Murderous dictators all over the world will sleep better tonight
Spain drops role of "human rights cop of the world"
Spain puts an end to universal jurisdiction: the Spanish parliament has approved a bill that narrows the role of the country's judges in prosecuting crimes committed in other countries.
Judges in Spain will only be able to investigate alleged human rights abuses abroad if they involve Spanish citizens or if the suspects are in Spain. Under the current law of universal jurisdiction, the Spanish judiciary was allowed to prosecute genocide, torture and war crimes committed in other countries even if there was no link to Spain.
Spain's National Court is currently investigating several human rights cases, in places as far flung as Latin America, Rwanda, Tibet, Burma and the notorious US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. None of the ongoing cases will be affected by the changes.
The arrest in London in 1998 of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet at the initiative of Spain's National Court judge Baltasar Garzon grabbed headlines all over the world. The investigating judge also took up proceedings against the former military junta in Argentina.
Activists stress Spain’s role in defending human rights
Human rights activists argue that Spanish judges play an important role in human rights accountability. But the president of the country’s highest court, Carlos Divar, had repeatedly warned that Spain could not become "the human rights cop of the world."
The new law was drafted as pressure increased on the Spanish government to finally restrict the judges' scope for investigating human rights cases in other countries. Now that its final version was approved with an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament, the new law can enter into force.
What a shame. I know those Spanish judges were just about to go after those vile thugs in Cuba. Right after they finished prosecuting American soldiers, President Bush, and members of his cabinet for war crimes.
Spain is something else, and then some. I'm so disgusted with it I can't even tell you. The best I can say for it is that maybe it was so mentally fucked up by losing Cuba in 1898 that it's been in need of serious psychotherapy since then and has obviously never gotten it.
A perfect example of the problem:
According to Armando Valladares, who knows whereof he speaks because he was in the thick of it at the time, as Reagan's appointee to the UN, Spain's then head of state, Felipe Gonzalez, knowing full well of the human rights violations in Cuba, told his UN people to deny it or keep quiet about it when it came up in oder not to "play into the hands of the Americans." In other words, fuck Cuba and Cubans, just make sure you stick it to those damn Americans. The Spanish government has had this attitude pretty much since 1959. Aznar did better, on the surface, but there was no substantial change in what was going on between Cuba and Spain in practical, real terms.
And by the way, my blood is more Spanish than that of the current king of Spain and his whole family, who have a French surname and all sorts of foreign elements due to previous royal marriages. The whole issue makes me sick.
They were a joke anyways. Nothing was ever going to happen regarding the Spanish government arresting that Cuban dictators.
http://americaisunderatack.blogspot.com
I hate those punetero Gallegos almost as much as I hate the Communists. Come the revolution, they'll be hanging from every tree.