BANANA REPUBLIC UPDATE:

Judge Agustín Morales, in charge of defense minister José Bono’s case against two opposition People’s Party (PP) members, dismissed the case Wednesday. His decision was a victory for the defense, which had asked the judge to act exactly as he did. The ruling was made after the judge saw nothing on the videotape presented by the prosecution that would prove the PP member's guilt.

The judge was not influenced by Bono’s request to testify again, as it did not reach him in time. Bono told reporters that he would not make any declarations without having read the judge’s final report. He did say, however, that he is not interested in “chasing people around” but rather in “establishing the truth.” He went on to consider that “regrettably, there is too much tension,” which makes people “who I assume are peaceful at home go to a demonstration to insult and assault someone like me.”

This new development in a controversy that began at the Association of Victims of Terrorism’s (AVT) demonstration on January 22 significantly damaged Bono’s version of the events. Bono, present at the demonstration, then claimed to have been assaulted by two PP members who were consequently detained and interrogated. He said the two members had punched and kicked him, as well as struck him with a wooden stick.

The trial for the illegal arrest is still to be held. There was no physical assault, the arrests were politically motivated and with no evidence. It was so much so that the first police officer in charge of the investigation was removed from the case because he refused to make any arrests because there was not a single piece of evidence. "The minister wants arrests, and he'll have arrests", he was told (link in Spanish).

You can certainly tell that Zapatero's administration is good friends with Chavez and Castro. They're starting to behave just the same.

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