekends, so they play here. If not, another day we go up to Sigüenza so that he can be with his school friends”, says the 55-year-old father.. A school where Dario goes by bus, on the route that picks up schoolchildren from the villages every day.

The mother thinks that “time must be managed very well” so that they do not become slaves and have to go to Sigüenza three times a day. “Now Dario wonders why he lives here, what a shitty town, but we try to explain the circumstances. We are not going to consent to everything because he is the little one,” emphasizes Ana in the living room of her house.

Individuals from La Riba

In La Riba, everyone knows each other, for better and for worse. It is true that some people decided to stay in the town knowing that Alberto and Ana would be there permanently, but they are still very few.

“People come every two or three months and in summer. It gives you a bit of the feeling that you have to keep an eye on everything, see every afternoon that the doors of the houses are securely closed, that no pipes have burst due to the ice…”, the current brigade officer develops. Masonry of the Town Hall of Sigüenza.

In him rests the greatest confidence of a town that seems to sleep until the arrival of the summer season. By then, Alberto will have fixed any damage that occurred during the long and hard winter.

Already in summer, the pylon becomes the epicenter of social life in La Riba, the most frequented place of passage next to the pediment and the basketball court that is on the outskirts, on the way to the castle, even if it is just 150 meters from the riparian center.

Here, things go at a different pace. The family is hardly contaminated by the ups and downs and frenzy of the big cities, and it is that the place accompanies this acclimatization. In La Riba there are no sidewalks, but there are steep slopes.

There are no pubs or discos, but there are roe deer and wild boars that roam the cobblestones at night. There is no supermarket, but there is a neighbor willing to lend you everything you need. The garbage truck passes once a week in summer and every two weeks in winter.

Ana integrates the administrative staff of the Sigüenza property registry. She is 52 years old and, in her case, she did imagine that she would end up in a place like this. When I lived in Vicálvaro, I worked in a sales and management training company in El Pinar de Las Rozas.

“I don’t miss any other place. Just for the family, to see them more often, but that’s it,” he says..

She is very happy to live in La Riba, partly because of her relationship with the neighbours: “In a city you come home and even if you have 10, 40 or 200 neighbours, you don’t know them, you barely have contact with them”. In this town, trust is so deep that Ana and Alberto keep some keys to their neighbors’ homes, for what could happen. Likewise, among the negative aspects, unwanted loneliness stands out, that is, not having anyone to lend a hand if needed..

A castle and depopulation

The main attraction of the town, even ahead of the area in which it is located, of great wealth in terms of flora, fauna and mineral composition, having been an inland sea in the place, is the castle.

In private hands, the fact that it could be visited would be great news for La Riba because of the people it would attract. “The Sigüenza archaeologist is trying to have more studies on him with the permission of the owner to find out his history,” says Alberto.

If they manage to make the castle visitable, it would mean taking a big step in the evolution of a town that refuses to die, just like what happened with the arrival of the internet. “This I had to fight a lot with Sigüenza.

Now some mobile coverage arrives, but not for all operators. At least we can work, because at first I couldn’t even send budgets”, Alberto underlines as he walks towards the outskirts of town. That was a revulsion, almost at the same level as what it meant for La Riba that a young couple decided to stay and live in it.

“Knowing that we were staying, there were some of the people of the whole life of the town who also wanted to be here longer. The children told us that if we didn’t mind giving them a hand from time to time, it doesn’t cost us anything.. Knowing that there is a car, if something happens we go out shotgun and that’s it,” the bricklayer elaborates..

But time, although somewhat slower, also passes. Of those older people who decided to stay, five people have already died. Alberto has opened holes in the cemetery, in fact. In any case, the marriage continues to be like the nephews who take care of those predecessor generations.

In short, there is a lack of people, and a lack of young people. “What makes me sad is the little help from the Administration so that people come to live in the towns, because a lot of them want to, but can’t. If they put in the necessary services, things would change,” says Ana.

