**
machetera posted: "Ángel Carromero: How the Spanish media are covering
the legal impunity of a homicidal driver José Manzaneda Translated by
Manuel Talens/Edited by Machetera - (español) Imagine a man who had his
driver license revoked after 46 traffic tickets," Respond to this post
by replying above this line
New post on *Machetera*
<http://machetera.wordpress.com/author/machetera/> Department of double
standards: Ángel
Carromero<http://machetera.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/department-of-double-standards-angel-carromero/>
by
machetera <http://machetera.wordpress.com/author/machetera/>
*Ángel Carromero: How the Spanish media are covering the legal impunity of
a homicidal driver*
José Manzaneda
*Translated by Manuel Talens/Edited by Machetera -
(español<http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/lecciones-de-manipulacion/47498-angel-carromero-la-impunidad-juridica-de-un-conductor-homicida-amparada-por-los-medios>)
*
Imagine a man who had his driver license revoked after 46 traffic tickets,
6 of them for high-velocity speeding. Imagine that he then caused the death
of two people as a result of driving at excessive speed in a construction
zone. [1] The Spanish Criminal code defines this action as reckless
driving resulting in death and imposes a sentence of several years in
prison. [2] No one would believe that such a reckless driver could have TV
news and leading newspapers at his beck and call, demanding his release
without being countered in any way.
However, if this person is a) a youth leader of the Spanish Popular Party
(PP), and b) the crime was committed on a Cuban road and c) the victims
were two Cuban political cronies of the European Popular Party, in other
words, two Cuban dissidents, everything changes.
Im talking, of course, about Ángel Carromero, sentenced to four years of
imprisonment in Cuba for homicide as a result of reckless driving,
according to Cuban criminal terminology. [3] After only five months in
prison in Cuba and through the application in record time of a bilateral
agreement between Cuba and Spain regarding criminal penalties, he is now
supposedly serving the rest of his sentence in a Spanish prison.
The Spanish mainstream media assume without the slightest questioning of
the remarkably clear legal impunity it implies that Ángel Carromero will
shortly be released to house arrest[4] and also that before long the
Spanish Government will pardon him [5].
Popular Party leaders have monopolized the media regarding the case,
presenting it as a diplomatic success by the current government. [6] In
contrast, lets remember that there are 2,440 Spaniards imprisoned in other
countries many of them due to crimes of lesser importance than
Carromeros who have been waiting years for any kind of help from Spanish
diplomacy. [7]
During the negotiations between the governments of Cuba and Spain, the
Spanish rightwing leaders were necessarily prudent in their public
statements. However, once Carromero arrived in Spain, Esperanza Aguirre,
President of the Popular Party for Madrid, opened the spigot of insults and
threats against the Cuban government [8].
Accusations from Aguirre, who even described the prison conditions in Cuba
for her party colleague as torture, stand in stark contrast with
statements from other sources. [9] José María Viñals, an attorney from the
Spanish Lupicinio legal firm who coordinated Carromeros defense with Cuban
lawyers said that the defendant did not complain of his treatment (in
prison) and that Cuban lawyers and I [...] were able to work
independently. [10] Several weeks prior, Tomás Rodríguez Pantoja, General
Consul of Spain in Cuba, described the trial in the Cuban city of Bayamo as
correct, clean and procedurally flawless. [11]
In an article by Aguirre, published in the right wing Madrid newspaper ABC
where she demonstrated her lack of knowledge of Cuban history by
confusing the final year of the war against Spain (1898) with the formal
independence of the country (1902) she summoned all the hatred she had
managed to restrain over the past several months and described the Cuban
Revolution as a sinister and abject dictatorship. [12]
She also publicly insisted on an international investigation to clarify
the circumstances of the accident in Cuba. [13] Such an absurd proposal of
legal intervention in a sovereign country patent proof that colonialism
has not disappeared from the minds of certain Spanish politicians was
supported by other rightwing ultra-nationalist parties in the country, such
as the Union of Progress and Democracy (UPyD). [14]
Lets recall that the family of the late Oswaldo Payá is pushing the idea
of an international investigation. Far from blaming Carromero, Payás
relatives still maintain that the cause of the accident was the onslaught
of an unmarked Cuban government car [15]. This theory has been denied by
both Carromero [16] and Aron Modig, the Swedish politician who was also in
the vehicle at the time of the accident. [17] Of course this conspiracy
plot feeds the yellow press at various websites, who insist that the
Spanish government paid the Cubans a ransom of millions of Euros in
exchange for the young politicians freedom. [18]
Other Popular Party leaders have joined this media disinformation campaign.
