Sailors remembered
A plaque was unveiled in La Cala del Moral
last month on the 82nd anniversary of the
sinking of a Republican submarine by
German forces, believed to be the first
action by the Nazis against Spanish rebels
during the Civil War in 1936. The 37 sailors
on board who perished came mostly from
Cartagena. The remains of the C3
submarine, discovered in 1996, lie at a
depth of 68 metres about seven miles
south-east of Málaga’s lighthouse.
Moving experiences
A number of earth tremors were felt in
Nerja, Torrox and Vélez-Málaga in mid-
December. The National Geographical
Institute says they all occurred out to sea
with magnitudes of between 2.5 and 3.5.
The movements were detected at depths of
between three and ten kilometres.
Garage attack
National Police have been searching for a
masked thief who made off with the
contents of the till in a raid in Torre del
Mar last month. The early morning attack
on a service station on the eastbound N-340
saw the cashier threatened before all the
cash was snatched. Reports say no weapon
was used before the suspect escaped on
foot.
School accident
Four girls and their teacher at the British
school Mayfair International Academy in
Estepona received facial injuries last month
in a laboratory accident. One of the girls, all
aged 12 and 13, was reported to be in
intensive care with second degree burns,
while another pupil and the teacher
received burns to their hands. Police
launched an investigation into the incident
involving an explosion during an
experiment with chemicals.
Drugs discovered
Guardia Civil officers attending a van which
had crashed into safety barriers on the A-92
in Granada last month found it abandoned
but were suspicious when two men later
tried to claim the wreck. Further
investigation uncovered 22.6 kilos of
marihuana hidden inside the seats. The
pair, aged 22 and 26, both with previous
convictions, were arrested.
Bendy buses
The city of Málaga has introduced ten new
“megabuses” which can each carry more
than 150 passengers. They are operating on
cross-city Routes 3 and 11 which between
them move almost six million passengers a
year. The 18.75 metre long articulated
vehicles are part of a €4 million investment
in the renovation and modernisation of the
city’s public transport system.
Vélez name changes
prompt anger
Plans by the socialist mayor of Vélez-
Málaga to rename two schools in the
town came under fire during
December. Antonio Moreno Ferrer’s
announcment that the infant and
primary schools Augusto Bellido
Santiago and Jose Luis Villar Palasí
would be given new names brought
howls of protest.
The mayor claimed that the schools,
known locally as Reñidero and Zona
Norte respectively, should be renamed
to comply with the Law of Historical
Memory. The 2007 legislation
recognizes the victims on both sides of
Spain’s Civil War, gives rights to its
victims and their descendants, and
formally condemns the Franco regime.
Former mayor Francisco Delgado
Bonilla of the Partido Popular said the
move had been prompted by those
who had “presumed” the schools’
names honoured supporters of Franco.
He told a press conference last month
that this was not the case.
Augusto Bellido Santiago, he claimed,
was a 16-year-old boy who did not take
up arms, but stood next to his father, a
member of the rebels, when he was
shot by Franco’s forces. He also
explained that Jose Luis Villar Palasí
was, “the father of public education in
Spain,” serving as Education Minister
between 1968 and 1974. “He was a
teacher,” said Sr Delgado.
The Commission of Historical Memory
is also understood to be reviewing the
name of another school, the municipal
football stadium and a number of
streets in Vélez and Torre del Mar.
Dial 851 for Málaga ... soon
The province of Málaga has the lowest
availability of new fixed-line telephone
numbers in Spain. To ease the pressure
on the system, it has been proposed
that a new prefix be introduced to
permit the generation of more
numbers.
Presently, all numbers in the province
begin with either 951 or 952, but with
take-up at 93 per cent capacity, the risk
of running out of new numbers to
allocate is becoming a reality. In a
recent report, the National
Commission for Markets and
Competition (CNMC) described phone
numbering as a “limited resource,”
adding that there is a “medium-term
risk” of a depletion in six Spanish
provinces including Málaga.
With government approval, the CNMC
awards each telecoms operator blocks
of 10,000 numbers to be used within a
given province or district. The report
warns that only 13 such blocks remain
available in Málaga, so has asked
government to approve a new prefix
for the province. This is expected to be
851 followed by numbers starting from
2 to 9.
The other provinces where capacity is
presently running at 90 per cent or
18
more and where new prefixes have
been proposed are Alicante, Badajoz,
Burgos, Castellón and Guipúzcoa. Two
years ago in a similar exercise,
Guipúzcoa was given a new 8437 prefix
while Madrid province began using
919.
Late decorations
The centre of Nerja was left without
festive decorations until mid-
December after an invitation to tender
for erecting them produced no
response. The town hall said the
closing date of November 24 passed
without result so a Córdoba company
was invited to take on the job for a fee
understood to be €50,240. Some 22
streets and squares were subsequently
adorned just in time for the formal
launch.
Drugs detention
A boat spotted three miles off
Almuñécar last month was found to be
carrying numerous packages of
hashish. The crew of three Moroccans
began dumping the bales, but one
suspect fell into the sea and managed
to reach Calaiza beach in La Herradura
where he was detained by police after a
spectacular chase. The other two also
ran ashore as their launch grounded
but escaped immediate arrest.