The Dark Side of Spain

By Mike Sealey

Corruption, violence, devastation, police aggression, repression, fascism, and illicit fortunes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Sealey
• Release date: Oct 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311233899

Mike Sealey

Mike Sealey has lived in Spain since 1991. He works as a writer and translator. His articles and short stories have been published in English and Spanish periodicals and his translation work ranges from: guide books to the famous Peñon d'Ifach, Calpe - Spain's famous National Park, Amazonian herbal remedies, the use of phsyco-kinetics in therapy, tourist information and commercial websites and literature. He is married with two sons and a daughter and has Wire-haired Retriever named Max.

Book preview

THE DARK SIDE OF SPAIN

By Mike Sealey

Copyright 2014

Smashwords Edition

List of contents

Contents

Introduction

Sequence of the Gúrtel Case

Bárcenas Papers

Dirty Banking

Property Repossession and Evictions

Catalogue of Corruption & the Sinister Brothel

The Catalunya Bombshell

Hardship is for Other People

Reasons to be Angry

Valencian Spring

Fascism in Present Day Spain

Nuns and the Stolen Babies. A Mysterious Death

Repression of the People

Abortion and the Legacy of a Justice Minister

Brief Reportage

Author's Footnote

The texts contain YouTube hyperlinks which show harrowing scenes of eviction and violence. If you cannot access them from your reading device you can copy the URL into a PC. Some of them have English subtitles. You can watch them with the sound down because the pictures say it all.

Introduction

Politicians, bankers, corporate Spain and members of the Royal family are embroiled in corruption scandals that riddle the entire establishment of the country.

In the general elections of 2011 the PP political party led by Mariano Rajoy, now the prime minister, swept to power on a sea of lies. Every promise he made to the people of Spain has been broken. With an absolute majority in the House of Congress they can approve whatever they wish and veto any embarassing questions by the opposition parties. The government of Mariano Rajoy is not democratic; it has become a virtual fascist style dictatorship which is governing the country against the wishes of the people. The people did not vote for Rajoy, they voted for the promises he made to maneuver himself into power. The people of Spain are disillusioned and angry.

Mariano Rajoy

Now, under revelations of corruption that puts some of the rogue states of Africa into the shade; perversion of justice, fraud and money laundering by members of the government is rife. The electoral success of the PP party owes its success to illegal funding and deception. The party's political leaders lie unashamedly in the face of incriminating evidence against them and they have lost all credibility. They lie to the Spanish Parliament and they lie to the people. The People's Party is a misnomer. It is not a party of the people; it is the party of an influential minority who have enriched themselves by bribery, fraud and the corrupt mis-use of public money.

In any civilized country, politicians at the highest level of government would have resigned in shame under the weight of their involvement in corruption scandals; the Japanese would have committed Hari-Kari. Even in Turkey three government ministers, the Environment Minister, the Minister for the Economy and the Minister of the Interior recently resigned because they were linked to corrupt practises. High level members of the Spanish PP government and their influential associates have done no such thing. They have no shame, they have no decency and they have no honour.

As one commentator in the Spanish news media Infolibre stated, 'How Rajoy can remain president of the Government under these circumstances is without doubt something that future historians will find hard to believe.'

The Spanish people have always got on with life no matter what; they accepted that life was not perfect and that those in power took financial advantage at times. That was until the recession which hit Spain in 2008. The austerity measures which the working and middle classes have endured through no fault of their own and the sheer scale of corruption of the elected politicians and corporate entities that have cheated and stolen public money. It disgusted people and shocked them into changing the way they think.

There followed six years of explosive news revealing the criminal activities of the Spanish institutions including the secret crimes of religious orders.

It all started with web of corruption that was exposed by the newspapers and television and spread through the internet by social networks.

The case was called the Gürtel case; the operation was codenamed in German after the surname of the suspected ring leader, Francisco Correa Sanchez ('Correa' means 'belt' - 'gürtel' in German). The case came to light after a councillor of Town Hall in Majadahonda, and technician in Boadilla del Monte (both municipalities of Madrid), discovered the extent of the corrupt practises taking place and denounced them in a report called 'The Price of Honesty'. They received threats from their superiors and ex-colleagues and for their own safety they were forced to move to South America until it was safe to come back to Spain.

Police investigations led to the case being held at the National Court of Spain and presided over by Spain's most famous and respected judge, Baltasar Garzón.

