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“Democracy is shit!” a former Spanish diplomat in his 70s told me at a Madrid bar. “Democracy does not work. The socialists have destroyed Spain!”

A small lapse of silence as he gathers some wind for is arguments: “Our foreign policy is in tatters (because Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero defied George W. Bush by pulling Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004).”

I listened for a while longer and remembered an old couple in the 1960s that lived in exile in Paris from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). There names were López and Angelina. I remember López very well because he fought for the Republican Army and told me a little about the horrors of that conflict.

After López’ and Angelina’s image faded in my thoughts, I responded:

“In Argentina one of the problems we had before the 1916 elections was that voting was only a privilege of the few,” I said. “This is what messed up Argentina for close to the seventy years.”

I was surprised that still in Europe there were people who thought so lowly about democracy. But if we look at the conflict in the Balkans and the persecution of minorities like the Roma, it’s unfortunate that a large minority of Europeans don’t appreciate Western democracy.

Our discussion on whether democracy was good or bad for Spain ended in an instant. Even so, such a discussion would have never been possible under dictator Francisco Franco’s regime (1939-75).

For a Catholic nation as Spain, Easter is a pretty serious period. The symbols of the church and the state are an irreplaceable icons of the folklore of the night.

Madrileños expressing awe and waiting for the human-carried floats.

And this was one of the prizes for their eyes.

A huge flag and a full moon as a tribute to Christopher Columbus, the Genoa-born explorer that set foot on American soil in 1492.

This was posted in March 2008. One of the best pieces of news to come out of President-elect Barak Obama is that he will close down the Guantanamo detention center.

…As President George W. Bush’s administration attempts without luck to brush aside the colossal blunder in Iraq and how it poisoned and weakened the United States in its so-called war on terror, it’s pretty incredible that the US president recently vetoed a law that would have prohibited the use of “enhanced interrogation” methods like ”water boarding.”

Should it come to a surprise that many of these barbaric interrogation methods have their roots in many parts of the Third World thanks to the Central Intelligence Agency? In South America, the CIA carried out and supported political repression and the overthrow of elected civilian governments by military dictatorships.

It is also no secret that the Central Intelligence Agency trained security forces in the region in torture and interrogation techniques. There are striking and scary similarities today between what happened in Iraq and during Argentina’s so-called dirty war (1976-83), when some 30,000 people disappeared.

One of the torture methods that Argentinian security forces used was called el submarino, the submarine, an older version of water boarding. But despite having a different method, the aim of this form of torture is the same: to make the victim feel that he was drowning.

In some Argentinean detention centers, the water used in el submarino was filled with human excrement.

Inmates in Argentina were – like in Iraq and Afghanistan under U.S. custody – forced to wear hoods over their heads. In Argentina, a prisoner’s head was hooded so he couldn’t identify the torturer.

While times have changed and the enemy is far shrewder than what some Latin American countries faced during the cold war, there are scary similarities between the U.S.’ war against al-Qaeada and other Islamic fundamentalists and what happened in some Latin American countries.

After the military regime in Argentina steamrolled over left-wing guerrillas and other enemies of the junta, its excess and outlandish methods were so successful that it went beyond the junta’s wildest expectations. A dangerous sense of invincibility — like the Bush administration’s obsession with inconquerable military power – overtook Argentina’s military rulers.

It took, however, a colossal fiasco like going to war with Britain in 1982 over the Falkland Islands for the military to be humbled.

It’s naïve to believe the systemic torture carried out by U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere are isolated events. I’m certain that these interrogation techniques used by the U.S. military can be found in many handbooks at Langley, VA.

In sum, the methods employed by Argentina’s junta during its war against “terrorism” were so barbaric that it ended up converting the de facto government into a state that practiced terrorism.

The United States has fallen into the same trap.

Not varying much from what polls showed before the March 9 general elections, the Socialists (PSOE) led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have got the nod from voters to rule for another four years. With 99.99% of the votes counted, the PSOE won 169 deputies (164 in 2004) versus 153 deputies (148) by the opposition Popular Party led by Mariano Zapatero.

The PSOE would have needed 176 deputies to get a majority in congress, which has a total of 350 seats.

Of the total votes, the PSOE got 11.064 million (43.64%) while the PP got 10.169 million (40.11%). A total of 25.514 million voted, or 75.32% of Spain’s total eligible voters.The biggest losers of the elections were the left-wing Izquierda Unida (IU), which lost 3 deputies to end at 2, and Esquerra Republicana of Catalonia, down 8 deputies to 3.

So what do these elections signal? They show that Spain’s two biggest parties, the PSOE and PP, will continue to dominate the country’s politics.

Considering that the PP won 5 more seats versus 2004, the election allows Rajoy to remain as head of the party. The PSOE won 5 seats. The gains were attributable mainly to losses suffered by the IU and Esquerra Republicana, the biggest losers of the election.

