The Andorra Hustle — Full Documentary (English) — by Eric Merola
Synopsis: If you have never heard of the country of Andorra, you will now.
Andorra, a tiny, independent country situated between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains with a total population of 80,000 people found itself at the center of one of the most convoluted and outrageous bank robberies in modern history: on March 10, 2015, Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA), a private bank in Andorra, was shut down by Spanish, American, and Andorran governments in Spain’s efforts to destroy the Catalonian Independence Movement thus leaving dozens of innocent civilians facing prison for money laundering crimes that never existed, and scores of innocent families have had their entire life savings stolen from them.
The incentive for the Spanish government to destroy BPA was part of Spain’s ongoing “Operation Catalonia”—a covert state-sponsored war-like operation to undermine the progress of Catalonia’s efforts to separate from Spain due to generations of humanitarian and economic repression Madrid has inflicted upon Catalonia. America’s incentive was to protect Spain’s interests, as an ally of the United States. Andorra’s incentive appears to be purely economical on behalf of its leadership.
BPA was targeted due to the assumption that members of the top Catalonian leadership (President Jordi Pujol, President Artur Mas, and Vice President Oriol Junqueras) had their money stored at BPA. Spanish Police were of the opinion that destroying the bank accounts of the Catalonian leadership would help win their war against Catalonia.
A little known fact presented in THE ANDORRA HUSTLE: America’s FinCEN (US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) has the power to shut down any bank in the world with a single press release called a “Section 311” – part of the USA Patriot Act—without requiring any evidence of wrongdoing, under the guise of “protecting the world’s financial system”. Spanish Police presented fake evidence of money laundering to America’s FinCEN, resulting in America issuing a “Section 311” against BPA. In the weeks following, the American private equity firm J.C. Flowers purchased the newly destroyed BPA at an 86% discount—precisely verbatim as Spain warned would happen to BPA.
Most mainstream news reporting on the closing of BPA have reported that BPA was shut down due to money laundering activity concerning the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, the Venezuelan government, and Russian and Chinese mafias. This documentary examines these money laundering charges in a forensic fashion, proving that BPA was categorically innocent of these crimes. THE ANDORRA HUSTLE gives the audience a well-researched narrative that contradicts all mainstream news coverage of these events.
Affirm that Catalonia is one Colony of Spain seems, even for the most committed nationalists, a dialectical exaggeration. It is a concept that independentism has not assumed in a regular way, as has been shown in the election programs of September 27. The comparative historical analysis of the features that characterized colonialism from the sixteenth to the twentieth century allows the typology of contemporary Catalan reality to be unequivocally colonial. What are these features? For starters, the armies of the metropolis occupy without a right a country that until then was sovereign. Catalonia was occupied by the armies of Castile between 1705 and 1714. The Principality was then an independent state integrated into a confederation, the Crown of Aragon. Let us remember the occupation of America, Africa or Asia in the centuries of colonialism. We note the existence of the Spanish flag on the facade of Capitania, irrefutable testimony of the current presence of the Spanish army in Catalonia. Second, the invasive power destroys the institutions of the occupied country and imposes military control over it. From the Bourbon decree of the New Floor of 1716 is what has happened to Catalonia. The autonomous periods have been nothing more than a lenitarian force of military occupation. Third, the occupying power organizes the economic downturn of the colony. Let us remember the drainage of American gold to Castile after the conquest. This is what has happened with Catalonia. From the Bourbon Tax to the Cadastre in the XVIII century to the Sixteen billion annual fiscal deficits in recent times, Catalonia has been, for three hundred years, a country spoiled by Spain. Fourthly, the colonizing power has found and promoted, within the colony, political, social or economic organizations favorable to the metropolis and, therefore, opposed to the liberation of that one. These sectors have acted as the fifth column to support the power occupying and curbing the aforementioned release movements. In Catalonia, this fifth column has fought against the forces of the metropolis, independentism. In the past 27-S elections, this fifth branch column has personal names and political organizations that are in the minds of everyone. Fifthly, the Settlers have attempted to disrupt the language and culture of the conquered countries. The imposition has also affected, with repressive or inquisitorial actions of great hardness, the religious beliefs of the occupied countries. The attempt to make Catalan language and culture disappear as an identifying element of the first order of the Catalan state has been constant. The repression of Catalan has been manifested permanently since the first Bourbon arrangements after 1714, up to the Wert law. The decrees, laws, regulations and provisions of the Madrid court against Catalan occupy hundreds of pages and have been unalterable throughout the centuries South American countries know what language repression meant for the maintenance of their own languages. When the metropolis has not managed to make these languages disappear, it is wrong to turn them into second category languages. A last factor. The metropolis never allowed the colony to freely decide on its destination through a referendum on self-determination that allowed decolonization. This is the case of Catalonia. History teaches that colonizing processes have only been defeated when the countries victims of the destructive action of the metropolis have achieved independence. Catalonia is one of the few countries on the planet that has not yet been liberated from colonizing oppression, and if we look only for Europe, we will see that Catalonia continues to be, based on the features I have mentioned, the only colony that still exists in the Old Continent From this there is a broad collective consciousness, that which must allow the liberation National of Catalonia that is already seen on a horizon that is closer to each day.