(N.B. The courts of Justice in Spain are sometimes known as Tribunals and are divided in levels of importance as follows:

The Supreme Court, the National Court, the Superior Courts of Justice having jurisdiction over the autonomous communities, and the Provinicial Courts having jurisdiction over one province.

When a woman is married she does not adopt the surname her husband, which why husbands and wives referred in the the texts do not share the same surname.

The Congress is also known as the House of Paliament in the text which follows).

Francisco Correa Sanchez

The ring leader of the web of corruption

In 2009 Police investigations were initiated following allegations of corruption implicating members of the newly elected PP Party, the right- wing Popular Party (Peoples Party as it sometimes mistakenly known) in Spain.

Subsequent revelations resulting from the Gúrtel investigation showed that the Party ex-treasurer, still in the pay of the PP Party, had accumulated 48 million euros hidden in Swiss bank accounts; the source of this money could not be accounted for.

Irregularities giving cause for suspicions of large scale corruption among members of the PP party in Madrid, Valencia and the Costa del Sol, led to the investigation being ordered by the respected high profile judge, Judge Garzón, who is reknowned in legal circles for his international proceedings taken against Osama Bin Laden, Silvio Berlusconi and General Pinochet, the Chilean dictator.

Judge Baltaser Garzón

The exposed leader of this web of corruption Francisco Correa, whose companies managed the distribution of illegal backhanders to politicians including government ministers, was remanded in custody and the investigation has led to the forced resignation or dismissal of town mayors, councillors, political confidents, and other low level members of the PP Party. The corrupt upper echelons of the PP Party remain untouched, unrepentant and arrogant. During the investigations it was discovered that Bárcenas holds secret accounts in Switzerland to the tune of 48 million euros; the source of which cannot be accounted for although he claimed the money was made through art dealings amongst other business affairs; all disproven. It has also been shown that he has secret accounts in Panama amongst other countries.

He is now in provisional custody in the prison of Soto Real in Madrid. His antecedant, eighty-five year old Alvaro LaPuerta is also pending a hearing in court subject to the state of his health after a fall outside his home. His family believes that he was pushed down the steps of his home with the intention of preventing him from giving evidence in court that might be injurious to the government. A year later when he was fit and able to declare in court, his lawyer stated that, 'after the fall he's memory is damaged'.

Sequence of the Gürtel Case

On the 6th February 2009 the investigation opened with those involved being accused of money laundering, financial fraud, bribery and of selling political favours. The aforementioned Francisco Correa was detained on suspicion of being at the centre of this web of corruption. By the 10th of February the total of suspects implicated in the web rose to thirty-seven.

Now a new detainee was added to the list, the head of an organization called Special Events, Pablo Crespo, that arranged political events for the PP. He was the cousin of Correa and number two in the ring of curruption.

Details of the case were being published in the national press, principally in the newspaper El Pais. The PP complained to the Supreme Court that details of the case were being leaked to the media and that its image was being tarnished and tried to stop publication.

Pablo Crespo

On February 12th Judge Garzón sentenced three of the detainees to prison. He found them guilty of money laundering, fraud, bribery and selling political favours. These were Francisco Correa himself and his associates Pablo Crespo and Antoine Sánchez. The latter named was released.

On February 19th two national newspapers implicated the PP president of the Valencian Community, Francisco Camps. It appeared that he had received hand made suits to a value of 30,000 euros in exchange for favours.

Camps completely denied the accusation, stating as defence that he had 'served the interests of the public for 20 years'. The tailor responsible for making the suits confirmed in court that the suits gifted to politicians had been paid for in 500 euro notes by a company called Orange Market in Valencia which organized events for the PP Party. Camps is later involved in a further financial scandal on a larger scale.

The following day three more PP members in responsible positions were relieved of their posts because of their implication in the scandal.

On February 25th, the PP party, acting on the defensive, filed a complaint accusing Judge Garzón of perverting the course of justice and exceeding his authority. Hours later Garzón implicated the PP euro MP, Gerardo Galeote and Senator Luis Bárcenas in the web of corruption.

On March 6th the judge imputed a further six members of the PP. They included the aforemention Camps and the secretary general of the PP Party in Valencia, the Madrid ex-councellor for sports and two Mayors of PP held towns.

When Gárzon finalized his questioning, 34 of 37 suspects were released and only Francisco Correa and his associates Pablo Crespo and Antoine Sánchez were detained. Two more mayors in the shadow of the case were forced to resign their positions. These were the mayors of Arganda Del Rey and Pozuelo de Alarcón.

Further dismissals and resignations were to follow. These included the Director General of the Town Hall of Boadilla del Monte and the