Ambassador Javier Ruperez Spain Is Friend in War, Ally Against Terrorism by Larry Luxner From his spacious fourth-floor office overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, Spanish Ambassador Javier Ruperez guides his countryís relations with the United States with a firm hand shaped by years of diplomatic experience in Addis Ababa, Warsaw, Helsinki and Madrid. Today, Ruperez says those relations are better than everóboosted, of course, by Spainís steadfast support of President Bush at a time when other European allies, led by France and Germany, angrily opposed his invasion of Iraq. ìA number of factors explain that situation, and those factors go beyond 9/11,î he says. ìItís true that the fight against terrorism created several commonalities between Spain and the United States. But even before that, in June 2001, President Bush chose Spain as the first country he visited in Europe as president. At that time, he made a very clear commitment to help Spain in our fight against terrorism. Even during Clintonís time, relations were already strong.î In fact, Ruperez says that Spanish Prime Minister JosÈ MarÌa Aznar was one of the first leaders to be called by President Bush with the news of Saddam Husseinís capture. ìThatís very good news,î the ambassador says. ìSaddam Hussein was an obstacle for the future of his own people, and now his threatening image has completely disappeared from the horizon. ìI think he should be submitted to a fair trial,î he adds. ìA trial led by Iraqis with international supervision is the right idea. I wouldnít object to the International Court of Justice being brought in, whenever the local courts are unwilling or unable to do the job. But the Iraqis should be given the opportunity to judge Saddam Husseinís crimes and to do it with all the necessary guarantees for due process of law.î Aznar is particularly grateful to the Bush administration for its decision to brand the Basque separatist group ETA as a terrorist organization. Since 1968, more than 800 military police, civilians and others have diedóand thousands injuredóin ETA-sponsored attacks aimed at creating sympathy for an independent Basque nation in northern Spain. But the number and intensity of those attacks seem to have diminished in the face of Aznarís refusal to negotiate or offer concessions. Aznar himself escaped unharmed from an ETA car-bombing in 1995; years earlier, in 1979, Ruperez was kidnapped by the guerrillas while serving in the Spanish Parliament. ìFortunately, the terrorists decided that they had already achieved what they wanted, and they released me after a month,î the ambassador says. ìI was not hurt.î Asked if he had been well treated by his ETA captors, Ruperez replies: ìWhen you are completely isolated from the world, when youíre threatened to death practically every minute for a whole month, the question of well treated is relative.î The experience seems to have strengthened the ambassadorís resolve to root out terrorism at all costs, even if it means having waged a war that most of the rest of the world opposed. ìIn Spain, weíve been living with terrorism for the last 30 years,î he says. ìWe know very much what it takes to fight terrorists, and we know that you have to do it with full respect of the rule of law, but at the same time, without complacency toward assassins. ìEven before 9/11, we were very active in the fight against al Qaeda,î he continues. ìThis stems from the conviction that terrorism affects us. Weíve been trying to convey that conviction to the rest of our friends and allies. Whenever any of them are attacked by terrorists, we immediately feel solidarity with them.î Ruperez, 62, spoke to The Washington Diplomat last month in a lengthy interview whose subjects ranged from Iraq and immigration to commerce and Fidel Castro. The ambassadorís office is decorated with art books of his native Madrid, a scale-model U.S. Coast Guard plane and various knick-knacks proudly displayed on a nearby shelf: keys to the city of San Diego, an engraved silver plate from the University of New Mexico, a marble paperweight from Hawaii and a glass etching presented by the municipal government of San Juan, Puerto Rico. A career diplomat since 1965, Ruperez was posted as secretary to Spanish embassies in Ethiopia, Finland and Poland (where he learned to speak Polish). He rose through the ranks of the Spanish Foreign Ministry and in 1982 was appointed Spainís first ambassador to NATO, eventually becoming president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels. Along the way, he also received degrees in law and journalism from the University of Madrid and has held various political positionsómost recently serving as president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish House of Deputies. Ruperez has two daughters from his two marriages: Marta, 26, an art historian who lives in New York, and 6-year-old Laura, whoís in the first grade. As Spainís top diplomat in Washington, Ruperez supervises a staff of 160 people, not including Spanish consulates in New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Juan. Ruperez says that since 1953, Spain and the United States have had a mutual defense pact in effectóa factor that influences Madridís foreign policy. ìEven within the [European Union], foreign policy is still very much in the hands of individual governments,î he says. ìWe are not bound by any commitment to any European country. Weíre trying to build up a solid EU, but until now, we have not been able to unify our foreign policies, so we have to take our own national interests into account.î He adds, ìWe believe that relations between the United States and the EU cannot be construed as competition. You can be fully European and fully dedicated to your alliance with the U.S. When the moment of truth came, we shared the same analysis as did the United States: that Iraq was a serious threat to world peace and stability.î One of Ruperezís priorities is increasing the $5 billion in annual commerce between the two countries. ìBilateral trade is not what I would consider to be the ideal,î he says. ìWe have to invest more in the United States. We have to sell more to the U.S. We have to be more present here.î One reason for Spainís low profile here is that Spanish investors are much more drawn to Latin America, where they share a common history and language. ìFor the last 500 years, thereís been a very strong sense of belonging on both sides of the Atlantic. When we as Spaniards visit Latin America, we donít feel alien or foreign. It comes quite naturally because of the common language and historical references,î Ruperez says. ìSpain has gone through ups and downs in its history, and at the beginning of the 19th century was very isolated. We lost our last colonies in 1898, and we got into a long period of isolation and self-deprecation. That lasted right up until 1975, up to the moment [Francisco] Franco died. ìAfter that, we started to rediscover Latin America. It was no longer theoretical. All of a sudden, we started to invest in Latin America and sell our products to their citizens.