Friday, February 02, 2007

More News from Deep Spain


About three weeks ago, the mayor of the tiny mountain village of Fago was murdered. He was driving home at night when his car was apparently ambushed at a turn on the dark road from Jaca. His body was found not far from the site.

The media immediately descended on Fago, and it soon became clear that the mayor was despised by roughly half he population for his refusals to empadronar (or municipally register) people who didn't live in Fago year round and his decisions to restrict construction in the town. It was also suggested that the casa rural he and his wife had spent some 400,000 euros to renovate wasn't doing so well. His decisions, in fact, had divided the town into factions so bitter that if you were on one side, you didn't want to get caught talking to someone on the other. There are only 37 people empadronado in Fago, with maybe 200 more living there, but they sure didn't like each other.

Yesterday, the Guardia Civil finally arrested someone in the case. Turns out he is the former candidate who ran--and lost--to the now-dead mayor, and that the two had long-time disputes over boundaries and livestock. What's more, the arrested ran the only other casa rural in town. Viva la España negra.

1 comment:

Spanish Kitchenette said...

LOL@Viva la España Negra. It certainly is!. Gelousy? whatever but it is sad. And how did the murderer have the cold blood ( la sangre fría ) to do it an dthen go to the police office and say: hey, it has been me who made it ???

Crazy.