Spain Papers Review - Thursday March 11 2010
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By h.b. - Mar 11, 2010 - 7:20 AM
The release of one of the three Catalan aid workers from Mali dominates the papers today

The main story is the release of one of the three Catalan aid workers kidnapped over 100 days ago in Mauritania. El Mundo headlines that two million dollars was paid for the release of Alicia Gámez, saying that an intermediary in Burkina Faso closed the deal, which the paper says included four million more for the other two Spaniards.
El País headlines her statement that her happiness will only be complete when Albert and Roque are home, and notes that Government has claimed that no payment was made.
ABC headlines that one of the workers has been released in exchange for ‘nothing’ after 100 days of kidnap. The paper notes that María Teresa Fernández de la Vega claimed no ransom had been paid, but in Mali they said that Al Qaeda never releases anyone without payment. The paper says that initially they thought of releasing Albert Vilalta first.
La Razón headlines that the negotiators have said that now comes the difficult part, saying the release of Alicia was just a negotiating gesture by Al Qaeda, who will now make no more concessions until their demands are met.
Público has a large photo of Alicia with the word ‘Freed’ and says she said he captors treated her well, considering the harshness of the desert.

El Mundo reports on the best and worst of the tragedy and shows a woman who has been living as a false victim, tricking everyone since 2004. The paper has a photo of Lorena Candelario, who was not on the trains or even injured on the day, but who has received thousands of Euro, Spanish nationality, public housing and an award.
El Mundo also has the story of an army captain who was injured in 2004 and who later suffered a second terrorist attack in the Lebanon. ‘I’m not a victim or a hero’, José A. Garrido tells the paper.

As the debate continues in Spain as to who has a private pension, El Mundo notes that Zapatero forgot that he would be getting a private pension from Congress.
Público tells us that at least seven ministers have a private pensions plan.
El País says that Esperanza Aguirre has gone further than the Partido Popular and called for a ‘rebellion’ against the planned VAT/IVA increase.
ABC highlights her idea and says the PP in Madrid will be organising a campaign of events over the next three months. They will force a vote in Congress on the increase next Tuesday.
Público says Aguirre will start to collect signatures against the VAT increase but note that her regional government has not renounced accepting the increased income the measure will generate.
La Razón says that Elena Salgado considers the anti-crisis commission closed after two weeks of meetings. The paper notes too that the large family businesses in Spain want to see the retirement age moved to 70.

El País reports that the Historical Memory law has reached Franco’s working camps, and that 132 punishment centres created by Franco have now come to light.

La Razón tells us the General Council for Judicial Power member, Gemma Gallego, will not be abstaining in the vote on the suspension of judge Baltasar Garzón.

La Razón notes that the Catalan Generalitat has rejected help for the clean up after the snow from the army, even though the chaos persists.

Many papers have the news of the sixth failure for Real Madrid in the Champions League. El Mundo puts Ronaldo on its masthead. He has his head in his hands-
El País says the result does away with the grand project from Chairman Florentino Pèrez.

In international stories:-
El País notes that Israel and the United States are in their worst crisis in the Obama era because of the new colonies. The paper says Tel Aviv has apologised to Vice-president Biden.

Público notes that Carlos Slim is now the richest man in the world, and the top Spaniard on the Forbes list remains Amancio Ortega who is ninth.

And finally,
El País reports that Google has included Spain on a list of countries which censure the internet. It names the country as the only one in Europe on their list of 25 which includes China, Iran and Ethiopia. Google bases its claim on the closure of two blogs by judicial order in 2007 after they had called for a boycott of Catalan goods.

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