Bitácora Herren

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of Spain, has dissolved the Spanish Parliament and called elections for March 9th. Zapatero with the PSOE party, and Mariano Rajoy with the PP (Partido Popular–a descendent of Franco’s fascist party) are expected to be locked into a close race for the presidency. The International Herald Tribune has the story here

The PP and PSOE have been at odds throughout the government of Zapatero, who came to power in the elections shortly after the March 11th attacks on commuter trains in Madrid. The PP had been in control at the time of the attacks, and they proposed suspending elections, and still claim that the bombings were not the work of Al Qaeda, but rather a collaboration with ETA, the Basque separtist group. King Juan Carlos stepped in and assured the Spanish people that elections would not be affected by terrorists of any kind. The PSOE won an overwhelming majority in the election, based largely on its promise to withdraw all Spanish troops from Iraq if elected.

The PSOE has worked consistently to improve the rights of women, immigrants, the gay community and to continue to modernize Spain. The PP, closely allied with the Catholic Church, continues to push for reactionary measures, a retreat on social reforms, and increased control for the Church in public affairs (it is notable that the Church in Spain has the authority to fire public school teachers if they don’t align their private lives closely enough with Church doctrine. Last spring, in a closely followed case, the Supreme Court upheld the firing of a teacher who lived with a man with whom she was not married).

An unprecedented exchange between the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I de Borb??n, took place during the closing ceremonies of the 17th Iberoamerican Summit (XVII Cumbre Iberoamericana). As the current president of Spain, Rodr??guez Zapatero, was responding to some earlier charges on the part of Chavez, Chavez continually interrupted. Visibly annoyed, the King leaned forward, pointing to Chavez, and said “¿Por qué no te callas?” (Why don’t you shut up?)

Earlier in the summit, Chavez, known for his strident statements, had called the previous president of Spain, José María Aznar, a “true fascist”. To be fair, Aznar’s far right “Partido Popular” (el PP) is in fact a direct descendent of Franco’s regime, but couldn’t honestly be called a Fascist party nor compared in any way to Hitler.

The current president of Spain, Zapatero, from the Partido Socialista de Obreros de España (el PSOE) is the traditional rival of the PP, but Zapatero spoke very eloquently that even if one had strong philosophical and political differences with someone, as Zapatero does have with Aznar, reducing the dialog to personal attacks in inappropriate.

According to El Pa??s, a recent study by the University of Hertferdshire claims that residents of Madrid are among the world’s fastest walkers, taking on average only 10.9 seconds to walk 60 feet. Only Singapore and Copenhagen have faster walkers.

Counter-intuitively, the study showed that the otherwise healthy aspects of walking is accompanied by an increase in coronary disease–and that fast walkers are much less likely to help others.

Pinochet, the military dictator who ruled Chile with a bloody and iron fist from 1973 to 1990, and who then had himself named Senator for Life, has died. Implicated in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians during his bloody regime, Pinochet died at 2:15 pm today (Chilean time) from complications after a heart attack.

Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende with the illegal assistance and backing of the US Central Intelligence Agency under orders of Richard Nixon.

For more information about the overthrow of the Allende government, and the oppressive regime which followed, see the Spanish 3 site.

The leading Spanish Daily newspaper, El País turns 30 years old today. Established shortly after the end of the Franco dictatorship, El País was one of the very early papers in Spain able to exercise editorial freedom from the government without fear of reprisal or shutdown.

Here, a regular poltical cartoonist from El País, Máximo, pays homage: