ESCAPE TO GIBRALTAR & JIMENA MEMORIES

February 23 1981 marked a significant day in Spanish history. It was the day the fledgling democracy of Spain was almost brought to its knees by the attempted coup in which the Guardia Civil Lieutenant Coronel Antonio Tejero marched in to the Spanish parliament, confronted the MPs and fired shots in the chamber.

It seems like a historical event now but was just 30 years ago. What took place is all the more significant now given the events taking place in the Arab world as nation after nation attempts to break the shackles of dictatorship (albeit in some cases by a sovereign and his extended family) and embrace democracy.

In the event apart from the events in Madrid with support from Valencia the coup fell flat on its face with a significant role in its downfall being played by King Juan Carlos I. However it is clear from statements made on the anniversary that those on the left and the unions feared for their very lives.

One of those, Antonio Herrera, now in charge of the health section of the CC.OO union told how shortly after Tejero had stormed Congress and the coup was underway he left one of Málaga’s hospitals. He saw youths wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the Spanish flag. He went with union colleagues to the Nadiuska restaurant in Gibralfaro and then to the Cádiz road. It was there that the Communist MP, Paco Vázquez, offered to take him to Gibraltar. He declined and says that later friends in the police told him at the time they knew exactly where to find each and every one of them. However what seems certain is that if the coup had succeeded many on the left and in the unions would have sought refuge in Gibraltar.

Final word goes to José Carracao who is now a senator in Spain’s upper house with special responsibility for Gibraltar and cross border relations. So what are his memories of February 23 1981? He told me: “I was the mayor of Jimena de la Frontera. That afternoon I had called a routine council meeting. A friend informed me of the news. I listened to the radio. That confirmed it. I was worried for the MPs detained. You cannot hide something of such major concern and who knew how things would develop in Jimena. Once the King spoke on TV at 01.30 on February 24 I knew the coup would not succeed. It would have been highly regrettable if our country, Latin and bloodied, had returned to the old ways. The behaviour of the people in the defence of democracy was exemplary.”

Footnote: Antonio Tejero is still alive. He was sentenced to 30 years in jail but in 1993 was given open regime status. He lives in Madrid but has a holiday apartment on the Costa del Sol in Torre Del Mar. He has refused to speak of the events of February 23 1981.



THEY SEEK HIM HERE...And no I’m not Karina Pau’s father

Great excitement in Jimena de la Frontera on Thursday morning. Just 30 minutes before this photograph of the popular Cuenca bar was taken the former mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz, was sitting outside sipping coffee. Within minutes a TV crew from Antena Tres had descended on Jimena trying to catch a sighting of Muñoz with his girlfriend Karina Pau who lives in the municipality and interview them.

Suddenly Muñoz disappeared, where to only he and Karina knows. Karina’s parents are Gibraltarian and recently Muñoz applied to the court to be allowed to visit them on the Rock on a monthly basis. Not surprisingly as Muñoz is currently in the dock in Málaga in the Malaya corruption trial – the largest of its kind in Spanish history - the judge refused to let him leave Spain.

Muñoz is alleged to have received 162,000 euros from the Malaya mastermind, Juan Antonio Roca, who was Marbella’s director of town planning. However the former mayor is also standing trial on a case linked to Malaya. It involves the famous singer Isabel Pantoja, who was his one time lover plus his former wife Mayte Zaldívar.

The case revolves around the time Muñoz was mayor of Marbella and the anti-corruption prosecutor accuses him of having siphoned off over 3.5 million euros of municipal funds for his own use. First he used his then wife, Mayte Zaldívar, to help launder this cash and once she was dumped the task fell to his then lover, Isabel Pantoja. It is alleged that Pantoja utilised the money to acquire an apartment in the Guadalpín Hotel and her house in Marbella, Mi Gitana.

If found guilty Isabel Pantoja faces three and a half years in jail plus a fine of 3.68 million euros. Julián Muñoz could be sent away for seven and a half years and have to hand over 7.6 million euros. His ex-wife Mayte Zaldívar would be handed a three and a half year prison term and a fine of 2.6 million euros. They each have to pay this money in to court ahead of the trial.

