Thousands join anti-war marches in Spain
Tens of thousands of protesters denouncing the United States-led war in Iraq today marched to Spanish military bases used by the US to refuel planes and help care for wounded soldiers.
At least 25,000 people holding banners reading “No to War”, “Not in Our Name”, or simply “Peace”, marched to the edge of the Rota Naval and Air Base in southwest Spain amid tight security.
Organisers of the protest put the number of marchers at 60,000.
Thousands more marched to military bases in Moron, Zaragoza and Albacete and Torrejon.
“The Rota base is the U.S aircraft carrier in Spain of the war in Iraq,” said Gaspar Llamazares, the head of the United Left coalition leading the march in Rota, about 410 miles southwest of Madrid.
Under bilateral defence accords, US forces can use the Rota base and the Moron air base, some 310 miles southwest of the capital, for refuelling.
The Rota base also serves as a field hospital, and seven US soldiers wounded in the Iraqi war were flown there over the past week. The base currently has 116 beds but is being expanded to take in up to 500 patients.
Protesters also lashed out at the Spanish government’s policy of allowing US-led coalition forces to use its air space.
Local authorities said the marches, organised by leftist and anti-war groups, were peaceful, with no injuries or arrests.
In Barcelona, in northeast Spain, demonstrators attended a massive peace concert.
The government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is one of the staunchest supporters of the United States in the Iraqi conflict. But polls show Spaniards are overwhelmingly opposed to the war.
A survey published Sunday in Madrid’s leading newspaper El Pais showed Aznar’s party slipping six points behind the opposition Socialist party as a result of his support to Bush.
Aznar’s centre-right Popular Party would take 36% of the votes if elections were held now, compared to 42% for the Socialists, said the Institute Opina poll conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday.