Íñigo Henríquez de Luna a Popular Party spokesman at the Madrid
autonomous government stated: The fact that Ángel Carromero was working
against the regime in Cuba was used as an aggravating factor for a wrongful
conviction. [19] But the reality is just the opposite: Cuban prosecutors
only filed reckless driving charges against the Spaniard. [20] Had he been
accused of both giving cash and organizational support tasks to the Cuban
dissidents as some sources claim Cuban anti-foreign interference laws
could have been applied to him, and his sentence would have been much
higher without the possibility of applying a repatriation agreement. [21]
This is how the Spanish media continue giving shelter and propaganda space
to those involved in a scandalous case of legal impunity and diplomatic
privilege, providing further evidence of the political and moral decadence
of the Spanish regime.
*Manuel Talens and* *Machetera are members of
Tlaxcala<http://www.tlaxcala-int.org>,
the international network of translators for linguistic diversity. This
translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and
the source, author, and translators are cited.*
(1) http://www.tercerainformacion.es/spip.php?article45452
(2)
http://www.decuetoabogados.com/la-conduccion-imprudente-sera-considerada-homicidio/
(3)
http://www.que.es/ultimas-noticias/internacionales/201208031246-angel-carromero-tenia-puntos-carne-cont.html
(4)
http://www.libertaddigital.com/espana/2013-01-04/carromero-obtendra-el-tercer-grado-la-semana-que-viene-1276478341/
(5)
http://www.abc.es/internacional/20121231/abci-carromero-salir-prision-201212302204.html
(6)
http://noticias.terra.es/mundo/casado-pp-la-vuelta-de-carromero-se-debe-a-un-exito-diplomatico,39ae4e5c5b1eb310VgnCLD2000000ec6eb0aRCRD.html
(7) http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/01/opinion/1357065627_156234.html
(8)
http://segoviaudaz.es/politiqueo/28621/noticias--%C3%81ngel-Carromero--Segovia--Esperanza-Aguirre--informacion--noticias--PP-Madrileno--NNGG
(9)
http://www.diarioinformacion.com/nacional/2013/01/01/aguirre-dice-carromero-paso-tortura-cuba/1329733.html
(10)
http://www.abc.es/espana/20121229/abci-abogado-carromero-entrevista-201212291233.html
(11)
http://www.abc.es/20121006/internacional/abci-proceso-carromero-201210060453.html
(12) http://www.abc.es/espana/20121231/abci-cuba-libre-201212310010.html
(13)
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20130101/aguirre-pide-investigacion-internacional-sobre-muerte-paya-tras-visitar-carromero/594460.shtml
(14) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agYYDhZexv4
(15)
http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/lecciones-de-manipulacion/44727-muerte-de-disidenteacubano-oswaldo-paya-iinventar-un-asesinato-para-tapar-la-responsabilidad-penal-de-un-politico-espanol
(16) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBOphUw5RM8
(17) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8St9LSnUxg
(18)
http://www.zoomnews.es/actualidad/espana/retorno-carromero-cuesta-tres-millones-dolares-y-promesa-que-no-se-pronunciara-acc
(19)
http://www.libertaddigital.com/espana/politica/2013-01-02/el-pp-de-madrid-cree-que-carromero-nunca-hubiera-sido-condenado-en-espana-1276478236/
(20)
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/14647-abogado-de-carromero-el-juicio-fue-justo-segun-las-garantias-del-derecho-cubano
(21)
http://www.nuevatribuna.es/articulo/espana/angel-carromero-pp-fue-a-cuba-para-entregar-dinero-al-disidente-oswaldo-paya/20120730212445078998.html
*machetera <http://machetera.wordpress.com/author/machetera/>* | January
8, 2013 at 12:44 pm | URL: http://wp.me/p9jQl-1gX
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