Given the large number of court convictions that are staking up against him it is no surprise that Muñoz is taking time out to enjoy a coffee in convivial surrounds whilst he can. There was one surprise yesterday. As I took a photograph of the Antena Tres cameraman I realised he was filming me. I later heard from my fellow journalist in Jimena, Alberto Bullrich, that they had rushed up to him demanding to know – “was I Karina Pau’s father?” Well you know that I am not, but hush, and let me enjoy my 5 minutes of Spanish TV notoriety.

JIMENA: WHERE THE MUSHROOM WAS KING

Jimena is not a wealthy village. In the street on which I live there are a number of families who have no work. Others earn their livelihood working the land in Los Alcornocales national park that surrounds us. Hard graft!

Traditionally the people of the village and countryside have lived off what the soil provides – and many still do. In recent years there has been a steady market created for the mushrooms and fungi that can be harvested in the woodlands.

A number of years ago Jimena, to much fanfare, opened its own ‘lonja micológica’ where the collectors could bring their harvest and sell it directly to wholesalers at the going rate. This was the first market of its kind in Andalucía and other villages have sent people to Jimena to see how it operated so they could duplicate this mushroom market at home.

Well there would be no point in their coming now. Fran Gómez, the coordinator for Izquierda Unida in Jimena, tells me that the doors of the lonja are firmly shut.

In January the town hall announced that it was closing the marketing because work would shortly start next door on the construction of the new local police station. This would mean the electricity would be cut and access would be restricted.

However three months on the work hasn’t started and the market has remained closed. This has coincided with a period of good mushroom harvests brought on by the rains. As the mushroom collectors can’t sell through the market they are left dependent on selling at lower prices to buyers who then capitalize on the abundant harvest themselves.

At this time of economic crisis, when many families are living below the breadline, the mushroom collectors should be helped and not hindered in putting food on their tables. This is a tale of a small village in Andalucía but tragically it is mirrored throughout Spain where the poor are not helped yet miraculously the rich get richer. Wasn’t it ever so?

JIMENA’S WATER BATTLES

It is often said that the future wars will be over water – you might say “and fuel” – but of course we’re fighting over that now. There are no wars in Jimena de la Frontera but there are currently two battles over water which perhaps are a sign of the wider things to come.

The Andalucía regional government and its water agency seem intent on proceeding with the project to build a reservoir on the Gibralmedina to meet the water needs of the western Costa del Sol.

The Gibralmedina stream flows through the zone known as the “arroyo de las gallinas” in Jimena. The rural lane and stream meets the Guadiaro river in Jimena although half the valley zone is in Gaucín.

In January on this blog I broke the news that the water agency was undertaking drillings in the valley. At the time the local residents spoken to voiced their strong opposition to the area being turned in to a giant reservoir as many people would loose both their lands and homes. Indeed many refused to allow the surveyors and drilling equipment on to their land.

Curiously the initial report from the regional government says the residents fully support the project. However local resident Dominic Bolus said: “They have not yet contacted anybody. The whole valley will be up in arms against it and we will fight it.”

The people who do support it is the association speaking for agriculture sector in nearby San Pablo de Buceite who say they’ve been demanding such a reservoir of years. There is no indication they’ll be able to irrigate their land with water destined for the Costa del Sol - and few if any of the association’s members live in the valley.

The reservoir would have a capacity of at least 100 cubic hectometres. This is said to be sufficient water to meet the needs of the western Costa del Sol and the Campo de Gibraltar.

Agaden spokesperson, Quico Rebolledo, has condemned the project as “an authentic barbarity” and it is known that a protest campaign is to be started. The Izquierda Unida co-ordinator general in Jimena, Francisco Gómez, said his party was in contact with Agaden and would back its efforts. He added that talks were being held with the Andalucía IU MP for Cádiz, Ignacio García, to discover just what the regional government is intending.

The IU’s MP for Málaga and the co-ordinator of the party in the province, José Antonio Castro, accused the water agency and regional government of following an “incoherent” policy. He stated that in the Ley de Agua de Andalucía the policy is not to build giant dams of this type. In last week’s parliamentary debate on the law he expressed his party’s opposition to the Gibralmedina project saying the dam would break the natural cycle of the river in a natural zone where it is so important.

To the other side of Jimena and running past the village itself is the Hozgarganta river. The ecologist group Agaden has made an official complaint to the Cádiz environmental prosecutor over the indiscriminate removal of land with vegetation that has been taking place there in recent weeks.

