2010: The unfairness of the construction of Spain as Nation, since its early Catholic inception till its latest Fascist design, and its maintenance as a fiction of unity that does not exist and will never do, has cost the different territoires under its flag too much suffering. Spain as a concept is a failure and is still a place to be explained and to be redeemed from its pain.This is a place for memory recovered, for causes to be revised and for traumas to be processed.
Tuesday, 21 August 2018
Latin America and Spain accomplices in repression and control over Catalonia's rights
Assange 'split' Ecuador and Spain over Catalan independence
WikiLeaks founder met separatists and tweeted on the issue, which sources say triggered a backlash from Madrid
In November 2017, Assange hosted two supporters of the Catalan independence movement, whose push for secession from Spain had plunged the country into its worst political crisis since returning to democracy.Assange has said he supported the right to “self-determination” and argued against “repression” from Madrid.
He was visited by Oriol Soler, a Catalan businessman and publisher, and Arnau Grinyó, an expert in online communications campaigns. Their meeting, which was reported by the Spanish press, took place a little over a month after the unilateral Catalan independence referendum, and 13 days after the Spanish government responded to the unilateral declaration of independence by sacking the administration of the then Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and assuming direct control of the region.
Assange has been a vocal critic of Madrid’s handling of the Catalan crisis and described the independence movement as “the redefinition of the relationship between people and state”, and “the most disciplined Gandhian project since Gandhi”.
Julian Assange ⌛(@JulianAssange)
What is occurring in Catalonia is the redefinition of the relationship between people and state. The most disciplined Gandhian project since Gandhi. Its results will spread everywhere. pic.twitter.com/sS8XRXfota
Though Assange’s supporters deny he explicitly supported Catalan independence, his tweets and videos on the issue annoyed the Spanish government.
A Spanish diplomat told the Guardian that Spain “conveyed a message” to Ecuadorian authorities that Assange was using social media to support the secessionist movement and sending out messages “that are at odds with reality”.
“Spain and Ecuador are obviously countries that maintain a constant and fluid dialogue in which matters of interest to both parties, including this issue, are raised and discussed,” the diplomat said.
“Spain has, on a number of occasions, informed the Ecuadorian authorities of its concerns over the activities that Julian Assange has engaged in while in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.”
The source said Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, had also addressed the issue when it arose in November, saying attempts had been made “to intervene, manipulate and affect what should be the natural democratic course of events in Catalonia”.
In December, Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, reminded Assange that he should refrain from trying to intervene in Ecuadorian politics.
US intelligence agencies and Spanish authorities have separately claimed that Russia has had a hand in their domestic affairs. US agencies have accused WikiLeaks of working with Russian intelligence to try to disrupt the US election by releasing hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and Spanish officials have suggested that much of the messaging on social media about the Catalan crisis originated in Russia.
Soler and Grinyó declined to comment on their meeting with Assange. However, in a tweet written four days after visiting the embassy, Soler said the Catalan independence movement sympathised with Assange, as its leaders and activists had “suffered jail, exile, spying, censorship, injustice, fake news and financial blockades”. The visit, he added, had been transparent and legal.
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