Despite the fact that empty Spain became emptied Spain, this victory in language has not materialized in the earthly life of some peoples condemned to disappear if they are not injected with new blood. Ana and Alberto fight for it.

SPAIN

Artistic Influence and Baroque Triumphs: The Legacy of Francisco de Herrera el Mozo

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“Like a flash of light”. In such an unorthodox and, even less, academic way, I answer if they ask me about the return of The Triumph of the Sacrament of the Eucharist by Francisco de Herrera el Mozo to the Cathedral of Seville.

The work, which has been part of the extraordinary exhibition dedicated to the artist by the Prado Museum and curated by the Complutense Art History Professor, Benito Navarrete, can be seen for the next two months in the back-choir of the cathedral.

After this time, it will return to the place for which it was conceived, the entrance to the meeting room of the Sacramental Brotherhood of the Tabernacle. Herrera’s canvas breaks the large crimson drapery on which it is placed with the cannon of light that emanates from the scene represented.

It was the first work that he carried out in his native Seville and with it he must have animated the show in the artistic environment of Seville in the mid-seventeenth century.. In fact, it not only caused a stir, but also influenced such outstanding figures on the artistic scene as Murillo and Valdés Leal, forming a trident that was the gateway to the full baroque in the Seville capital.

A Seville that, after the turning point caused by the bubonic plague epidemic of 1649, had gone from being a large, wealthy, cosmopolitan commercial city to a city that had lost almost half its population and had mutated into a provincial and full of religious institutions that articulated a society dedicated to pious practices.

As for the artistic circles, a generational replacement was needed which, on the other hand, was already taking shape and which would bear the names of these three gentlemen who are the protagonists of what I am telling you about today.. But, of the three, Francisco de Herrera el Mozo is the least claimed.

Sometimes, the memory of those who are in charge of recording facts and names of the past is capricious and selective, leaving in the drawer of oblivion those who deserve an open window in the story of History.

Herrera deserves hers. a window and seven. At that time, Murillo was a 10-year-old boy, Valdés Leal barely raised a foot from the ground at five years old and Velázquez had left for Madrid four years ago..

Our Herrera began his artistic training, inevitably, in the workshop of his father, Herrera el Viejo. And Herrera father was difficult to bear. So much so that, according to Palomino in his biographies of artists, Herrera el Mozo and a sister fled the parental home, taking some savings with them to get by.

He married twenty years behind his father’s back and in a few months he had already divorced. After the follies of youth, he finished his training in Italy and that stay was definitive in forging an artistic personality that would ultimately prove essential to definitively establish the full Baroque in Spain. And how did that arrogant and proud young man do it? With two works that make it the link between the two great cultural centers of the country: Seville and Madrid.

Recently arrived in Madrid from Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, Bernini, Veronese, Pietro da Cortona, etc.) in 1654 he painted the spectacular The Triumph of Saint Hermenegildo for the former convent of the Discalced Carmelites, of which he himself came to say that “he was going to play bugles and kettledrums” because vanity went hand in hand with mastery. That work marked those who saw it, devotees, public and colleagues, becoming one of the milestones of Spanish painting of the 17th century.

In that same year of 1654, his father died and Herrera Jr. had to return to Seville to fix the paperwork for these tragic cases.. And what was going to be an express trip, becomes a five-year stay of which we still have the extraordinary work that, since last week, has been hanging at the foot of the cathedral and which was the second blow to the table of Herrera to definitively establish a new baroque language and the Ecstasy of San Francisco (1656-57), also in the Seville cathedral.

As in Madrid, The Triumph of the Sacrament of the Eucharist (1655) caused the same commotion in Seville and inevitably influenced the teachers of the Sevillian school of the time. Murillo and Valdés Leal were permeable to Herrera’s persuasion and something changed in Sevillian painting from that moment on.