Hero to pariah: Juan Carlos’ exile sparks anger in Spain
Legal woes have forced former king into exile and tarnished the monarchy in crisis-stricken country
" Juan Carlos’ downfall started one morning in April 2012 in a hunting camp in Botswana, when he tripped on a stair and broke his hip.
Details of the previously undisclosed €40,000 trip — paid for by a Saudi businessman and shared with a former lover and her child — sparked anger at a time when Spaniards were suffering through the global financial crisis. Within days, the then Spanish king emitted an apology: “I am sorry. I made a mistake.”
This week, after more controversy and allegations, Juan Carlos formulated another apology in the form of exile. The royal was to “leave Spain” after “public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating”, he wrote in a statement.
It has been a rapid fall from grace for the man once feted as both the architect and saviour of Spain’s democracy. The past decade has witnessed cracks in a phenomenon author Javier Cercas called the “taboo of the king” — whereby Spain’s major media outlets long omitted negative stories about the monarchy.
“We’ve gone from not saying anything bad about the king to convicting him without a trial,” Mr Cercas said. [ ... ] ".
The United States national election is now only three months away and it
should be expected that the out-and-out lies emanating from both
parties will increase geometrically as
the polling date nears. One of the more interesting claims regarding the
election itself is the White House assertion that large scale voting by
mail will permit fraud, so much so that the result of the voting will
be unreliable or challenged. To be sure, it is not as if voter fraud is
unknown in the United States. The victory of John F. Kennedy 1960
presidential election has often been credited to all the graveyards in
Mayor Richard Daley’s Chicago voting to swing Illinois into the
Democratic camp.
◼️◻️📰 Another slap in the face lto the Spanish court prosecuting the exiled Catalan leaders.
#Belgium justice denies #Spain
extradition of @LluisPuigGordi because it is not incumbent upon the
Supreme Court to request it. Yet again, Spanish justice finds itself in
trouble when dealing with truly independent European courts.
Juan Carlos, ancien monarque espagnol soupçonné de corruption, s’exile
Aucune précision n’a été faite concernant le pays où l’ancien roi, qui avait abdiqué en 2014 sur fond de scandales, s’installera.
" Soupçonné de corruption et sous le coup d’une enquête de la Cour suprême, l’ex-roi d’Espagne Juan Carlos a annoncé sa décision de quitter le pays dans une lettre adressée à son fils, le souverain Felipe VI, rendue publique par la maison royale lundi 3 août. Aucune précision n’a été faite concernant le pays où il s’installera.
« Guidé à présent par la conviction de rendre le meilleur service aux Espagnols, à leurs institutions, et à toi en tant que roi, je t’informe de ma décision réfléchie de m’exiler, en cette période, en dehors de l’Espagne », a écrit l’ancien souverain, estimant devoir prendre cette décision sur fond de « répercussions publiques de certains épisodes de [sa] vie privée passée ». Il s’assure ainsi de ne pas rendre la tâche plus difficile à son fils, ajoute-il. Dans un communiqué de la maison royale, son fils fait savoir qu’il accepte sa décision et l’en remercie. [ ... ] "
Juan Carlos et son épouse, Sophie de Grèce, à Ceuta, le 5 novembre 2007. JOSE LUIS ROCA / AFP
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s former king Juan Carlos has decided to leave
his country, a dramatic exit designed to protect the monarchy after a
barrage of corruption allegations surfaced against him.
Juan Carlos et son épouse, Sophie de Grèce, à Ceuta, le 5 novembre 2007. JOSE LUIS ROCA / AFP
Spain’s King Felipe and his father, Juan Carlos, in 2014.