Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Saturday October 23 2010
Hundreds of people marched in Tenerife on Saturday to demand decolonisation and independence of the Canary Islands from Spain.
by James Tweedie
Two simultaneous demonstrations in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz and the neighbouring historic city of La Laguna, organised by a raft of left-wing nationalist organisations, attracted about 200 people each.
Organisers included the Canarian National Alternative (ANC), People's Unity (UP), Inekaren, youth organisation Azarug and regional trade unions IC and FSOC.
La Laguna, or Aguere as the indigenous Canarian Guanche people called it, is the site of the defeat of and death in battle of Grand Mencey Bencomo, then-king of Tenerife, by a Spanish conquistador army on November 14 and 15 1494.
The date marked the 46th anniversary of the white, blue and yellow Canarian flag, which for the separatists bears seven green stars to represent the seven islands of the archipelago.
Marchers chanted: “Out with Spanish colonialism”, “the Canaries is not Spain, the Canaries is a nation” and “independence.”
One banner, written in the Saharan Tuareg Tifinagh script used by the Guanches, read “Canaries Free and Independent.”
The March in Santa Cruz followed a near circular route from the Tenerife Cabildo or island government in Plaza Candelaria, via the sub-delegation of the national government and ending in the Plaza del Principe de Asturias.
Protester Tinguaro Guantecera said that it was time for independence after 500 years of Spanish colonialism.
He said: “The Guanches aren't dead. We are all Guanches. We are immortal.”
Sebastian Garcia of the People's Movement said that the islands were in a perpetual state of economically underdevelopment, complaining that the decline in agriculture in recent decades had left the islands dependant on expensive food imports.
The Canaries lie 2,000 km from Madrid and 100 km from the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara in north-west Africa.
National Congress of the Canaries (CNC) political journal El Guanche editor Álvaro Morera said: “We are an ultra-peripheral colony of Europe.”
Pablo Deluca added: “This isn't like Catalonia or the Basque Country – this is an African colony like Cape Verde.”
Jaime Afonso said that the archipelago needed “natural development, like adults in our own home.”
He continued: “The economy is very bad now. Spain owes much money to the world banks, but we don't want to pay for it.
“Here we have 12 million tourists per year. This money buys oil so that the factories of Spain can function.”CNC leader Antonio Cubillo addressed the rally from inside a loudspeaker-mounted car.
He said it was a “great shame” that the square was named after Spain's equivalent of the Prince of Wales, and pledged to rename it after Mencey Bencomo following independence.
Mr Cubillo and others founded the modern Canarian nationalist movement while in exile in Algeria in October 1964, and adopted the Canarian flag.
In 1978 Mr Cubillo was left crippled by an assassination attempt by the Spanish interior ministry.
Mr Cubillo assured supporters: “We are building a nation, the Federal Republic of the Canaries.”
He accused the socialist and communist parties, who both reject regional separatism, of “dividing the people”
Referring to the low turnout he said: “If there were just two nationalists and patriots struggling for independence, it would be enough.”
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