Spain may have warded off the economic wolf with 192.000 million Chinese euros, but the victims of international crimes will be worse off than before after the revocation of universal justice
Matthew Bennett – Director de The Spain Report
Spanish laws on universal justice—the idea that a Spanish judge can investigate and judge serious crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world—had existed since 1985.
This February, Mariano Rajoy's government used an express legislative procedure to amend the Organic Law of the Judiciary and repeal universal justice in Spain, and made use of its absolute majority to nullify the protests of all opposition parties, and without time to debate the matter in depth.
In addition to the investigation of the genocide in Tibet, There were open universal justice cases investigating the death in Iraq of the Spanish cameraman José Couso, the genocide in Guatemala, the genocide in the Sahara and the CIA surrender flights, but the revocation of the law by the government has already forced Spanish judges to make decisions and act.
Judge Pedraz, investigating the death of Mr.. Stuff, At the moment he has announced that he will not file his case, argumentando que España está 'obligada' to continue investigating. on tuesday, Judge Andreu in the Central Court of Instruction Nº 4 of the National Court freed eight Egyptian drug traffickers, detained on a ship that was carrying 10 tons of hashish, arguing that the new legislation no longer allows the Spanish justice system to act. and on friday, Judge Gómez Bermudez released eight others, this time Syrians detained with others 12 tons of hashish, argumentando que un juez debe aplicar la ley aunque le resulte 'frustrante'.
Thursday night, and, in the Debate of the 1, in which this week he was the special guest, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García Margallo, offered those Spaniards still awake a fleeting explanation of what happened.
«What we have said is, Listen, ¿Ud. knows that China has the 20% of the Spanish public debt and that just one click of a mouse on a computer in China would be enough for this country to find itself with a risk premium like the one we had years ago and therefore we would increase the employment queues? ¿It makes sense to do that to get nothing.? Because you weren't going to be able to get anything.»
The Spanish public debt reached 94% of the GDP, or something more €960.000 millions, in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to data published in March by the Bank of Spain, so he 20% of national obligations held by China—if we believe the minister—would be around €192.000 millions.
The challenges of the 21st century are forcing Spaniards to redefine their identity and values in a new world. Thanks to the economic hole in which the country finds itself, a chinese problem €192.000 million has caused the Government to repeal a law that affects many cases and many victims in many countries.
Spain has chosen Chinese money instead of universal justice. for a while, Spain will have a little more wealth, but the victims of serious international injustices will be in a much more precarious situation.
Original article published in The Spain Report: 21st–Century Value Conflicts For Spain
