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NEWS REVIEW
September 19, 1996

The debate on the Monarchy is dividing Izquierda Unida. The debate took place during last weekend's PCE Party, when Julio Anguita proposed as the parties major policy, the restoration of the republican state. This caused a new division in the IU. The group Nueva Izquierda, the radical wing of IU, issued a public statement yesterday in which the speech of Anguita was tainted as "politically incorrect" and as "an obstacle to the creation of a leftist alternative to the policies of the Government". Nueva Izquierda (NI) reaffirmed their commitment, concurring with IU, to the Constitution of 1978 and flatly denied that Spain had broken the constitutional consensus. Several leaders of the PP and PSOE strongly attacked Anguita, who is the General Co-ordinator of IU, for his statement on the Constitutional Pact and the Monarchy during his speech last Saturday. However, not all the political leaders were against Anguita. Several important public officers defended his right to express his opinion on this matter, and tried to diffuse the situation. Some of the political leaders who expressed similar opinions were, Jose Antonio Ardanza, lehendakari; Nicolas Redondo Terreros, General Secretary of the Socialist Party in Vizcaya; Alvaro Rodriguez Bereijo, President of the Constitution Tribunal (TC); Javier Delgado, President of the General Council of the Judicial Power (CGPJ) and Margarita Mariscal de Gante , Attorney General.

Felipe Gonzalez, Secretary General for the PSOE, during his speech at the parliament, emphasised the fact that during the first four months of PP Government, the problems for the Monarchy had risen, problems that were non-existent during the thirteen years of socialist government. In a private meeting with the socialist wing of the, he stated that "we ruled for thirteen and a half years, with the Monarchy, without any problems, achieved our programs and without any problems for the head of that Institution". The present administration characterised Gonzalez as "irresponsible" for using the public image of the King to attack Aznar. His statements provoked the immediate reaction from the government, whose officers warned that "Gonzalez has started to walk down a dangerous road, we have to warn him that we could all play by his same rules". The leader of PSOE has distanced himself from IU and has labelled Julio Anguita's behaviour as "irresponsible adventureism".

Reports from CESID (Centre of High Studies and Information on Defence) have confirmed the kidnapping of three homeless people to be used as guinea pigs. The plan was executed by staff of the Agency, and received the secret code "Aneto-Esfera-Shuto". The agents kidnapped one beggar and two drug addicts to test an anaesthetic substance to be used later in the kidnapping of the ETA leader Juan Antonio Urruticoechea «Josu Ternera». Spanish newspaper EL MUNDO had access to a series of documents from CESID, where the details of this operation are outlined. The plan, which was part of a broader operation with the secret code of «Urbión-Bombilla-Mudo», was hatched mainly in Madrid, while other agents from CESID watched the movements of the politician in Bayona, (France). Their plan was to kidnap and bring him to Spain, to be questioned by the government in order to obtain information about the terrorist organisation. The operation involved at least 53 agents and had at least six phases, according to the documents provided to the newspaper by the CESID. However, Narcis Serra, former vice-president of the Government, described as "outrageous" the information, stating that CESID had administered any drugs to the three homeless people, furthermore, the Ministry of Defence reaffirmed yesterday in writing that there is no record or certainty that CESID used beggars as "guinea pigs" to test the anaesthetic substance.

Emilio Alonso Manglano, former Director of CESID, testified today before the judge investigating the suspected illegal tapping by the agency. According to his declaration, King Juan Carlos I was advised to be very careful when using mobile phones as soon as he found out that His Majesty was one of the persons being tapped. Early today, Judge Ana Maria Perez Marugan took this deposition from Lieutenant General Alonso Manglano, one of the co-defendants in the case, who also stated that he gave the same advise to the former Minister of Foreign Services, the late Francisco Fernandez Ordoñez.

The Customs Police Department has detected 1.4 tons of hashis on the Andalucian coast. The SVA (Service of Customs Surveillance) found more than 1.400 kilos of hashish resin and arrested two suspected drug dealers in operations which took place in the surroundings of the Gibraltar Strait, according to EFE news agency.

ETA is trying to blackmail their prisoners after they lost their opportunity of a truce. The strategy of the "ETA Complex", which includes the terrorist group and associated groups, is now focusing on the "frente de makos" (jails), to maintain discipline amongst the jailed terrorists and their families, who are now part of the Senideak and Gestoras pro Amnesty organisations.

Eight months after the kidnapping of Jose Antonio Ortega Lara by ETA, the Correctional Facilities Officers remembered him with one thought in mind: eight months have passed and the status quo is maintained. Since January 17, when the Mafia group ETA signalled the beginning of Ortega's ordeal, his fellow officers have begun to feel that the political leaders responsible for resolving the problem have accepted the situation as "an unavoidable and a routine burden we have to bear". In contrast, the Department of Correctional Facilities is confident that the police investigations will soon cast some light on the subject, and reaffirmed the refusal of the Home Office to deal with "those who act based on the logic of the guns".

The governments of Spain and Italy have supported the idea a common currency. Jose Maria Aznar and Romano Prodi stated their decision to lead their countries as the initiators of a new European common currency system. The statements were made at the closing of the Spanish-Italian Summit held in Valencia. Also on the agenda, they expressed their will to avoid the placement of the European commands of the newly created Atlantic Alliance in Northern Europe.

Juan Eslava Galan announced the new collection of Historic titles from Spanish publisher, Planeta. Entitled "The Monarchs of Spain", the first book, "Life and Times of the Catholic Monarchs". The author found no difficulty writing on characters that have been the focus of a number of biographies. On the contrary, he is clearly an enthusiast of these Monarchs, even when admitting to have dismantled the "white legend created around them by the Franquist regime". According to Eslava Galan, "Franco converted Isabel de Castille into a myth because she was a usurper who served Spain very well. He was also a usurper, so he saw a perfect parallelism between the Queen and himself".

Juan Giralt, a 56 years old artist from Madrid, was awarded the L'Oreal Painting award for his work "Simba". The award consists of a four million pesetas prize. Two other Spanish artists, Isacio de la Fuente and Felicidad Moreno, were awarded two awards of one million pesetas each, for their works "All about" and "Without title" respectively. The sixty works selected in this edition of the prize are being presented in Madrid, and will travel soon to the French town of Cajarc to be exhibited.

The make up of the Committee of Telecommunications Market has been decided, although the government has delayed its formal constitution until December. Miguel Puig, a member of the Pujol Administration, will be the President of the Committee. Javier Cremades, a well known jurist, will be the vice-president, and Professors Jorge Perez and Gustavo Matias will be the other members of the Board of Directors.

While awaiting the completion of partnerships and the establishment by the multi-national communications companies of the development of satellite digital TV, the present configuration of the audio-visual sector has experienced a radical change during the last weeks, while trying to reach a convergence among the main multimedia holdings: O Globo, Tele-Comunications, News Corporation, Kirch, Bertelsmann, Hughes, Canal + Francia, Viacom...