The Housing Secretary in Spain has issued an all out appeal to Britons to return to the Spanish property sector

"The Housing Secretary in Spain has issued an all out appeal to Britons to return to the Spanish property sector - please! As we all know, the Spanish economy has been flailing, and one of the biggest causalities has been the construction industry. Buyers have been conspicuous by their absence – put off in part by stories about properties being illegally constructed and then demolished, as well as tales of corruption and nose-diving values of homes in Spain.

Now, in a bid to get Britons back in and buying in big numbers, Beatriz Corredor the Housing Secretary has issued a statement to reassure Britons who may feel that the Spanish property sector has got something of a crooked reputation. She wants Brits to feel confident in “the system” and “the transparency” now in place in Spain’s real estate industry, and to return and start investing again."

Wife of Mari Luz accused on remand

Spain

Friday, 04 March 2011 10:42

 

0 A MADRID judge ordered the imprisonment on remand of Isabel Garcia, wife of Santiago del Valle who is accused of murdering five-year-old Mari Luz Cortez in Huelva in 2008.

After more than two hours of questioning Garcia was charged with failing to prevent a crime and lying under oath following her claim on television that her husband “had done Mari Luz in.”

“I can’t go on.  I’m really sorry for my husband’s sake.  But I can’t cover up a crime,” she had told Ana Rosa Quintana live on Telecinco the previous day.

She retracted her statement in court on February 16 and declarations to the police and investigating judge in 2008 which had implicated her sister-in-law Rosa del Valle.

According to Isabel Garcia’s latest version of events as told to Ana Rosa Quintana, her husband killed Mari Luz accidentally.  “It wasn’t on purpose,” she insisted.

After the end of the television programme, Garcia, accompanied by presenter Nacho Abad, went voluntarily to a police station where she was detained overnight before questioning by the Madrid judge.

Garcia, who has learning difficulties, travelled three days earlier to Madrid at the invitation of the television channel and the same judge is now investigating the manner in which Isabel Garcia was taken from Sevilla to Madrid and later to the police.

Garcia’s admission on February 25 coincided with the final day of Santiago and Rosa del Valle’s trial for the murder of Mari Luz Cortes.

Mari Luz disappeared on January 13 2008 and her body was not found until March 7 2008.  Del Valle was arrested on March 25 2008 and at the time should have been in prison for sexual abuse offences, including one against his own daughter, but was at large owing to a judicial oversight.

Spanish woman who killed daughters rapist goes free pending official pardon

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8361620/Spanish-woman-who-killed-daughters-rapist-goes-free-pending-official-pardon.html

Spanish girls turn to prostitution

Brothels and clubs  are mushrooming due to lack of legislation. And for the first time in many years, they are showcasing their Spanish girls as the main attraction.The boom of foreign prostitutes that took place in recent years had all but relegated Spanish girls to the most marginal markets such as industrial parks outside small towns.But now, newspaper and local television ads are screaming out their presence. Sometimes they go as far as to specify the region the prostitutes are from: Catalan senoritas, Andalusian chicas and others.According to Laura, the owner of a massage parlour in downtown Valencia, "each day there are more national girls offering their services".Laura, a middle-aged woman who used to be a prostitute, is also Spanish. "I fell into this because of serious money problems," she explains. "Years ago, Spanish girls could work as go-go dancers at nightclubs or whatever, but now the economy is real bad.""Besides, right now clients are paying more for them," she adds.It was the other way around years ago when the first sculptural foreigners arrived in Spain courtesy of international mafias. But now, even specialised websites stress whether an advertised girl was born in Spain.

Amaranta Foundation, a religious non-profit group that helps women caught up in prostitution and crime, confirms that there has been a rise in the number of Spanish-born prostitutes working in private apartments. In the case of telephone and internet contacts, sex takes place on the street or inside the client's car.

"They are girls who want fast money in a specific way. They see prostitution as a way to make things change for them," says Pilar Casas, the director of Amaranta.

