El Sáhara y el “amigo americano”
Through the intricate medina of ancient Tangier, through narrow streets and under arches worthy of spy scenes, suddenly appears a beautiful building that turns out to be the only National Historical Monument of the United States outside its territory. It shows and symbolizes the old and close relationship between both countries, which goes back to the Independence War. In 1777, the Sultan of Morocco, Mohammed III, collaborated with the secret intelligence services in the fight of the American colonies for their independence. It is therefore hardly surprising that Trump supports Morocco's views on the Sahara-nothing new but more expressive-as an element of an ever-closer relationship based on mutual security.
However, Spain, which has played a role in the Saharan dispute, also collaborated in the episodes that forged a very special relationship between Washington and Rabat. The Spanish governor of Louisiana, Luis de Unzaga, and his Malaga-based brothers-in-law, Antonio and Matías de Gálvez, were part of the plot that provided Moroccan support to the American independence fighters through the Canary Islands and Louisiana. From that support, these new fruits. Thanks to the skilful diplomacy of Hassan II, the relationship with the American friend has always been maintained. Morocco is a safe bridge in the transfer of American troops to the Middle East (perhaps more so than Spain, since Zapatero's tasteless gesture to the American troops), is a watchful eye on the Straits and today especially on the route of Islamist terrorism, which requires allies who are particularly knowledgeable about the issue.
Trump's informative bombing is really not so much in the light of the official declarations made years ago, including by Obama, Bush or even earlier by Reagan himself. It is not merely by chance that for years the United Nations representative for the Sahara issue was Ronald Reagan's former chief of staff and subsequent secretary of state, James Earl Baker, who always delayed a solution that did not benefit Rabat.
Morocco has been winning this accolade with all its might. From the support of the 18th century in the struggle of both territories to become independent, to the collaboration in the First World War, the result of the Algeciras Conference... and above all in its close collaboration with the American military and security services in the last decades.
Trump's Christmas present to Morocco has been offset by the necessary establishment of relations between Rabat and the State of Israel, given the North African country's long Jewish tradition since the Diaspora caused by the Catholic Monarchs. Also in Tangier, the beautiful Jewish cemetery overlooking the bay is a constant reminder of its mark on these lands, which had begun to diminish in number and influence. Not far from the cemetery is the American Legation, today converted into a museum and library, with a very special space dedicated to the Tangier-based nomadic writer Paul Bowles, whose well-travelled suitcases are piled up in the old diplomatic headquarters as a reminder of the relationship between the two countries.
On October 2, to mark this new chapter in Moroccan-American understanding, defence secretary Mark Esper made a stopover in Morocco on his tour of North Africa and signed a cooperation agreement in the strategic and military field, including the acquisition of weapons and other defence equipment and the training of troops and collaboration between the intelligence services. Trump's announcement is the corollary of this broad agreement, which should lead Spain to look closely at its position in this triangle in which, whether we like it or not, it is involved.
It is therefore now a question of the Sahara and the Polisario Front, which seemed to be half-buried under a good layer of desert sand. Beyond Alvaro Longoria's documentary film with Javier Bardem, and it is now a few years old, we had hardly ever looked at the situation in the Sahara again, or only in a very specific or anecdotal way. We know so little about our foreign action and our interests in general that it is difficult to be aware of whether the trucks that transit between Mauritania and Morocco, paralysed by the Polisario, are Spanish or whether they transport fish, food, minerals for our market. Do we know if Spanish is still spoken in Villa Cisneros, or if there is any interest from the Cervantes Institute, Education or the Foreign Office in this? Do we have a clear policy of balance between Marrecos (our great partner) and the Algeria of gas (recently visited by President Sánchez)? Does our foreign policy do anything to mediate in the historic territorial conflict that confronts our Maghreb neighbours? We will probably fall by the wayside again, without original diplomatic solutions, at a time when our foreign ministry does not appear to have its best experts.
Let us hope that these and other issues are not simply new "reserved matters" (as Franco declared to be unreportable), issues that are neither known nor answered. The kingdom of ambiguity, which furthermore has a minister who has little knowledge of this issue at its head.
History has a long way to go, but it is not enough to cover the tensions that remain after the Spanish administration's hasty departure from that territory in 1975. Not in order to take sides (as the vice-president Podemita Iglesias did by taking on the baton of our foreign policy), but in order to consider them as priority issues on Spain's news agenda.
Under Franco's regime, declaring matters reserved on a matter such as this was used, according to gossip, to cover up Carrero Blanco's spurious business in the Guinean colony. Others spoke of the phosphates from Fos Bucraa in the now closed mine near El Aaiun. Now there is a presumption of failure in Spain's foreign action, in migration policy and in relations with our neighbours, leading to sudden news alerts that seem to have no historical basis because of the very little information devoted by the media to this region. But there is no doubt that the present situation is the result of the past events.
When Manu Leguineche published 'La tribu' about Obiang's coup d'état in Guinea, the cover of the book clearly stated that it was "a novel", not a report. And on the first page he said that "all references to people who are not public or historical are merely imaginary". Those were more cautious times, but we are still living that way. Our colonial trail looks like an old fiction story, although the present forces it to show its true face from time to time. Otherwise, as always, American fiction and reality - from Casablanca to Bowles - will continue to trespasssing our territory, even in a neighbouring country.