It is, to say the least, exciting to be able to contemplate the work of the three masters in just 50 or 60 meters inside the hollow mountain. On the other side, on the north wall, the thread leads us to the chapel of San Antonio, where Murillo, already artistically upset by Herrera, shows his monumental San Antonio de Padua and the Child Jesus (1656) with an enveloping atmosphere, diffuse limits, and lighting and stage effects that undoubtedly lead to Herrera. Three teachers who met, admired and were influenced, for luck and fortune, by those of us who live in the eternal search for light.

SPAIN

Navigating Political Challenges: Feijóo’s Dilemmas in Spain’s Complex Landscape

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Regardless of the tug of war that he has agreed with the independentistas and how long the process lasts (there will be threats and suspense to feed the epic, as the national rhapsodes like), Sánchez will be sworn in as president.

I’m not saying that Feijóo shouldn’t try, but that, no matter how hard he tries, the script is written in advance. The sooner the scenario is assumed, the better for everyone, and especially for Feijóo, who is on everyone’s lips for having stayed in no man’s land.

As Javier Caraballo rightly pointed out, the Galician is still in a state of shock, sleeping with Michavila’s Excel files under his pillow, unable to assimilate the results of 23-J, as has been verified with his failed moves to move forward Cuca Gamarra’s candidacy, the expectations generated and her more than erratic relationship with Vox.

Now that we are going to have co-official languages even in the soup, someone will have to say that the time has come to drop the donkey and get to work in a legislature that seems to be one of the most complicated and vital in democracy..

The context is that of a period that begins as the previous one ended, at its peak of polarization and with the anger machine, that is, the social networks, operating at maximum power, as it cannot be otherwise if the PSOE begins to satisfy the requests of the string of partners, including the fugitive, who support him in power.

It is what Michael Reid, British journalist and author of Spain: The Trials and Triumphs of a Modern European, calls the narcissism of Spain’s small differences, or how local and regional interests are imposed on the generals in this kingdom of taifas, to Despite the fact that there are many more elements that unite us than those that separate us.

It is not only that Title VIII of the Constitution is imperfect, which could well be, and requires an ad hoc federalist debate, but that there are certain nationalist formations that have made coercion to the State their modus vivendi and, in case of lowering of the train, they run the risk of disappointing all that multitude of voters that they have dragged with them and that now they cannot control.

The mess of the co-official languages in the Lower House is paradigmatic of what is to come, although we all know that the main course will come with the amnesty and the referendum to the taste of the Catalan independentistas. Fish in the cave.

It will be difficult to satisfy these demands without leaving a few hairs (those of the Constitution) in the cat flap. It will be difficult to get out of this dilemma without ending the blocks with clubs.

The economic issue will also mark this new legislature, as it brings the end of the expansionary cycle and zero rates and the return of fiscal rules, which will lead to significant tax increases and a more than notable cut in spending.

Of the first, increasing tax pressure, Sánchez has a curriculum that supports him as an accomplished leader, but of the second, putting in the scissors, he has not shown any signs of knowing how to do it and, even less, of how to reach an agreement with the rest of his allies..

The other hot potato that will have to be unblocked will be that of the judiciary, where PSOE and PP have staged a sad spectacle, ignoring their constitutional obligations and leaving Justice in the dark by not being able to renew many of the vacant positions.. If this situation continues over time, Brussels has already warned of the opening of a sanctioning procedure. The situation is untenable.

A devilish scenario —crossed interests, political tension, deficit cut, judicial pact— that requires a plan from someone who won the elections, but who, due to the prevailing bibloquism, is called upon to lead the opposition.

The first unknown that he has to clear up is whether he, accustomed to governing with an absolute majority in Galicia, is willing to cross the desert. If so, which should, because the data supports it, you have to say it loud and make a team according to the needs. A team that will not be to govern, but to fight the copper from the second line.

You will have to develop a plan according to the situation. Sánchez is going to govern and he is going to do so for a more or less long period. If he enters the rag of the polarizing game, Feijóo has everything to lose, as could be verified in the general passes. In the field of you more, the president is unbeatable.