"In most cases they are teenage girls with dysfunctional social and family backgrounds. They have a varied history of abuse, a lack of culture and social skills, and no self-esteem."Casas says that they are "girls for whom it is very difficult to be part of the system and its demands, especially now with the economic crisis."Even though 85 percent of prostitutes in Spain are foreign, Spanish girls now make up to 30 percent at apartment-based brothels, according to Amaranta. This trend is often linked to alcohol and cocaine use."It is becoming more common. Most Spanish girls are already hooked before becoming prostitutes, and when they start working they go completely under," says Laura, the owner of a massage parlour.
A study conducted by Carmen Meneses, of the Catholic university, Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, shows that of all the prostitutes who were interviewed by researchers, the Spaniards had experimented with cocaine before resorting to prostitution, while the foreigners had not.

Alcohol and cocaine allow them to put up with an activity that they generally abhor, the study concludes."Consuming drugs can lead to unprotected sex with their clients and becoming the victims of attacks," reads the report.Added to all this is the fact that many young prostitutes owe money, either to banks to pay off a mortgage in the case of Spaniards, or to the mafia in the case of the foreigners. They have to share profits with pimps and club owners, and sometimes even pay for plastic surgery, an especially common occurrence in the medium- to high-end sector.One in four pays for sexAs for how many women sell their bodies in Spain, official government figures have placed the number at slightly higher than 100,000, while non-official estimates have often floated around 300,000. However, much higher numbers are also thrown around. Government experts speculate that business turnover is between around EUR 50 million a day.A study by researchers from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III health research centre places Spain as the developed country with the highest rate of prostitution; a country where one out of every four men has paid for sex.
Prostitution has been assimilated, and the modern roadside club has been the great provider. But even that model is drying up, it seems.

"It appears to be changing," agrees Esperanza Casals, a sexologist and the director of the applied psychology group Espai.

"Prostitution has been assimilated as a form of massive consumption for entertainment purposes that is separate from morals. And it happened through the use of these establishments as weekend resorts or for stag parties."

Study estimates four million are working in Spain's black economy:

Study estimates four million are working in Spain's black economy: "The savings banks association FUNCAS has said it thinks that there are four million non-declared jobs in Spain’s black economy, and estimated that the submerged economy represents 17% of the country’s G.D.P.

They estimate that Hacienda misses out on 30 billion € every year through people working black.

The FUNCAS study shows that many people work both officially and in the black economy at the same time. It has been compiled by professors from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, María Arrazola, José de Hevia, Ignacio Mauleón and Raúl Sánchez.

They say they carried out the study using three different methodologies and estimate the number employed in the black economy in the country has risen from 1,4 million in 1980 to four million now."

Civil Guard seize more than a ton of cannabis in Andalucía:

Civil Guard seize more than a ton of cannabis in Andalucía: "Civil Guard in Cádiz have recovered almost half a ton of cannabis from a helicopter which had been under suspicion of drug smuggling from Morocco.

Officers had the aircraft under surveillance after it was detected taking off due south one night, without having filed the necessary flight plan with the authorities. It was followed on its return flight to Cádiz and seized by Civil Guard waiting on the ground in La Janda, who discovered the aircraft was carrying 400 kilos of cannabis as its cargo.

The helicopter’s two German crew were arrested, as were two Spanish suspects who’d been waiting on land to guide the aircraft in and unload the cargo. It’s understood a fifth person is also in custody and that five vehicles were impounded."

Two Civil Guard officers are amongst eight suspects

"Two Civil Guard officers are amongst eight suspects who have been arrested in an operation against drug smuggling on the coast. One is understood to be a mechanic, and the other is assigned to the Guardia’s maritime patrols.

They are accused of helping the drugs gang to avoid detection by putting part of the instrumentation for the SIVE electronic surveillance system out of action.

There was news of another drugs haul elsewhere in Andalucía on Thursday, on the coast of Carboneras, Almería province, in the east of the region. 779 kilos of cannabis were discovered on board a boat which was found on Los Cocones Beach on Sunday.
There has been no news so far of any arrests in that operation."