Spain Tackles UK Over Incident in Gibraltar
April 28th, 2011
The Spanish Government is to address the British authorities “through normal diplomatic channels” over an incident which took place on Sunday between the Gibraltar Police and the Guardia Civil in the waters around Gibraltar, which resulted in the injury of a Spanish officer.
The Unified Association of the Guardia Civil (AUGC) has accused both the Gibraltar Police and the Royal Navy of acting like “pirates” by boarding the Guardia Civil patrol boats, and declared in the court that the Spanish agents had been “threatened, harassed and insulted “.
The PP, through their deputy José Ignacio Landaluce, has asked the Government to raise a formal protest to Britain after the Guardia Civil was “jeered and even insulted” by the Gibraltar Police after detaining a vessel which was suspected of carrying drugs, a mile and a half from the Rock.
This is the latest in a series of incidents between the Gibraltar Police, supported by the Royal Navy, and the Guardia Civil, which have occurred over the thorny issue of territorial waters surrounding the tiny British colony.
Gibraltar is a dependent territory of the United Kingdom with a specific status in the EU. Under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Spain only ceded to the British Crown the town and castle of Gibraltar, with its harbour defenses and fortifications, but not the isthmus. Spain has never relinquished its claim of sovereignty, and disputes Britain’s jurisdiction of the waters that surround it.
By the same treaty, Spain reserves the right to recover the ceded territory if the United Kingdom decided to leave one day.
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