As the fanfare dies, business will return to normal pretty rapidly in Spain. Even though the Socialists won the elections, the following four years will be very challenging, especially on the economic front. Spain is being hit hard by the subprime crisis and slower economic growth.

The next elections in 2012 may prove a very different story for the PSOE, which the PP will certainly try their hardest to discredit the Socialists as they attempt to minimize the damage due to the economic downturn.

Spain’s Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero said that in the beginning of his victory speech that he hoped that Spaniards killed by ETA terrorists like Isaías Carrasco of Mondragón in the Basque Country.

Some 35 million Spaniards are eligible to vote today with the shadow of terrorism looming after suspected ETA separatists murdered a Socialist councilor Isaías Carrasco, 42, of Mondragón in the Basque Country. That follows a horrific attack four years ago on March 11 of the Madrid train bombings that dramatically changed the election result against the right-wing Popular Party (PP).

All in all, Spaniards will elect 350 deputies and 208 senators.

Like all the main political leaders, Carrasco’s daughter Sandra encouraged Spaniards to vote in mass today to show that Spain won’t be intimidated by terrorism.

Despite PP’s Mariano Rajoy’s poor showing in the two national debates against his Socialist Party rival José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the race is still too close to call. One Antena 3/Onda Cero poll shows the Socialists leading with 42.6% compared with 39.7% for the PP.

Whoever wins the elections, the next government that will rule the country will be faced by very big challenges on the economic front. Spain is one of the European countries that has been especially hard hit by the real estate crisis. The poor state of the country’s fiscal health will be exacerbated by the cooling of the economy.

Another hot debate topic was illegal immigration.

Spain has enjoyed democracy since 1977, two years after dictator Francisco Franco ruled (1939-75) Spain with an iron fist. His shadow still hangs over Spain.

After losing last Monday’s debate against Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE) leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, opposition Popular Party (PP) head Mariano Rajoy did a poor job in convincing Spaniards Monday in the last of two debates to vote for his party.

Spain will hold generation elections on March 9.

Two polls right after the debate gave Zapatero an ever greater margin of victory than in the first encounter. Television station Cuarto gave Zapatero 50.8% versus 29.0% for Rajoy, with La Sexta giving Zapatero 49.2% compared with 29.8% for Rajoy.

A poll done by Spain’s largest daily El País reported that 53% thought that Zapatero won the debate versus 38% who thought that Rajoy did better; Madrid El Mundo daily gave the following results: 49% for Zapatero and 40.2% for Rajoy.

In the first debate on February 25, Television station Cuatro gave Rordíguez 45.4% versus 33.4% for Rajoy, while 45.4% of La Sexta viewers believed that the PSOE leader beat the head of the PP, who got 30.1%. Antena 3 was the closest of the three polls, with Rodríguez Zapatero getting 45.4% against 39.3% for Rajoy.

Like the first debate, both candidates didn’t tell Spaniards anything new. It was more like a boxing match where Zapatero and Rajoy attempted to give a knock-out punch without luck.

Some of the hot topics of the night that incited both candidates was illegal immigration, ETA terrorist group and regional governments such as in Catalonia.

The biggest difference between the first and second debate is the ferocity of Rajoy’s attacks against Zapatero. “You haven’t done anything, you never tell the truth, you always lie, you live on another planet, you have failed” are some of the expressions Rajoy used to describe Zapatero and his mandate.

On the other hand, Zapatero looked like Mohammad Ali but without his charisma, using the ropes to cushion the punches like in the famous rope-a-dope. In the end, the more Rajoy attacked Zapatero the less credibility he appeared to have.

For some, Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy, who is aiming to lead his party to victory against the Socialists (PSOE) on March 9, is playing with fire by using the immigrant issue to sway voters on his side. While some Spaniards see Rajoy’s tactics as a desperate attempt to get more votes, the PP leader’s comments on the matter are getting more frequent.
At a campaign rally on Wednesday in Tereife in the Canary Islands, he reiterated his get-tough line on immigration by stating that the country was being flooded by foreigners and blamed the ruling PSOE for the situation. “Everyone who wants to, cannot enter this country at will,” he said. “There’s not enough room for all of us.”

Rajoy has recently suggested that one of the things he’d do if elected would be to force immigrants to sign a contract, which would oblige them respect Spanish culture and customs.

This ridiculous proposal by the PP leader is flawed from the start since we don’t know what he actually means by “Spanish culture.” Does it mean that a Muslim must abandon his religion for Catholicism? Must he eat paella on weekends and go to bullfights?

Why doesn’t Rajoy propose a similar contract for the sometimes unruly Basques and Catalans?

If the PP wins the elections with the help of immigrant bashing, we’re in for some very difficult years in Spain taking into account that the economic slowdown will exacerbate matters. Foreigners from South America and Arabic countries will be the hardest hit.

Rajoy should understand that it’s one matter to make populist statements and another matter to put them back in the cage.