Ex mayor sentenced to prison

Four year prison sentence for the ex Mayor of Andratx

The Regional Court in Palma de Mallorca has condemned the former mayor of Andratx, Eugenio Hidalgo, to four years in prison for the construction of an illegal chalet on part of his estate which was considered to be protected land.

The ex-director of territorial control, Jaume Massot, has also been condemned to three years in prison and the ex-legal advisor,Ignacio Mir, to one year in prison.

TV Productions company seeking British Expats in Spain

H&G productions is developing a TV series which celebrates Spanish food and the Spanish way of life. We are looking for British expat families who have either recently moved out or have been out in Spain for years and who are keen to be taken on an inspirational journey into the Spanish culinary landscape.

We are in the early stages of development so we are not asking for commitment to film from anybody on any level, just a quick chat about how ex pat families are finding their feet in Spain, especially with regards to food/diet.

Please feel free to me e-mail jd@hammaglamma.com or call my office number 0207 199 0028. I can call you straight back to save on your phone bill.

Kindest regards, Jonathan Davies, Development Producer.

ETA leader arrested in France

Spain expected to issue extradition order today.

According to the Spanish news channel, Cadenaser, the most wanted member of ETA, Francisco Javier López Peña, known by the name of 'Thierry' was detained in Bordeaux by the Spanish Civil Guard yesterday. Three other suspected members of the Basque terrorist organization were also arrested.

The arrests were the result of a joint operation between the French police and the Spanish Civil Guard. Peña had been on the run from police since 1983 and since 1993 he was considered to be one of the leading members of ETA.

This significant blow to the Basque terrorist organization comes after the explosion of a bomb containing 60 kilos of explosives in Getxo, Bilbao yesterday.

'Thierry' was responsible for ETA hideouts and the ETA member, Garikoitz Aspiazu, was under his command. He participated in two key meetings between the Spanish government and the terrorist group and it is believed that he was responsible for putting an end to the most recent ETA ceasefire.

The other three members of ETA arrested yesterday were Ainhoa Zaeta Mendiondo, who read out the communication ending the ceasefire on 22nd March 2006, Igor Suberbiola and Jon Salaberría, the ex Batasuna member of parliament for Andoain in Guipuzcoa who had been on the run from police since 2005 after not turning up to court accused of being a member of ETA.

So far this year 75 people have been arrested on suspicion of either being a member of ETA or having connections with it.

Those arrested in yesterday’s operation were armed with handguns and were driving cars with false number plates. The Spanish high court has requested that they be placed in Spanish custody immediately.

Spanish government looks beyond Bush to improve relations with US

Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs rules out US visit while Bush still in power

Following a meeting with the US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, in Washington Houston, Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs has ruled out any meeting between Zapatero and George Bush at the White House.

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs emphasised that the Spanish government was now looking at building a new relationship with the next US president following the general elections due to be held in November this year.

Moratinos met with officials running the leadership campaigns for all the White House hopefuls - John McCain, Barack Obama all Hillary Clinton and confirmed that all of them want to have better relations with Spain.

During the meeting with Rice, Moratinos underlined the will of the Spanish government to work very closely with the US in areas of mutual interest such as the Middle East and Latin America. Moratinos said that Rice had expressed her hope over the possibility of a peace agreement being reached between Israel and Palestine. Moratinos underlined that he had seen goodwill on both sides to reach an agreement before the end of 2008 following his recent trip to Israel and Egypt.

Moratinos and Rice also talked about the situation in Lebanon where Spain has deployed 1,100 soldiers along with other NATO peacekeeping forces. The expansion of NATO to include Georgia and the Ukraine was also a topic of conversation.
The two also spoke about Cuba, an area of contention between both contries. While the Spanish government favours dialogue with Cuba the US refuses to establish any diplomatic relations with the Cuban government until democratic elections are held.

The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister told Rice that Spain wants to build a new relationship with the US and said that Madrid was an ally, partner and friend of the US.

Hacker suspects arrested in Spain

This weekend Spanish police arrested five people suspected of hacking into or completely disabling thousands of Internet pages including some run by government agencies in the U.S., Latin America and Asia. According to the Spanish authorities two of the suspects are just 16 years old. The five were arrested this week in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.