If he focuses on the economy, as he should have done last season, and didn’t, he has more to gain. No matter how much the PSOE takes advantage of the macro data, the electorate does not end up trusting the spendthrift policy of the Socialists based on past experiences.

With everything and with that, the main point that Feijóo must clarify, the one that weighs on him like a stone and has weighed down his chances of reaching Moncloa, is the one referring to the role of Vox in his relationship with the Popular Party. Until you clear up this unknown, the elephant will still be in the room.

The voter does not punish the PP so much for the fact that it is or is not a friend of those of Abascal as for its ambiguity when it comes to speaking and dealing with this formation. Either with or without you. There are no more options. Feijóo must choose.

SPAIN

Unveiling Criminals’ Motivations: Media Exposure and Identity Among Traffickers

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Afternoon of February 6, 2018. A score of hooded men assaulted the Línea de la Concepción hospital (Cádiz) to forcibly release an individual who was in police custody and who had been arrested after skipping a control.

He wasn’t just any criminal. It was about Samuel Crespo. The lieutenant of the Alarcón brothers, Antonio and Francisco —known as Isco—, the leaders of the Los Castaña clan. Two guys who, like the Messi of Hashish, Kiko el Fuerte or Pantoja, were unknown outside the Campo de Gibraltar region, but who in municipalities like El Linense or Algeciras had become idols for young people seduced by their brand-name clothes , luxury cars and, above all, for the respect and fear that they inflicted on all those who knew that they were the kings of drug trafficking in southern Europe.

A distorted image that was eating away at a society plagued by unemployment and lack of opportunities and that peeked dangerously into the abyss of a Mexicanization driven by the ascendancy of the drug trafficker..

The civil guard Guillermo Alonso was preparing to go on vacation that summer when his mobile phone rang. It was a call on behalf of General Contreras, in which they explained to him that they were going to propose a project that would change his life and mark the final stretch of his career: lead the communication of an unprecedented device against drug trafficking. It was the OCON Sur Plan. A deployment that for five years would relentlessly percussion the large drug clans to end their impunity, but which also had the purpose of eliminating the aura that surrounded these criminals.

Alonso, in the reserve since June, recalls that information was from the beginning a key factor in an action plan supported by four legs and whose other three were the Rapid Action Group (GAR), the Operations Unit and the Regional Center of Analysis and Intelligence against Drug Trafficking (Crain).

His work consisted of “counting the work of others”, but also “sizing up a problem that we were going to solve” and demonstrating the strength of the Rule of Law. The task was not easy.

As the spokesman for the platform For your safety, for everyone’s, Francisco Mena, commented, a kind of omertà had been installed in the region that began to break, little by little, after the death of a six-year-old boy who was losing his life after being run over by an inflatable boat.

It occurred three months after the assault on the La Línea hospital and reaffirmed the fears of some residents who in July 2018 attended the death, during a persecution, of the agent of the Customs Surveillance Service José Luis Domínguez Iborra.

“There was an awakening of some citizens who understood that this scourge affects you. We are talking about families with children, who study in schools and who see in the figure of the adolescent captured by the drug traffickers a boy who earns a lot of money and who has everything within his reach,” Mena said to warn of the deep roots among the youth of a culture of drug trafficking that has a great “pull effect”.

It is not a new phenomenon. Our protagonist’s first contact with La Línea dates back to 1990, shortly before the outbreak of the Gulf War.. In his memory, images that are fully valid today: “The civil guards intervened to take the cardboard and the people crowded around in the patrol cars to recover them”. Guillermo spent several months in the region intermittently, but it helped him get closer to a reality that would end up becoming a habit.

The first thing he did when he agreed to be the media face of OCON was to present an ambitious communication plan that he ended up agreeing on with those responsible for the device. One of the goals was for the agents to understand the value of communication in that war that they were waging against drug trafficking.