Izquierda Unida in Jimena says the works at Treveris were permitted but the company involved had exceeded the depth permitted by its licence and this has led to the collapse of a natural wall with the threat of flooding when the rains come. They also confirm that the environmental arm of the Guardia Civil – Seprona - and the forest guard have ordered a halt on frequent occasions.

The IU added that there could exist possible administrative irregularities as the company has taken the earth from the river to an earth storage area in Marchenilla where it will be used for commercial gain without any permissions being granted.

The co-ordinator general of the IU in Jimena, Francisco Gómez, has called for the immediate resignation of any officials who have been involved in this operation. The IU says it is ironic that for some months the ministry of the environment has been staging its “Anda Ríos” conservation programme in Jimena promoting the value of the river, fauna and habitat at the same time the town hall has stood by and allowed the destruction of the Hozgarganta.

Jimena de la Frontera is an area of great natural beauty part of which sits in Los Alcornocales national park. The responsible management of the area’s water is vital to maintain the rich flora and fauna – and indeed for ‘us’ to survive.

Of course Jimena is one small zone in Andalucía but this scenario is being played out in municipalities and regions throughout Spain – and across the wider world. Today’s battles will become tomorrow’s wars.

Photos: top - possible site of dam on the Gibralmedina; below - Fran Gómez at earth removal site on Hozgarganta.

The arroyo las Gallinas lane and the Gibralmedina stream that runs through it is to the Manilva - Gaucín side of the Guadiaro river. It can be reached from the San Pablo to Gaucín road - its entry is on the left, beyond the Málaga boundary at a lane with a bus stop, several houses and the Venta Manolo. From Jimena you can cross the bridge at the bar at the junction of the Marchanilla - San Martín - San Pablo roads, then go left at the t-junction and the lane starts between the wood yard and El Dorado farm school. The Gibralmedina joins the Guadiaro about half a kilometre up stream from the bridge on the left. The stream is dry except in heavy rains but the waters now run below the surface hence the drillings to test its flow and the aquifers. During the drought of the 1990s the wells in the valley never ran dry. As far as I am aware there are no plans to dam the Guadiaro and the photo at the top of the page shows the most likely dam wall location.

PROSPERO & THE FLYING PIG

This morning I chewed the cud with my good friend Prospero.

Actually we chewed a mollete filled with jamón serano y tomate in the Bar Vecina – but same difference.

I have often said that Prospero is wiser than his years. As of today, his birthday, he is a year older and therefore the two are probably on a par.

Certainly Prospero is older than me – but he still has his own teeth. If they are not his teeth then his denture maker has a cruel sense of humour.

Prospero is the chronicler of all that happens of interest in Jimena de la Frontera – and on frequent occasions records events that are of no interest at all but, yes its one of my buts – he makes them sound fascinating. Journalism, cerveza cero cero and cafe con leche are in his blood.

There is a very curious thing about birthdays. I remember at my first job in London being bemused when it was a person’s birthday – and they had to buy the cakes!

Come my 21 st birthday, which was many years ago, I found myself paying for numerous rounds at the Coach & Horses in Soho before I was finally thrown out for squirting the soda siphon over one and all.

Now I always thought that this perverse ceremony of the birthday boy or girl having to pay was some weird English tradition.

Not so.

For this very morning Prospero insisted that he had to buy the birthday breakfast – in the Spanish tradition.

Sadly soda siphons are now museum pieces just like Prospero - and I guess me too.

But I have to tell you that at 10.40 this morning a pig flew over the Bar Vecina.

Read all about it in Jimena Pulse.

TEARS AND EMOTION AT LA SAUCEDA

Recuérdalo tú y recuérdalo a otros
Cuando asqueados de la bajeza humana,
cuando iracundos de la dureza humana:
Este hombre solo, este acto solo, esta fe sola.
Recuérdalo tú y recuérdalo a otros.
Luis Cernuda, 1936

Over the weekend Jimena de la Frontera hosted its first ‘Jornadas de Memoria Históricas’ dedicated to uncovering many of the facts surrounding the Spanish Civil War both in the village and wider province of Cádiz.

The presentations and round-table events were hosted at the Casa Verde of the environmental group Agaden. The conference itself was organised by the CGT, Partido Comunista, Izquierda Unida with the support of the Diputación de Cádiz and Jimena town hall.