î Spain is today among the largest foreign investors in the region, with culmative direct investment totaling $100 billion. In some casesónotably Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peruóit outranks the United States in investment. Spanish companies, such as Telefonica, Sol Melia, Repsol, Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya are household names throughout much of Latin America. And in Cuba, where U.S. investment is nonexistent, Spain accounts for nearly all foreign investment in the islandís booming tourist sector. Which brings Ruperez to one of the few areas in which the two countries disagree: what to do about Fidel Castro? ìThe United States and Spain do agree with the idea that Cubans should be able to return to the democratic family of nations and eventually be able to choose their own rulers and have their own freedoms, which is not the case now. Thatís one of the reasons weíre not very much liked by the regime,î Ruperez says. ìBut we do not see the point in keeping the embargo,î which was introduced by President Kennedy in 1962 and has been supported by every U.S. president since then. ìIt has not produced any significant change in the Cuban population in terms of democracy. We feel that a more open approach would be better. Regardless of whatever administration was in place here, itís been our very firm conviction that the law should be abolished.î Other than that, Ruperez says, ìWe are in 100 percent agreement with the United Statesî that Castroís recent arrest and jailing of 7 5 dissidentsóand his governmentís execution of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to Floridaówere outrageous acts worthy of international condemnation. In June, the EU decided to curtail official visits to Cuba, limit cultural-exchange initiatives, and invite Cuban dissidents to national day celebrations at European embassies. Castro responded by comparing Aznar to Hitler and leading 500,000 demonstrators in a march past the Spanish Embassy in Havana. ìThe Cubans think we were behind the common position of the European Union,î Ruperez says. ìOne thing weíre not going to do is engage in that sort of name-calling. Absolutely not. Whenever you get into that, itís provocation. It doesnít help our relations with the Cubans or anyone else.î The ambassador says he is very much concerned with the Helms-Burton Act, which punishes third-country nationals from doing business with Cuba and in some cases deprives foreigners from visiting the United States if theyíve invested in confiscated properties. ìWeíve been discussing this with the U.S. for quite some time,î says Ruperez, although he noted that no one in Spain has been deprived of his American visa because of the law. In September, Aznar visited Floridaóstopping in Miami, Tallahassee and Orlandoóand met with Gov. Jeb Bush and a number of Cuban exile groups. Ruperez called the prime ministerís visit with the Florida governor ìa very positive and open meetingî and says it shows that although Spain is opposed to the embargo, it clearly sympathizes with Cuban exiles who dream of democracy for their long-suffering homeland. ìI think Spain will be called upon to play a significant role in the transition to democracy in Cuba, whenever Fidel Castro disappears,î he says. ìWeíve gone through the same experiences. We had a dictator, and we were able to become a democracy in a peaceful way. I wouldnít say weíre trying to export our own model of transitionóyou cannot transport those circumstances from one country to anotheróbut we know it is possible.î The visit to Florida was one of several Aznar has made to states with large Hispanic populations. In July, he visited California, New Mexico and Texas. The prime minister is also considering a visit to Puerto Rico before Spainís upcoming elections in March 2004, although it has not been decided yet if the visit will take place. Since 1917, Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens, and since 1953, the Caribbean islandówhich was a Spanish colony until it was captured in the Spanish-American War of 1898óhas been a U.S. commonwealth, although nearly half of the islandís 3.9 million inhabitants would like to see Puerto Rico become the 51st state. A small but vocal minority favor complete independence. ìSpain doesnít take any position on Puerto Ricoís political status. We consider it part of the United States, with special arrangements,î says Ruperez, noting that Aznarís visit will focus on Puerto Ricoís economic and cultural links with its former colonizer. ìWe try to keep very smooth relations with the Hispanic community in the United States. Thatís a very recent phenomenon, which coincides with the fact that Hispanics now constitute the largest minority in the country,î he says, although stressing that ìin the last year and a half, Iraq has been one of my main concerns. Iíve dedicated quite a lot of my time to questions of defense and security.î Another issue that concerns Ruperez is the influx of foreignersónot only Latin Americans but also Eastern Europeans, Africans and Arabsóinto Spain, which has enjoyed economic growth of 2 percent to 3 percent a year for the last 10 years. Ruperez pointed out that ìSpain has the best-performing economy in Europe,î attracting hundreds of thousands of immigrants in search of jobs. Today, around 5 percent of Spainís 42 million inhabitants are from somewhere else. ìUp until 20 years ago, we were exporting migrant workers. Now, we import massive numbers of migrant workers to Spain. Our perspective has changed completely,î Ruperez says. ìThere are positives and negatives to this. After all, we need workers from all over the world. So while the number of foreigners in Spain is not as high as in France or Germany, compared to 20 years ago, it is extremely high.î On the down side, he says, ìMany of those people trying to reach Spain do so thanks to the mafias that organize illegal immigration, mainly from Morocco. We are trying to control the presence of migrant workers in Spain and within all of Europe. Our own unemployment rate is 9 percent, so thatís clearly one area where we have to improve our own performance.î Larry Luxner is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.