MADRID: Spain’s conservative government has dealt a serious blow to Catalonia’s plans to hold an independence referendum but it faces growing indignation in the region, which is closing ranks on Madrid.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said that after enforcing the law by blocking the referendum he is ready for dialogue with Catalonia, but his margin of maneuver is slim since party hard-liners and other Spanish regions are hostile to Catalan demands.
Following the arrest of 14 Catalan government officials and the seizure of nearly 10 million ballots, Catalonia’s vice president Oriol Junqueras acknowledged Thursday that the referendum slated for October 1 was compromised.
But the wealthy northeastern region of Spain, which is deeply divided on the question of secession, is more than ever united against Madrid. Thousands of people protested in Barcelona for the second day in a row against the referendum crackdown.
“Social indignation has spilled beyond the independence movement and spread to unions, university rectors, professional associations and emblematic institutions like FC Barcelona,” wrote Catalan daily El Periodico de Catalunya, which is opposed to independence, in an editorial.
Rival Catalan daily La Vanguardia agreed, writing that “many citizens without any ties to the sovereignty movement are deeply disgusted.”
“The logistics of the October 1 referendum are practically dismantled but the discontent of citizens is enormous,” it added.
The situation would be different if the measures taken to block the referendum had been “accompanied by a sincere proposal for political dialogue,” added La Vanguardia, which also opposes independence.
But since Rajoy came to power in December 2011 there has been no dialogue with Catalonia.
With an absolute majority in parliament he did not have to make concessions, unlike his predecessors, to Catalan lawmakers to get their votes.
He concentrated instead on measures to get Spain out of a deep economic crisis and was not willing to discuss Catalonia’s demands for greater fiscal autonomy.
Rajoy now says he is willing to discuss everything including a reform of how Spain’s regions are financed. But he has to take into account the position of the hard-liners in his Popular Party.
“I think there is a faction of the PP which would be willing to accept some reform but the hard-line faction is not willing to give an inch,” said Oriol Bartomeus, a political scientist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Rajoy and his party were mistaken about the nature of the independence movement, which has surged since Spain’s Constitutional Court in 2010 struck down part of a 2016 autonomy statute in response to an appeal by the PP, he added.
The autonomy statute, which granted more powers to Catalonia and recognized it as a nation, had been approved by the Spanish parliament.
The PP always compared the rise in separatism to a soufflé that could collapse, said Bartomeus.
“They believed that (the independence movement) was organized by a nationalist elite to remain in power but in fact 80 percent of the Catalan population felt ‘I can’t take it anymore’,” he said.
Catalans want a new constitution to replace the one adopted in 1978 following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco and a statute like the one in place in the northern Basque Country which collects its own taxes and contributes little to Spain’s central coffers, Bartomeus said.
Juan Montades, a political scientist at the University of Granada, said that if the rules are changed, Andalusia, Spain’s most populous region which benefits from the redistribution of wealth from Catalonia, has warned that it would “be in the front line to defend its interests.”
Spain’s two main parties, the conservative PP and the Socialist Party (PSOE), “have always been acutely conscious of the fact that if they give a better deal to Catalonia they are going to lose voters in other parts of Spain,” said Caroline Gray, an expert on Spanish independence movements at Britain’s Aston University.
But “they can’t solve the Catalan crisis by playing to voters in other parts of Spain,” she added.
Catalonia closes ranks against Spain in referendum row
Catalonia closes ranks against Spain in referendum row
Rubio meets Caribbean leaders as US raises pressure on Cuba
Basseterre: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will seek to address Caribbean leaders' concerns about Cuba at a summit on Wednesday, as Washington ramps up pressure on the communist island fresh after removing Venezuela's president.
Rubio, a Cuban-American who has spent his political career hoping to topple Havana's government, is also looking for sustained cooperation on Venezuela and troubled Haiti as he takes part in the summit of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, which does not include Cuba.
After attending President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to Congress, Rubio flew overnight to join the summit in Saint Kitts and Nevis, a sun-kissed former British colony of fewer than 50,000 people.
Rubio became the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the tiny country, the birthplace of one of the United States' founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton.
Trump has reoriented foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere through his "Donroe Doctrine" in which he has vowed unrepentant intervention to advance US interests.
After US forces snatched Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro in a January 3 raid, the Latin American country has been forced to cut off its crucial oil shipments to Cuba.
This has plunged Cuba into a further economic morass with fuel shortages and rolling blackouts.
Speaking at the opening of the CARICOM summit on Tuesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that a further deterioration in Cuba will impact stability across the Caribbean and trigger migration -- the top political concern for Trump.
"Humanitarian suffering serves no one," Holness said. "A prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba."
Plea for 'stability'
Holness said that Jamaica believed in democracy and free markets -- a rebuke to the communist system in Havana -- but called for "humanitarian relief" for Cubans.
"Jamaica supports constructive dialogue between Cuba and the United States aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability," he said.
"We believe there is space, perhaps more space now than in years past, for pragmatic engagement."
The summit's host, Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, also called for humanitarian backing to Cuba, saying: "A destabilized Cuba will destabilize all of us."
A medical doctor, Drew studied for seven years in Cuba and said friends there have told him of food scarcity, power outages and garbage strewn in the streets.
"I can only feel the pain of those who treated me so well when I was a student," he said.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba almost continuously since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
Since becoming the top US diplomat, Rubio has publicly toned down calls for regime change, and Washington has quietly held discussions with Havana.
Trump and Rubio have threatened sanctions against countries that sell oil to Cuba but stopped short of enacting some measures pushed by Cuban-American hardline critics of Havana, such as prohibiting the transfer of remittances.
'Elephant in the room'
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said she empathized with the Cuban people but took issue with her Jamaican counterpart's remarks.
"We cannot advocate for others to live under communism and dictatorship," she said.
She also criticized CARICOM countries for their reticence, at least publicly, to back what she called the "elephant in the room" -- US intervention in Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago, whose coast is visible from Venezuela, gave access to the US military in the run-up to the operation that removed Maduro.
The deposed Venezuelan leader faces US charges of narco-trafficking, which he denies.
Persad-Bissessar thanked Trump, Rubio "and the US military... for standing firm against narco-trafficking, human and arms smuggling."
The Trump administration has been carrying out deadly strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, drawing criticism by those who say the attacks are legally and ethically dubious.
The Trinidadian prime minister praised the US approach and credited it with bringing down her country's homicide rate by helping cut the flow of firearms from Venezuela.