“It was not logical that we were making 30 or 40 records, the media would call to ask and tell them that nothing was happening. That generated mistrust,” he explains, before adding that his colleagues understood that the information that was transmitted to society was a weapon with which to reaffirm authority: “Transfer the effort that was being made to improve the situation”.

In this effort to reach the public there were several milestones that exposed the activities of organized crime and highlighted its weakness in the face of a country’s defense mechanisms.

One of them was the first major operation against Los Castaña. A whole exhibition of public force in which more than 600 civil guards were mobilized. The same one that was perceived in another intervention that took the agents to the Chafarinas Islands to end one of the points where the narco boats took refuge when there was a storm.

“It was like saying to them: ‘We are going to go to where you are,” says the former press officer, who recalls that an ocean-going ship, helicopters and planes were used. Although the before and after, mediatically speaking, was the discovery of Villa Narco.

A kind of urbanization in the El Zabal neighborhood of Línea that over the years was the place of residence of numerous traffickers. The authentic value of the images that Guillermo recorded in that residential complex transcended the police. It showed all those people who could look with some admiration at those criminals who “were not Robin Hood” and “lived off the hook”.

In each of the houses that were bursting, they found a mixture of “opulence” and “bad taste” that delved into the essence of drug trafficking.. “One of the chalets had each room themed. Another built a diving board in the pool that was like a galleon and a mountain on which animals like a crocodile were carved.”

“In the basement of a villa we found stuffed animal heads that were hanging on the wall as if they were hunting trophies.. One of a moose, of a bear, of a lion… It seemed so strange to me that I thought they could hide something, so I asked one of the colleagues who was searching the room to open one while I was recording it.. There was nothing inside. They just thought that decoration was beautiful”, recalls.

Other times, more than with the image, the impact was achieved with a sound. That of the screams of the agents when breaking down a door in the middle of the morning or the noise of the engines of high-end cars intervened.

It was one of the reasons why he began to get involved with the GAR at the moment of greatest tension: when you have to break into a house and reduce the suspects.. He admits that at first he found reluctance, although he ended up gaining the trust of the members of the unit.

The sound of money

But nothing as intoxicating as that constant surround sound of the ticket counting machines.. It is recorded in the brain like the chorus of a song. Like the one issued by the ones that were used to count the 16.5 million euros that they located in various homes in La Línea.

The agents needed approximately 10 hours and several machines to count the bundles that they found hidden anywhere in the buildings.

“My main fear was not being able to reflect so many months of work by the researchers, not knowing how to sell the product,” Alonso confesses.. “I was looking for a record that was visually appealing. An isolated house, better than a block of flats; the figure of the leader; some striking seizure…”, aware of the difficulty of finding elements that would prevent them from becoming monotonous for the media.

But one thing is clear, the autonomy it enjoyed had a red line that could never be crossed: “Disseminate images that uncover operational tactics or investigative techniques”. Which caused me to have to change my habits over time.

“At first, since most of the operations were at dawn, I stayed in a hotel from which I traveled to one of the points of interest. But there came a time when they recognized me at a gas station or in a bar where I drank coffee.

So my presence could be associated with an imminent intervention and give clues to the bad guys, so I had to start going directly from Seville or sleep in another municipality outside the radius of action of the traffickers. The early mornings of all these years remain for me”.

‘Narco stars’

This information task caused a curious phenomenon. Although the Civil Guard does not show the faces of its detainees, successive investigations made society “put a face on drug trafficking”.

They managed to make the activities of many of them transcend the region and a media exposure that damaged the image of many for whom discretion was key. Others, however, when they saw themselves before a squad of cameras, experienced it as “a kind of recognition”.

Alonso recalls the case of “a well-known narco from La Línea” who, after arresting and searching his house, was offered to hide his face because there were means outside.. He refused and went out looking, defiantly, at the targets that captured his walk to the police car.

“We think he did it because in this way he marked his status in prison,” he says.. Similar is the story of another investigated who in jail asked to be called with the nickname that the agents had given him during the investigation: “And it was not pretty at all“.

