You don't want to go to war. You think peace is possible and you deny militarization and war actions. But you are forcibly arrested, blindfolded, dressed in military uniform and released in the middle of a war zone...
Well, it's not exactly like that. It's worse. In the Canary Islands we have a visible anti-militarist discourse, we could be seen as a people of peace. But we are blind if we do not see the growing use of our territory and resources by the Spanish army and its allies, to attack third countries.
We have been used as a training platform in La Isleta, in Fuerteventura, imitating hostile territories of continental Africa. As a springboard for troops going to and returning from Europe and the US to war conflicts, enabling bases in Los Rodeos (helicopters), in Gando, in Lanzarote and our maritime territory not recognized for maintaining colony status.
And the worst thing is that we have also become a preferred target in the event of a war conflict, as is the node of any type of communications. Our Ports and Airports, highly militarized; each of the radars that have been installed throughout the Archipelago; the military installations; and now they say that even hospitals and ambulances are priority targets in the new wars, those that are being waged with new technologies. Those that are based on unmanned aircraft, operated remotely, with the money from taxes that "are not enough" so that people do not go hungry and in need.
In addition, through the press in South America, we have recently learned that the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria collaborates in new arms projects, making available electronic technicians who work for NATO. They say that for the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) that has assigned a base in the Canary Islands. There are specialists in these issues who claim that "Usaid plays an interfering role in Latin American countries such as Cuba and Venezuela." In addition, they warn that NATO "is preparing facilities in the Canary Islands for its electronic warfare towards Ukraine as part of the harassment of Russia."
In short, it is shocking to see how an army attacks peaceful environmentalist protesters, but does anyone seriously consider what danger Spanish military planning poses to Canarian civil society? Or whether this is a circumstantial event motivated by the current political trend of the government of Spain, or a general political line of the Spanish State, where the Canary Islands play no other role than the sacrificed overseas colony?
Although some may not like it, there is a clear reality: The day that the Canary Islands emancipate themselves from Spain and decide for themselves, we will have more security and we will not be as exposed to war conflicts as we are right now.
Pedro González Cánovas, member of Canarian Nationalist Alternative
