News
The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1854
14 - 20 January 2021
AXARQUIA - COSTA TROPICAL • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
FREE • GRATIS
TOUGHER RESTRICTIONS
THE Government of Andalucia will announce a tightening of mobility restrictions tomor row, Friday January 15. The president of the com munity of Andalucia, Juanma Moreno, has put together a se ries of tougher measures, agreed with the regional gov ernment. After a meeting, late Tues day night, with the Advisory Committee on highimpact public health alerts in Andalu cia, it was decided that ‘new stricter measures that affect mobility and economic activity within the community will, un fortunately, have to be taken,’ said Mr Moreno. It was also suggested that the central government “should start thinking about whether to take a measure such as total confinement” for the whole of Spain. Concerned about the rapid spread of the virus in La Linea and the recent surge in cases in Andalucia itself has led the community President to make the decision as, according to reports, he cannot wait the 14 days normally left between an nouncements to bring in the new restrictions. The public will have to wait until tomorrow to hear all the details, but the President,
JUANMA MORENO: Has put together a series of tougher measures.
when asked, would not rule out total confinement for the region. The announcement follows news the Andalucia Govern ment is giving direct aid of €1,000 aid to SMEs in com merce, hospitality, crafts and tourism four of the sectors hit hardest by the Covid pandem ic.
The Governing Council plans to distribute slices of a €46.1 million fund to around 46,000 small and mediumsized An dalucian businesses as a matter of urgency. The crisis cash aid is included in the Support Plan for SMEs and the selfemployed which was signed last November be tween the Junta and the Con
federation of Entrepreneurs of Andalucia (CEA), the Associa tion of SelfEmployed (ATA) and the Chambers of Com merce. The aim is to ‘contribute to the continuity of the business developed by these SMEs, avoiding their definitive cessa tion and, therefore, job losses.’ “Commercial and artisan es
Hostage couple freed A COUPLE allegedly kidnapped over a €100,000 debt to moneylenders has been freed. Relatives of one of the two held in a flat in the centre of Malaga for three days contacted the police after receiving calls claiming they were being held against their will, along with another person. National Police responded and re leased a man and a woman, aged 41 and 42 years old, and an investigation has led to the arrest of two Spanish men, aged 35 and 43, for a crime of il
legal detention. Operation Maradona was launched by Malaga Provincial Police after reports a family member of one of the ‘hostages’ had received phone calls and messages from the relative claiming he was being held with another person and urging them to collect large sums of money to pay off a debt ‘for a failed business.’ The captors reportedly controlled the calls that the victims made to their relatives, even joining the conversa tion occasionally, to threaten them and warn them that their lives were in
serious danger. Further police inquiries revealed the kidnappers had apparently put pressure on the victims to take out a loan to set tle the debt and use a property belong ing to another family member as collat eral. Officers were able to identify and lo cate the suspects and free the two hostages from a flat in the García Grana neighbourhood. The case is now in the hands of the Court of Instruction Number 11 of Malaga.
tablishments, hospitality and tourism intermediation have been severely affected by both
national and regional measures for the prevention and contain ment of the pandemic, which include capacity limitations, closing time and even restric tions on opening or perfor mance of its activity,” said the Junta de Andalucia in a state ment. The authority also highlight ed the additional costs small businesses have incurred to cover the cost of installing and implementing health and safe ty measures in line with the government’s recommenda tions. All of these elements have contributed towards “endan gering the very survival of these small and mediumsized companies,” said the authority. The aid will be separated in to two lines of subsidies the first is intended for the retail trade and handicraft sector, and the second will benefit the Andalucian hospitality industry (which includes tourism estab lishments, travel agencies and catering businesses).