Spain's National Police said the suspects belonged to the D.O.M Team, one of the most active hacker groups on the Internet. One of the group's techniques was to infiltrate Web sites and insert a page of its own, police said.

The group attacked some 21,000 Web pages over the last two years, police said in a statement which did not identify which government Web sites the suspects are accused of tampering with. In March El Mundo reported that D.O.M had infiltrated NASA's Web page aswell as the websites of the Venezuelan national telephone company and Spanish telephone operator Jazztel, but this was not confirmed by Spanish police this weekend.

The Spanish investigation began in March after the Web page of a Spanish political party, Izquierda Unida, was disabled shortly after Spain's general election March 9.
The five suspects did not know one another personally.

British criminals in Costa del Sol

Spanish authorities help in the detention of eight British criminals on the run in the Costa del Sol

According to information provided by the British Agency for Serious Organized Crime (SOCA) and published in El Mundo today, collaboration between UK and Spanish police has led to the detention of 8 British fugitives living in the Costa del Sol over the last 18 months.

In a press conference set up to present their annual report the Deputy International Director of SOCA, Rob Wainwright, highlighted the level of cooperation that exists between the British and Spanish authorities which in his opinion is currently more productive than at any other time in the past.

In October 2006 SOCA, the London Metropolitan Police together with Spanish police started an initiative to search for and capture British criminals living in the Costa del Sol, an operation which has had ‘fantastic results’. According to Wainright ‘operation capture’ has led to the detention of convicted criminals who were often ‘living a life of luxury’ in the South of Spain.

Since the start of ‘Operation Capture’ Paul Bures, wanted for sexual offences, John Seton, accused of murder and James Hurley, convicted of murdering a policeman and who escaped police custody in 1994 are among some of the criminals who have been detained.

Wainright said that ‘Operation Capture’ illustrated how important cooperation between countries is in the search for wanted criminals in a globalized world. He also stressed the importance of European laws of arrest and in speeding up the process of detaining suspected criminals living in other EU member states.

ETA bomb kills one civil guard

Car bomb explodes outside Civil Guard living quarters in Legutiano in the Basque province of Alava

A Civil Guard was killed and another four were injured when the bomb went off at three 0'clock in the morning. Juan Manuel Piñuel Villalon is the sixth victim of Basque terrorism since ETA ended the ceasefire in December 2006. The injured victims have been taken to two hospitals in Vitoria and are in a stable condition according to the latest reports.

First reports suggest that the car parked just ten metres from the the civil guard family quarters contained more than 100 kilos of explosives. No prior warning was given and the force of the explosion took everyone by surprise.

Forty people were inside the quarters at the time of the explosion which destroyed the façade of the building. No damage was done to any nearby buildings.

Legutiano is a village with just 1,418 inhabitants located 15km north of Vitoria, capital city of the province of Alava. The Red Cross has sent a team of psychologists to treat the people who were inside the quarters when the bomb exploded.

Zaragoza International Expo to examine Climate Change

See, touch and feel climate change in the 2008 Zaragoza International Expo

The first large scale exhibition on climate change in the world will give visitors the chance to see, touch, feel and even smell the effects of climate change. The interactive exhibition which forms part of the 2008 Zaragoza Expo opens its doors to the public on 14th June.

According to Jorge Wagensberg, the exhibition’s commissioner, its main purpose is to get people to understand the issue better in order to achieve change. The exhibition deals with global warming and provides the public with detailed information on this subject.

It has been designed and financed by La Caixa Foundation and visitors will be able to touch an enormous block of ice which will be melting as if it were in the artic. The public will also be able to feel the differences in temperature between the South Pole and Spain on an ‘ad hoc’ globe representing the earth.

The history of the climate dating back millions of years will also be included in the exhibition which looks at distinct geological and climatic periods which led to the expansion of living creatures in shells due to the high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The disappearance of dinosaurs or the absence of hair on elephants compared to mammoths which had hair in the last glacial period also forms part of this wide ranging exhibition. There is a 4 metre long model of the Ebro delta in 50 years time which clearly shows rising sea levels. Zaragoza, Moscow Scotland and Venice are used to represent the four points on the globe which will be affected by the lack or excess of water, a central theme in the 2008 Zaragoza expo.