Every session was packed with an audience ranging from a tall proud man, sadly now on walking sticks, who had fled the village on foot just days before Franco’s troops arrived to young people keen to learn the past and what had happened to the grand parents and great grand parents.

The weekend reached its climax on the Sunday with a visit to La Sauceda about 25 kilometres from Jimena, which is within the municipal boundaries of Cortes de la Frontera in Málaga province.

In November 1936 Lieutenant José Robles of the Instituto Armado led his troops from Ubrique to La Sauceda were they rendezvoused with other forces. La Sauceda was a small mountain top hamlet that for generations had been a refuge for bandits. Now apart from the local population it was a place of hiding for the many Republican and communist supporters that had fled the advance of Franco’s forces.

Several hundred people were sheltering there and the Nationalist force made up of the army, Falange, Guardia Civil and Militias crept up on La Sauceda through the woods. After an aerial attack in which many men were killed or fled the troops moved in and took the inhabitants prisoners.

The women and children were taken to the nearby cortijo of El Marrufo in lorries where they were held in the chapel. The men were taken on foot. Many of the women were raped before both they and the children were shot and dumped in a mass grave. The grave beneath one of the buildings is as of yet unexcavated but along with the men's graves nearer Puerto de Galis they are believed to be amongst the largest in the province with hundreds of victims.

So it was to this now ruined hamlet that the participants in the conference came. They gathered to lay flowers in the memory of all those who had perished at La Sauceda and locally in the Civil War. An emotive address was read out by José María Pedreño Gómez, the founder and president of the Federación Estatal de Foros por la Memoria, as an old woman, surrounded by her family, proudly held a photograph of her father who had died defending the Republic.

It is at these moments that the politics, the facts and the figures are stripped away. It is then you are faced with the raw emotion felt by those who suffered these deeds all these years ago. It was not statistics that perished but fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. It would take a stronger man (or woman) than me not to have been affected by their openly displayed grief and I have no shame in saying my tears mingled with theirs on this hallowed ground.

SLAUGHTER AT LA SAUCEDA

One of the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War is that no area of a city, a town, village or hamlet escaped its own act of terror and death.

The events of those times are rarely spoken of, especially to strangers, and equally it is not a topic you raise with Spaniards.

Over a decade ago I wrote a play on the last days of La Pasionaria – Dolores Ibarruri – one of the most famous figures of the Civil War. I lived at the time in a secluded valley where one of the houses had a small bar where locals would gather. In passing I happened to mention the play and was stunned that the news was greeted with shock and disbelief. I quickly changed the subject but suspected that the wide family of farmers that had lived there for generations had been supporters of Franco and the Nationalist cause. One of the younger residents of the valley did tell me later that in his village of San Pablo de Buceite there had lived a man named “the butcher” because of his deeds during the Civil War and he had only in recent years gone to wherever assassins go.

There is a lovely driver from Jimena de la Frontera to Ubrique via the Puerto de Galiz with its famous ‘venta’ bar-restaurant. En route you pass the hamlet of La Sauceda which is now a campsite and popular with walkers. Just pass Puerto de Galiz you come to a large house with a chapel – Marrufo. This was the scene of a bloody slaughter in 1936 which lives on in the local memory to this very day.

At La Sauceda, which had been inhabited from the 16 th century, was a community of communists and Republic supporters. They were attacked by a force made up of Franco’s Nationalist troops, Falange, the Guardia Civil and Militias. The captured women and children were then taken by lorry to Marrufo and the men followed on foot. Once there they were held captive in the chapel – many of the women were raped – then finally they were shot and dumped in communal graves.

There is an opportunity to learn more about those troubled times when Jimena hosts ‘I Jornadas de Memoria Histórica’ between March 27 and 29. It is being organised by the Izquierda Unida and Communist parties, the UGT union with the backing of the ecologist group Agaden, the province of Cádiz and Jimena town hall. Respected experts will discuss the tragic events of those years. In addition there will be a discussion on the slaughter at La Sauceda. For me, and I am sure many others, the most poignant moment will come on the Sunday with a visit to La Sauceda and a commemoration ceremony. I know many people would prefer that this period in Spain’s history was left to rest. However too much injustice exists to this day with many of the dead laying in unmarked graves beside roads and down gullies. Before we move on we must at least honour and understand the dreadful wrongs of the past – on both sides of the Nationalist & Republican divide.