Peter Caruana says the quick Spanish apology diffused the incident on Gibraltar

Peter Caruana says the quick Spanish apology diffused the incident on Gibraltar
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By h.b. - Dec 8, 2009 - 4:53 PM
The Gibraltar First Minister claimed that the Spanish Civil Guards continued to chase the two suspected drug traffickers once onland in Gibraltar

The moment when Gibraltar returned the Guardia Civil launch to Spain - EFE

The First Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, has said that the diplomatic incident caused by the Guardia Civil vessel which came into Gibraltar Port while chasing suspected drug-runners in a zodiac boat, was diffused thanks to the prompt apology from Spain’s Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.

Caruana has said that the apology stopped the incident growing into something which would have been very difficult. He revealed that the Spanish Guardia continued to chase the two men from the zodiac once on shore, and, speaking on Radio Algeciras, called on the Spanish to imagine what would happen should armed Gibraltar police disembark in Algeciras to chase delinquents thought the streets.
Caruana said he now considered the incident closed.

Gibraltar has now returned the firearms carried by the four Guardia Civil and has also returned their boat which had been impounded for a time.

However that prompt apology by Rubalcaba has been criticised by the Partido Popular opposition in Spain. PP Spokesperson in Congress, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, has called on the Interior Ministry to properly inform Congress on the details of the incident, saying that the Government had been quicker to apologise than to ask for explanations.

PP number two in Andalucía, Antonio Sanz, called on the Junta de Andalucía to ‘show its rejection of what has happened in Gibraltar’ and called for the three-way forum talks to be suspended. Sanz said the Zapatero government was to blame for all that had happened recently in the waters of the Algeciras Bay.

Meanwhile the four civil guards say the incident has affected them greatly and that they were treated in Gibraltar almost like criminals. They now face giving explanations to their Spanish superiors.

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