For some of these criminals, “going out in the press was a show of strength and power”, a way of empowering themselves before other clans. The nicknames were like company brands that measured the true strength of the organization.

Guillermo Alonso, once the OCON Plan was restructured, in a controversial decision by the Ministry of the Interior, looks back and is proud of the work they did in Algeciras, La Línea or Marbella.

“He did not run the risk of corrupting the system,” but it was necessary to “stop” the drug trafficker. They did it with perseverance and determination, but also with a mobile phone and an image stabilizer that captured the dimension of the problem and recorded the fight that is still going on.

SPAIN

Challenges and Frustrations: Ecuadorian Expats Navigate Turbulent Elections and Security Crisis

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Gladys had everything ready from the very first hour. Ecuadorian flags, drink, food and Internet connection. His compatriots were arriving at his house in the Hortaleza neighborhood (Madrid) throughout the morning. They all wanted to vote together in the general elections in Ecuador on August 20.

It is the first time that everything is done electronically and they feared that there would be an altercation. María has been trying to vote since nine in the morning, but the page does not stop giving her an error. Eight people are already sitting around a round table in the courtyard, each with their mobile phone.

Sonia is in charge of helping the elderly with difficulties to understand the process. “Come on, it’s my turn, let’s see if there’s any luck,” says Eduardo Plaza, 70 years old. Two hours later, there was none.. Voting is being an odyssey.

Ecuadorians residing in Madrid have experienced two parallel realities during the last two months: on the one hand, the anguish and impotence due to the security crisis that their country is going through from a distance.

On the other, the exhaustion of the infinite virtual steps to follow to be able to vote in the elections. To “change things”, says Sonia, you have to vote; But it is not so easy. “The information has not been very fluid, they have assumed that we knew how to use the tools,” continues Eduardo.

In order to exercise their right, Ecuadorians living in Spain had to register on the electoral roll at the National Electoral Council (CNE).. Those who had problems, like Mercedes, 68, had to go to the Consulate to register.. “The vote is from nine to seven,” explains Sonia. It is three in the afternoon and, for the moment, only four of those present have managed to finish the process. It’s a mess: start it, wait for an email with a code that usually ends up in spam, enter the national identification number, take a selfie, choose the candidate… “I got an error again!” exclaims María.

Around 94,000 voters registered in the CNE register in Spain to participate in these elections. More than 18,000 did so in the Community of Madrid, the European region with the most Ecuadorian immigration (37,000).

A turbulent campaign

As each engages in a personal battle against their mobile device, they share their stories and opinions out loud.. “I can’t even vote for myself, it doesn’t work!” says Aída Quinatoa between laughs and frustration.

This lawyer and anti-eviction activist presents herself as an assembly member abroad for the Pachakatuik party, in defense of public policies.

“I wanted to vote for Fernando Villavicencio, but…”, explains Gladys.

The candidate was assassinated on August 9 at the exit of a rally. Gladys’s brother, an economist and journalist by profession, was a classmate of the politician at university. That day he went to see him at the event in Quito: they hugged and promised to greet each other properly after the event. That final meeting never happened: he was shot dead.

“He was a good person”, thinks Gladys. This electoral campaign was marked mainly by the security crisis. The Fernando Villavicencio thing was just the tip of the iceberg of the problem that the country is going through.

The culmination of a phenomenon that has permeated Ecuadorian society for four years: the rates of violence are soaring in a nation that, in the eighties, was considered “the island of peace.”. Days after the assassination of the presidential candidate, a local leader close to former President Rafael Correa was also shot in the province of Esmeralda.

Now there is restlessness, fear and unpredictable days. In 2022, more than 4,500 deaths due to violence were registered and only so far this year, that figure exceeds 3,500. The numbers suggest that the record for blood murders will be broken.

