No off-traffic operations, no high temperatures, no arrival of the first umbrellas on the Benidorm beaches. If there’s one great summer news, it’s Disputes between Spain and the United Kingdom around Gibraltar. Over the last two decades there have been tensions between London and Madrid that put regular pressures on each summer at the expense of the British colony, such as long queues at the border or events between the Royal Navy and the Royal Navy, almost without missing the annual meeting. Civil Guards in the waters surrounding the rock.
In July 2009, Gibraltar was preparing for a historic event: First visit to the Rock by a Spanish minister in 300 yearsThose that have passed since Spain ceded its sovereignty to the United Kingdom with the Treaty of Utrecht. It was the third meeting of the Tripartite Forum, supported by the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which, with the slogan “two flags, three voices”, gave Gibraltar a voice in the negotiations between the United Kingdom and Spain.
But a few days ago, Peter Caruana, The Rock’s then-prime minister, stirred the already tense calm waters and asked Gibraltar fishermen in the area not to comply with the Civil Guard’s requirements. If they met Meritorious, he told them to throw it away. flares to call for help.
this Domination of the waters surrounding the rock It is one of the main causes of conflict between the two governments and one of the most provoking summer headlines. In the middle are the fishermen, pawns in a chess game that has been on the table for years. That year, clashes ensued: in December, four Civil Guard agents were held in Gibraltar for two hours after following a suspicious boat into the port of El Peñón. Tensions reached almost surreal levels when a Civil Guard patrol boat made sure the Royal Navy did. Target practice against a buoy with the flag of Spain. The Foreign Office had to summon the British ambassador in Madrid, who assured him that the yellow and red buoy did not represent the Spanish flag.
Three years later, the governments of Spain and Kaya changed political color. And the tension only increased. On 20 August 2012, the new prime minister, Fabian Picardo, declared the Rock and its waters. environmental “special protection zone”. In practice, this served as an excuse not to allow fishing with nets around the rock, which he had been doing since March.
concrete blocks
But if there was one summer when diplomatic confrontation lifted all the veil, it was 2013. Gibraltar had intended to build an artificial reef in one of the most common work areas for fishermen in the region, and had thrown seventy concrete blocks into the sea. . The Mariano Rajoy Government accused Gibraltar of “violating international law in Spanish waters”., which Rock recognizes as his own. Tensions were so high that Gibraltar police clashed with Spanish fishermen in the bay. And a year later, divers from the Foundation for the Defense of the Spanish Nation removed one of the concrete blocks in an act of protest. There was even a far-right leader at the head of the third power in Congress today, who photographed himself at the top of the crowd and uploaded that image to social networks in 2016. The harassment continued for months and Spain used the past. One of his preferred moves in the game: Eternalized the controls at the Gate as the border between El Peñón and La Línea de la Concepción is knownIt caused long queues of vehicles trying to cross into Spain.
In those years, embassy in London was a grueling business. Each summer, the British Foreign Office summoned the Spanish diplomat several times to report on the recent conflict in Gibraltar. And Spain responded by calling the British ambassador in Madrid.
nuclear submarines
It was environmental organizations that put the information focus on Gibraltar in 2006. The US Army nuclear submarine USS Memphis docked at the Gibraltar naval base. For a routine break before arriving in Lebanon. Citizens of the Bay of Algeciras joined the protests of ecologists over the arrival of these “floating bombs”. In his memory, the ‘Tireless’, another nuclear submarine that docked in Gibraltar in 2000, was about to be repaired due to a malfunction in its reactor. It has been part of the bay’s image for over a year, causing strong diplomatic tensions between the UK and Spain. At a meeting of the tripartite forum, the British Ministry of Defense promised that it would not repair any damage to a nuclear-powered submarine.
One morning in August 2007, The Campogibraltarians breakfasted at the news of a head-on collision between a freighter and an oil tanker in Gibraltar waters.. The first was partially sunk and subsequent investigation concluded that she had sailed from the port of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean without the relevant permit. While there is no need to regret the human or environmental damage, the incident proved the lack of coordination and information exchange between the port authorities of Gibraltar and Algeciras.
In times of the pandemic and Brexit, the headlines from The Rock are different, albeit on the usual ground: relations between Spain and the UK. Negotiations on the status that Gibraltar will receive after Brexit are ten months old. As always, the goal is: How to understand two neighbors who do not agree that they are.