Spain Questions Britain over Gibraltar Incident

Spain’s government expressed “concern” Monday over an incident in which Gibraltar and British units intercepted a Spanish patrol boat pursuing suspected drug smugglers in the Bay of Algeciras.

A Royal Gibraltar Police boat collided with the vessel belonging to Spain’s Guardia Civil.

Madrid has conveyed its displeasure to Britain “though the usual diplomatic channels,” the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.

Sources close to the Guardia Civil said the confrontation occurred 3.7 kilometers (2.29 miles) from the coast of Gibraltar after the Spanish patrol vessel chased down a boat suspected of carrying drugs.

The Guardia officers, who saw the suspected drug runners throwing bundles overboard during the pursuit, had tied the boat to their own vessel by the time five or six vessels of the RGP and British Royal Navy arrived.

Once on the scene, the Gibraltar and British personnel began insulting and threatening the Guardia officers, who ultimately withdrew and returned to the port of Algeciras, the sources said.

Gibraltar is a territory of 5.5 square kilometers (2.1 square miles) on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It has been held by Britain since 1704 and became a British Crown Colony in 1713.

The Rock currently has some 30,000 residents, who overwhelmingly rejected a 2002 proposal for Britain to share sovereignty over the territory with Spain.

Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, but Madrid continues to press its claim to sovereignty over the Rock, Europe’s last colony.

 

You Might Also Like :