Choose to Challenge
International
Women’sDay
How these two women - an expat and a local did two centuries apart
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we hear the inspirational stories from over a dozen expats from around the country
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Vol. 2 Issue 35 www.theolivepress.es March 11th -March 24th 2021
Retrial for legendary British drugs baron could put him back on the streets
CONVICTED British gangster Brian Charrington is to get a sensational retrial. The seasoned crook, who enjoyed the high life of luxury homes, boats and cars on the Costa Blanca, has been handed a potential get-outof-jail card over his 2018 drug trial. The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that there were ‘impartiality issues’ over his 15-year sentence at Alicante Court.
Cocaine
The 65-year-old ex-car dealer, who lived in Calpe, had been found guilty of smuggling 192 kilos of cocaine from South America in 2012 and 2013. Shipments came in on yachts landing at Altea, while the drugs were stored at a property in Albir, near Benidorm. The Middlesbrough-born crook - business partner of legendary Curtin ‘Cocky’ Warren - was arrested alongside his son Ray and two other associates and
By Alex Trelinski
fined €31 million. His French girlfriend Isabelle Robert was acquitted and will not face a retrial. The original trial has been ruled null and void after defence lawyer, Joaquin de Lacy, appealed over conflicts of interest involving the Alicante judges. The Supreme Court upheld the challenge on the basis that the judges had been previously involved in 26 separate rulings on the case ahead of the 2018 trial. That, in their opinion, infringed the defendants rights to an impartial hearing. Charrington (pictured) had claimed he was merely a real estate agent who ‘buys and sells villas and pays taxes’ at the original hearing. Police had raided over a dozen luxury properties as they arrested him in July 2013. Charrington has had reasonable fortune in trials back in the UK. His brushes with the law
back home included a customs raid at his home in 1992 that unearthed millions of pounds in alleged drugs money. However he escaped charges when it was revealed he was a police informant. In 2002, a Leeds trial collapsed when Charrington and two Middlesbrough police officers faced public office conspiracy charges. The case had collapsed when
the judge ruled against illegally-obtained phone taps. He was acquitted in two other drugs trials, before being finally sentenced to seven years in Germany in 2003 and two years in France in 2006. The Spanish media branded the felon as the ‘Wikipedia Narco’ because Charrington regularly updated his profile on the internet site with news of his latest activities.
...with an introduction from our British consul in Andalucia, Charmaine Arbouin
...and introducing our new Digital Editor, Fiona Govan, in Madrid All inside our International Women’s Day special supplement
www.theolivepress.es
CAPTION TO GO HERE
I
Destination Relaxation
One in five Spanish women gave up work due to the COVID crisis, while they also poorer and harder are than men, writes Olive working Press Digital Editor Fiona Govan
FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S
LONG WAY TO GO
N previous years March 8 a day when I would meetwas grandparents to toddlers hoisted with a group of friends up on shoulders, came together in a we would hit the streets and sea of purple brandishing signs of Ma- with powerful drid joining tens of thousands slogans to show others to mark International of that modern Spain means equal Wo- opportunities, whatever men’s Day. gender you are. We would don purple items of But the demonstrations clothing and join in the also unprotests derlined how that attracted people much there was from all still to do; women walks of life and across may now be the nerations – both men and ge- fully accepted in the workplace wo- but they are still men, boys and girls. penalised by a There was a carnival atmosphe- gender pay gap, which is not im- men is still recognised as a major proving fast enough. re as people of all ages, problem in Spain and the from Meanwhile violence we are against wo- witnessing the rise of the try’s political far right and counwith it a denial of gender inequalities. This year with Spain still in the grip of the pandemic, are no mass protests withthere thorities banning gatheringsauto avoid potential super-spreader events, but the health crisis has highlighted and even compounded some of the inequalities in society. Working from home has seen a steep rise in mental health with women bearing the issues of the burden of childcarebrunt and housework as they try to balance work life with home-schooling and care for their elderly relatives.
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March 2021
A SMALL village in ed the skills of twodeep inland Malaga has enlistwhitewashed walls local artists to transform the into a tribute to rural across the ages. women In a project entitled rapher Ana Becerra ‘Saucedeñas’, Ronda photogtaken to Villanueva and artist Selector Marx have Residents awoke lastdel Rosario. week to large scale white collages of images black of local rural women and blazoned on walls of em“The women on the municipal buildings. are entrepreneurs, photographs are women who who cultivated creativity had a history of self-improvement or who ” said Becerra.
When Spain went into lockdown a year ago, gender violence soared with the authorities reporting an 18% rise in calls ring the first fortnight alone. duA survey conducted by DYM in
DAY...
Important day Charmaine Arbouin, British Consul for Andalusia, Canary Islands, Ceuta & Melilla. Based in
women in managerial positions Malaga she covers remains around a third of that of the region of Spain men with the numbers dropping even further as careers progress. that has the largest Spain’s female executives concentration of British 15.1 percent less than their earn residents counterparts, although this male below the EU average is just salary gap of 16 percent according “International Women’s the latest EU data from 2017. to Day is an opportunity the run up to Women’s to Day this This inequality is highlighted celebrate the achieveyear revealed that 7% of in women the statement issued ments of women - both had suffered physical or by psycho- government on March Spain’s past and present; those logical abuse from men 8: “Woduring men in Spain work who have shaped 2020. more than and transformed our world, men today, but And most alarwhether that be politithey are poorer.” mingly of all, accally or in the fields Of course there cording to the laFIVE LINERS science and culture. of are still reasons test data, women it’s also a moment toBut xxxxxxx to be positive remade up 93% of flect on what still needs and to celebrate those who gave xxxxxxxxx to be done and that’s just how far woup employment why this year’s theme xxxxxxxx men have come during 2020 in of Choose to Challenge in Spain. Spain... citing camatters. We must xxxxxxxxx all Spain may not ring for minors, choose to call out bias have had a feand inequality, so that elderly or sick remale prime we have even more great latives as the main reasons. nister but it has the largest mifemale achievers to That is one in five women, share accor- of women in any European ebrate in the future.” celding to a survey by online lecom- gislature with women munity MalasMadres. representing 47 percent of elected During the second quarter MPs, of last a bigger proportion year, a period that coincided of female with lawmakers than even Sweden. Spain’s strict lockdown 61,000 More than half of Pedro women gave up their jobs to chez’s cabinet comprises Sancare for others compared woto just men – each one impressively 6,500 men. qualified for their role – And when it comes to with wothe kplace itself, the proportionwor- men holding key ministerial poof sitions including Foreign Minister and Health Minister. We’ve come a long way the end of the dictatorship since a woman had to have when her father’s or husband’s permission to travel and couldn’t open a bank account. But there’s no room for complacency, we still have a long long way to go.
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