From: luigi@next02wor.wam.umd.edu (Luis G. Torregrosa)
Subject: Espa#a en el Wash. Post
Keywords: Wowww!
Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 21:41:29 GMT


Pues si'.  Ocurre cada vez que pasa el Halley o cada vez que afecta de  
alguna forma a Estados Unidos (vease Conferencia de Paz).
Creo que es una pena que para una vez que salimos sea por la noticia de  
los immigrantes asesinados.  Imagi'nense la imagen que damos a un asiduo  
lector de dicho perio'dico...
De cualquier forma, y aunque ya conocemos todos la noticia creo que es  
interesante leer la perspectiva americana, sobre todo para los que esta'n  
en Espa#a.


IMMIGRANTS GUNNED DOWN, RAISING SPECTER OF RACISM IN SPAIN
----------------------------------------------------------

MADRID-Three dozen immigrants from the Dominican Republic who lived in the  
ruins of the abandoned Four Roses discotheque outside Madrid were  
preparing for bed by candlelight last Friday night when they heard noises  
outside.  No one paid much notice--the police often came by to urge them  
to move on, but never seemed too serious about it.
	Suddenly four masked gunmen burst in, fired indiscriminately, and  
fled.  Lucrecia Perez, 33, was dead, a 37-year-old man was seriously  
wounded, and Spain had seen its first serious act of anti-foreigner  
violence in many years.
	Officials ordered a top-priority investigation of the  
paramilitary-style crime, saying they suspected the killers were  
right-wing extremists,  Anti-foreigner posters had appeared in the  
neighborhood in the preceding days, and tensions between the Dominican  
immigrants, many of them black, and some local residents had been rising.
	The incident highlighted fears that the anti-immigrant violence  
sweeping other parts of Europe had reached Spain.  "We have been very  
lucky," Interior Ministry spokesman Agustin Valladolid said a day before  
the killing. "We know what could arise here."
	Rafael Vera, secretary of state for security matters, called the  
incident at the Four Roses "an indiscriminate act of xenophobic racism."
	Because of history and geography, Spain is a point of access for  
immigrants from the Third World seeking to enter the rich, borderless  
market of the 12-nation European Community.  For Latin Americans, language  
and culture make Spain a logical choice.  For North Africans, the only  
barrier is the treacherous current in the narrow Strait of Gibraltar that  
has caused the deaths of dozens of "boat people" from Morocco.
	During the 1980s, when the Spanish economy was booming, hundreds  
of thousands of immigrants came to take the low-paying jobs that Spaniards  
no longer wanted.  Most arrived as tourists and overstayed.  Others  
entered illegally.  When the government offered recently to legalized the  
status of those without proper papers, 130,000 people applied, most from  
Latin America or Morocco.
	But now the economy is stalled, unemployment is rising and the  
government is promising more pain in the years to come--apt conditions for  
spread of the racism and xenophobia found in eastern Germany and other  
parts of Europe.
	There are 15,000 to 20,000 immigrants form the Dominican Republic  
in Spain, officials said, the vast majority of them women who came to work  
as domestics.  Hundreds have congregated near the suburb of Aravaca,  
outside Madrid, a well-heeled bedroom community with demand for household  
help.
	For the most recent arrivals, Spain has been anything but a  
promised land.  Lucrecia Perez, here just a month, and nearly 40 other  
Dominicans newcomers ended up in Aravaca--living illegally in the shell of  
a discotheque where just a few years ago Madrid's new "beautiful people"  
danced away the nights.
	Perez had worked for a local family, survivors said, but was fired  
because she had become ill and could no longer keep up with her work.   
"She had a headache and the lady threw her out," said Perez's brother  
Luis.
	Social tensions had been rising in Aravaca for months.  The  
Dominican immigrants had begun using a local plaza as a regular meeting  
place, provoking complaints from some neighbors that the crowd was often  
noisy and boisterous.  Police began passing through to check the  
Dominicans' papers.  There were occasional shouting matches.
	On Nov. 1, four police officers received minor injuries in a  
confrontation with around 100 Dominicans.  Afterwards, officials said they  
would come up with a place where the immigrants could meet.  But no place  
was found, and so they continued meeting in the plaza.
	On Mon. 11, posters appeared around the neighborhood saying,  
"Immigration Stop.  Spaniards First!"  The posters were signed, "Spanish  
Juntas," a group unknown to police.
	Police say the bullets used in the attack were of a kind primarily  
used by the military, but also readily available on the black market.   
Officials note that the anniversary of dictator Francisco Franco's death  
is this Friday, and the 100th anniversary of his death is Dec. 4.
	Immigration has not been a major issue in Spain since the Jews and  
the Moors were violently expelled in the late 1400s.  With the North  
African population burgeoning and much of Latin America continuing in an  
economic slump, Spain has been pushing for a coordinated, quota-based  
European Community immigration policy.
	"It is unfortunate that in our country anything could happen that  
has to do with outbreaks of racism," Foreign Minister Javier Solana told  
reporters.  "Spain is a country where others have always been taken in  
with great generosity and solidarity."

Wednesday, November 18, 1992

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