Everyone fears for their relatives on the other side of the pond. “My brother-in-law was kidnapped for two days three months ago. He is traumatized. They took $2,000 from him and released him on the condition that he hand over another $16,000 the next day. He did so, if they didn’t kill him,” explains Eduardo.

Others confronted those known as “vaccinators.” Cruz Zhimay, 58, has not come to this meeting of locals because she is at the airport to pick up her daughter , but he shares his story with this newspaper: “My family opened a boutique in the center of Cuenca last year. They broke in to steal every week and the police did nothing. Then came the vaccinators, who charge you a fee per month in exchange for not being mugged,” he explains by phone. Finally, they closed the business.

Between chat and chat, the phone rings.

—Okay, now we make a video call and see it—, answers Sonia.

Ecuadorians who are having trouble voting try to seek help.

Those present at Gladys’ house are children of the massive migration to Europe and the United States between 1999 and the beginning of the two thousand. Ecuador was going through a strong economic crisis of an inflationary type —which especially impoverished the middle classes— which culminated, among other things, in the dollarization of Ecuador.

Beatriz Penagos, a resident of Móstoles, acknowledges how before “we boasted of being a peaceful place”, and now she fears for the safety of her daughter and her two granddaughters. She has nine years left to retire: “If things were better, I would leave now”.

How has this ancient haven of Latin American peace come to this situation? What underlies the shootings, threats and extortions is the increase in power that criminal gangs have acquired in recent years.. Although Ecuador was known as a kind of peaceful oasis in the middle of two conflicting nations —Peru and Colombia—, the reality is no longer the same.

The country also had criminal groups that had been operating in the region for decades, but things started to get worse when the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels gained power inside Ecuador’s borders.. The Albanian mafia was not far behind and also found a place in the country. Now, Ecuador is a major drug operations center.

“It is a failed democracy,” reflects Eduardo Plaza. Both he and Sonia declare that they voted for Guillermo Lasso —who dissolved the Assembly and called early elections— just to prevent correísmo from returning to power, but without being very convinced of his candidacy. “His government has been lousy,” he explains.

Plaza acknowledges that he was a faithful defender of Correa in his early days. Now, no one convinces him. Rafael Correa was the president of the Andean country from 2007 to 2017. During their terms, the ports were privatized. In those years, violence took off in prisons and spread outside the cells.

Local criminal groups—Los Lobos or Los Choneros—began to establish ties with Mexican and Albanian bigwigs and cross-border fighting broke out for control of the merchandise. A proxy war where Ecuadorians are in hand-to-hand combat.

All this has caused a certain feeling of boredom among the population of the Andean country. President Correa has been sentenced to eight years for corruption. The Prosecutor’s Office also requests preventive detention for bribery of his successor, Lenin Moreno.

And Guillermo Lasso’s supposed attempts to improve the situation backfired. The point is that those who have a passport from the Andean country admit to feeling “fear”. According to the Latinobarómetro 2023 Report: the democratic recession of Latin America, 87% of Ecuadorians are dissatisfied with their democracy. And only 37% support the implementation of a democratic system, while another 37% are “indifferent” to the type of regime.

The study shows that Ecuador has as many democrats as indifferent. A breeding ground for authoritarianism. “This is how he faces the political crisis of extraordinary elections in August 2023, with democratic weakness and a high contingent of citizens prone to populism. We understand the indifference to the type of regime and the preference for authoritarianism as fertile ground for populism,” the experts warn.

The call for early elections caught them by surprise. Residents in Spain understand that the vote is telematic because, in just three months, it was too hasty to organize face-to-face elections. But they hoped the system would work a little better.. Sonia acknowledges that she maintains the hope that her country will prosper. If not, “what do we have left?“, he wonders.

At seven in the evening the term closed. Only four of the eight people who came to Gladys’ house were able to vote. “I have received more than 10 calls in a row from outraged people. It just can’t be”. This Monday at 10 in the morning they will gather in front of the Madrid Consulate to protest the voting system.