Serrania de Ronda
The
All about
November 2024
THE HIGH LIFE
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takes readers on a personal Olive Press editor Jon Clarke town of Ronda, which he first hand tour of the magical decades has called home for two
GETTING HIGH! All you need to know about the two hottest new attractions in Ronda
I
underF you were looking to stand how architects planned the construction of Ronda’s Nuevo record-breaking Puente ways bridge there are few better to find out. brave-atA new route takes the the faheart 100m down into touch mous Tajo gorge to almost its very foundations. as it’s The Desfiladero del Tajo, as the known, has been billed version Malaga mountain town’s del of the death-defying Caminito Rey near Ardales. near the While it’s really nowhere intersame scale, it’s far more by fascinated esting for anyone architecture and social history. takes The attraction not only new tourists down into a brand part of Ronda but it transports
Photos by Jon Clarke
Continues overleaf
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November 27th - December 17th 2024
GONE ROGUE
Spanish police chief files formal denuncia in campaign to unilaterally impose Schengen controls at the Gibraltar border By Walter Finch
SPAIN’S ‘rogue officer’ overseeing the border with Gibraltar has erupted into open rebellion over the ‘lack of a legal basis’ for waiving Schengen rules. The latest chaos and confusion came between midday and 2pm last Friday, when Policia Nacional officers were ordered to stamp Gibraltar red card holders – and even refuse entry to some Brits. The Spanish police have been left bewildered by the orders and counter-orders over whether to stamp passports or wave people through, with many telling the Olive Press they don’t know what to expect each day. But the unnamed chief inspector has now gone one step further and filed a formal denuncia in La Linea court against the current border regime for violating articles 6 and 11 of the
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Schengen Borders Code. Spanish media reports claim the ‘rogue officer’ has had several disciplinary investigations for repeated insubordination over his refusal to adhere to the interim arrangement. And sources at the Gibraltar border told the Olive Press that the officer ‘has now been transferred away’. We have been unable to verify this claim.
Indiscipline
The Gibraltar government, meanwhile, declined to comment on ‘indiscipline in foreign uniformed bodies’. The Spanish Interior Ministry, on the other hand, assured this newspaper that ‘all actions carried out at the border with Gibraltar are fully in compliance with the legislation’. The Schengen rules have long been understood to have been temporarily suspended during the transition period post-Brexit as Spain and the UK negotiate a deal to keep Gibraltar inside the passport-free zone. However, progress on a deal has been stalled for many months now, and it is feared that a deal won’t be struck before the European Union’s new digital Entry Exit System (EES) is implemented at the border. After a previous start date of November 11 was delayed indefinitely, sources tell the Olive Press it is now expected in March or April. However, a European Commission spokesperson told this newspaper it is considering ‘the feasibility of a
progressive approach’ to rolling out the EES. “A progressive approach means introducing flexibility in the start of operations of the EES, allowing member states to deploy the system gradually,” the Commission said. “It has been considered as the best way forward for swift progress.” A spokesperson from Spain’s Interior Ministry told the Olive Press that the country is ready to implement the EES ‘when the European Commission deems it ready.’ Given that the EES infrastructure has reportedly already been installed at the border with Gibraltar, it raises the possibility that it could be implemented far sooner than thought. Meanwhile, the campaign of the ‘rogue officer’ to force Schengen controls continues. His denuncia, seen by Europa Sur, claims the officer has repeatedly asked his superiors for written instructions to this effect, only to receive verbal orders – often from Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska himself. Schengen controls would limit Brits and Gibraltarians to just 90 days out of 180 in the Schengen zone, while requiring them to provide proof of funds, accommodation and onward transport out of the zone – all highly problematic for cross-border work-
ers and day-trippers. The officer argues that this leaves himself – and his subordinates – unprotected in the event a security issue arises at the border, amid claims that the lax controls have permitted ‘140 British soldiers into Spain this year as tourists.’ The wildcard move has earned support among the rank-and-file of the Policia Nacional in La Linea, with two officers telling this newspaper they are concerned that the current arrangement is not legal.
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952 147 834 See pages 5 & 12
Escalation
It is just the latest escalation from the ‘rogue officer’, who previously ordered his officers to stamp passports on October 11 – until reciprocal action from the Gibraltar side and a flurry of phone calls put a stop to it. Again, the chaos fell suspiciously on a Friday, so that Spanish workers heading home for the weekend were less affected by reciprocal measures. “It is the last thing we want to do and as a socialist it depresses me greatly that, as usual, politics is being used to damage the interests of working people and not to assist them,” Fabian Picardo said at the time.
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In the shadows GIBRALTAR has vowed it will support the British government in its latest sanctions package against the ‘shadow fleet’ transporting Russian oil. The move hits 30 cargo tankers that continue to transport £3.5 billion of Russian oil, as well as the companies that insure them. “Russia's oil revenues are fuelling the fires of war and destruction in Ukraine and I am committed to using every tool at my disposal to disrupt them,” UK Foreign Minister David Lammy announced. Chief Minister Fabian Picardo followed on X: “Gibraltar won't fail to give effect to these sanctions from the UK.” Russian naval and maritime activity through the Strait has been heightened in recent months, with the Picardo highlighting the chokepoint’s role as a ‘a crucial maritime crossroads’. The Rock, which serves as a major hub for ‘bunkering’ (ship to ship fuel transfers) in the region, slapped wide-ranging bans on Russian-flagged or owned vessels in March 2022.
Sanctions
In order to evade sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin turned to a fleet of third-country tankers which have been known to ‘flip’ fuel to tankers transporting Russian oil while out at sea. Most recently, observers spotted a suspicious interaction between four oil tankers off the coast of Ceuta earlier this month. The Panama-flagged tanker Sakarya collected about 730,000 barrels of Russian oil from Primorsk on the Baltic Sea in October and arrived in waters adjacent the exclave on November 6. It switched off its transponder for two and a half days, and then departed on November 9 much lighter in the water, indicating a practice that Western governments will need to stamp out. A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office told the Olive Press: “The UK Government works hand in hand with the Government of Gibraltar, and all Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, to support sanctions implementation and enforcement.
AFRICAN ROOTS The British flamenco dancer re-examining the art form’s influences SEE PAGE 14
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