The exhibition shows how energy is wasted thoughtlessly by leaving electrical appliances on stand by and even though the energy used is small it is a continuous waste of resources. Another example included is the amount of lights used to light up the streets after dark.

There is an excellent interactive screen which includes 50 examples of evidence of climate change which is real and is happening around us all the time. There are so many examples in the exhibition that there is no room for scepticism on this subject any longer.

See: Guide to Zaragoza

Spanish fruit and vegetable sector.

Fruit and Vegetable exports stagnate while imported produce grow by 20%

According to recent figures fruit and vegetable imports in Spain have grown by more than 20% while exports of Spanish produce have hardly risen at all. In fact, this year so far and 2007 have seen a drop in exports, a situation which threatens the future of this sector if new markets are not found. In addition, Spanish fruit and vegetable producers could face further set backs if new, stricter EU laws on the use of pesticides are introduced .

The production of fruit and vegetables is one of the pillars of the Spanish agricultural sector estimated to be worth around 15,000 million euros. It also accounts for 37% of agricultural produce and generates around 400,000 jobs a year. Exports generated 7,700 million euros last year alone.

For many years the production of fruit and vegetables was considered to be the jewel in the crown in the Spanish agricultural sector due to its capacity for competitive exports, the profits generated and the quality of produce. However, according to the Director of the Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters (Fepex) all this could be lost if measures are not taken to improve competitiveness .

For Fepex, Spanish producers have lost their capacity to compete against producers from northern EU states which grow produce in greenhouses and are subsidised for using clean energy and which have the advantage of being located near their main export markets. Spanish producers have also lost their competitive edge against cheaper imports from other countries.

According to statistics for 2007, 9.58 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables were exported, a drop of 1.15% compared to 2006. However, they sold for 7,687 million euros which is 4% more than the previous year.

On the other hand, during the same period imports grew to 2.56 million tonnes estimated to be worth 1.486 million euros, which is a growth of almost 24%.
EU member states account for 93.48% of the Spanish fruit and vegetable export market with the UK, France and Germany as the main buyers together with the emerging Polish market. However, these countries also receive cheaper exports from other countries and from northern European producers such as Holland.

Unemployment rising in Spain

Unemployment continues its upward trend in April for the first time since 1996

Official unemployment figures went up by 37,542 in April, a month which is usually good for employment statistics. This is the first time since 1996 that unemployment has risen with respect to March. According to the Ministry of Work and Immigration there are now 2,338,517 registered unemployed workers in Spain.

In fact unemployment has risen by 315,393 (15.59%) over the last twelve months. Last year unemployment dropped by 36,327 in April which is almost the same number that it has risen this year.

Following favourable figures for March when the number of registered unemployed dropped by 14,356 following five consecutive months of rises, unemployment rose in April mainly due to unemployment in the construction sector with a rise of 16.647 more people in this sector without a job (5.2%) and in the service industry with 17,455 more unemployed (1.2%).

The highest rise in unemployed has been among men with 28,230 more unemployed (2.9%), while in comparison unemployment among the female working population only rose by 9,312 (0.7%). At the end of April the total number of unemployed men was 996,715 and the total number of unemployed woman was 1,341,802. Compared to figures for April 2007 male unemployment is up by 30% and female unemployment by 6.7%.
Unemployment among the under 25 year olds has risen by 6,852 which is 2.5% more compared to March. For the over 25 year olds unemployment has risen by 30,690 (1.5%).

Unemployment went down in 5 regions in April: Baleares had 3,951 less registered unemployed, the Basque Country had 833 less and Navarra 618 less. On the other hand, unemployment went up in 12 regions headed by Andalucía with 8,928 more, and Catalonia with 7,747 more registered unemployed.

In contrast, the number of contracts for new jobs went up by 5.3% compared to April 2007 with a total of 1,459,666 new contracted jobs which means that it was the best month on record for this statistic. Permanent contracts accounted for 12.97% of the total which is an annual increase of 12.05%.

