Defending the State from the People

By Graham Keeley, in the Irish Independent:

"THE head of the Spanish army has been placed under house arrest for threatening military intervention to stop Catalonia's drive for greater autonomy.

The detention of Lieutenant-General Jose Mena Aguado was ordered after he told military officers in Seville of "serious consequences" for the armed forces if Madrid granted the northeast region, one of the richest parts of Spain, broad fiscal and legal powers.

Addressing army officers in Seville, Lieutenant-General Mena said that if limits set by the Spanish constitution to stop any region from overreaching its set powers were exceeded by Catalonia, the army would have to act.

His speech met an angry response from Spain's socialist government. Jose Bono, the Defence Minister, ordered him to be placed under house arrest and is expected to seek his expulsion from the armed forces.

It became clear yesterday that Lieutenant-General Mena enjoyed some support within the armed forces. Retired Colonel Jose Conde Monge, President of the Spanish Military Association, applauded his remarks and criticised his arrest.

The Catalan plan has split Spain.

Catalonia wants control over its own taxes, to pay less towards the poorer parts of Spain, and to be called a nation.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister whose minority Socialist government depends on the support of Catalan nationalist parties, may have to change the 1978 constitution to grant some of the demands; but many Spaniards fear break-up of the country could result if other regions demand more powers.

Lieutenant-General Mena said: "I have always insisted soldiers must not get involved in political reflections [but] it is our duty to warn of the serious consequences that the approval of the Catalan statute in the terms in which it is drafted could bring, both for the armed forces as an institution and for the people who make up the armed forces."

The role of the armed forces is highly sensitive after the military uprising of the former dictator General Francisco Franco and the civil war between 1936 and 1939."