Manu Chao's Concerts Cancelled

When Spain is exposed in all of its intolerance, it usually reacts like this:

A muzzled musician

The organisers have cancelled the concerts Manu Chao and Fermin Muguruza were due to put on in Malaga and Murcia in the wake of declarations made by the Association of Victims of Terrorism

Ainara Gorostitzu – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The organisers have cancelled the concerts Manu Chao and Fermin Muguruza were scheduled to give as part of the Jai Alai Katumbi Express tour today in Malaga and the day after tomorrow in Murcia, after declarations by the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) that the Basque musician had “rather radical ideas on the independence of the Basque Country”, and a request that permission not be given for any civic centre to be used. The people responsible for the Malaga and Murcia concerts have done their utmost to persuade Chao to perform without Muguruza, but the musician had said from the very start that he would not agree to anything of the kind. Metak, the company that recorded Muguruza’s latest work, has criticised the attempt to make Chao perform without Muguruza, describing it as “despicable, because the two work in cooperation with each other.”

Basque music bands have previously experienced difficulties in some areas of Spain for political reasons; the Soziedad Alkoholika and Su ta Gar bands, for example, have been on the receiving end of violations on the right to freedom of expression.

The venue for today’s concert was due to be the Municipal Sports Centre of Malaga, which bears the name of the former Popular Party city councillor Jose Maria Martin Carpena (killed by ETA [the armed pro-Basque independence organisation] in the summer of 2000). Daniel Portero, the spokesperson for the AVT, declared last weekend that if Muguruza performed right there, it would “destroy the dignity of one of the victims of terrorism,” and the two concerts have been cancelled as a result of these declarations.

Malaga City Council recommended to the organisers that the concert should be held “at a more appropriate venue”; nevertheless, they had decided to call it off “to avoid trouble,” according to the coordinator Alfredo Guerisoli. And in Murcia, as soon as Antonio Gonzalez Barnes, municipal councillor responsible for the city’s fiestas, had heard the AVT declarations about Muguruza, he said that under no circumstances would he agree to a “known militant of Batasuna [the outlawed, left-wing Basque nationalist party]” performing at a venue belonging to the city council.

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