Waiting lists for operations in Spain

Carmen and Miguel are just two of the 287,950 people who, according to figures recorded last year, have been waiting for an operation in Spain for seven and eleven months respectively. However, according to figures provided by regional health authorities the national average is just 66.55 days, just over two months, for operations on the national health.

El Pais runs a report today in which it claims to have discovered that the regions with the longest waiting lists for operations are: Cantabria (152.16 days), Catalonia (117.95), Galicia (84), Aragón (77) and Extremadura (67). These five regions all have waiting lists above the national average. The regions with the shortest waiting lists are Melilla (31.73 days), La Rioja (40) and la Comunidad Valenciana (45).

Madrid and the Canary Islands are not included in the figures. Madrid doesn’t record the number of days a patient has to wait for an operation until he or she sees the anaesthetist, a practice which takes about 30 days off the waiting time, which is why the government has excluded it from official statistics. While the Canary Islands refuses to publish figures on its waiting lists, although information provided in June 2006 placed it near the bottom of the list.

It appears that the government is partly responsible for the lack of transparency on waiting lists at a national level. The Ministry of Health has refused to publish waiting lists for each region although it receives information on the number of patients waiting for an operation every quarter. Furthermore, the information it receives is broken down into specialities and includes numbers for the 11 most commonly performed operations. The government has tried to cover up its silence by citing the agreement it has with the Inter-territorial Council. Nevertheless, it has been accused of hiding behind this pact in order to excuse the lack of information regarding waiting times.

The Health Ministry only publishes the total number of patients waiting for an operation in the whole of Spain and according it the latest official figures published in June 2007 there were 364,901 patients who had been waiting an average of 70 days for an operation.

Recently there has been concern over the number of regions which appear to have attempted to cover up their figures. In fact the public prosecutor is at present investigating the University Hospital Virgen de las Nieves in Granada for suspected manipulation of its figures on waiting lists.

There is currently no official organization responsible for overseeing these figures. At present the government just collates them and takes the information as correct and accurate. However, as El Pais suggests, it appears that an overhaul of this system is long overdue.

Healthcare in Spain # My heart operation in Spain # Pregnancy in Spain #
English-speaking doctors in Spain

Stricter penal measures for driving without a licence in Spain

Drivers without a licence or without any points left could be sent to prison

Wednesday this week was the last day of the moratorium conceded by the government following the reform of traffic laws last December. The new penal code made driving without a licence an offence punishable by a prison sentence of between 3 to 6 months. Other sanctions for the same offence include having your licence taken away for between 1 and 2 years or being ordered to do community service of between 31 and 90 days duration.

However, following a move by the senate, the government conceded a moratorium until 1st May 2008. The same penalties are applicable to those drivers who have had their licence taken away through a judicial decision or those that have lost all 12 points from their driving licence.

According to the Department of Traffic (DGT), more than 25,000 drivers were punished for driving without a valid licence in 2007 and it is calculated that around 30,000 people drive on Spanish roads everyday without a being licenced to drive. DGT has sent letters to the 25,000 people who were sanctioned for driving without a licence informing them the new driving laws due to come into effect tomorrow.

This campaign is aimed at informing drivers of the new laws due to come into effect tomorrow, because it thought that most cases are down to people who are normally licensed to drive but who are doing so under irregular conditions.

DGT also points out that anyone involved in an accident and who is found to be without a valid licence has repercussions for all those involved as insurance companies refuse to pay out if the accident involves a person driving without a licence regardless or not of whether the car is covered by an up to date insurance policy or not.

The penal code amended last December also allows for prison sentences for the following driving offences: breaking the 60 km/h speed limit in residential areas, going over 80 km/h on main roads, being above 0.60 milligrams of alcohol per litre of air and 1.2 grams per litre of blood or refusing to be tested for alcohol levels and for those who drive without a valid licence.

The new laws come into effect on the eve of a 4 day bank holiday in Spain when it is expected that the volume of traffic on Spanish roads will increase significantly.

See: Driving in Spain