Word: ceuta
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...year: A few months earlier, Letizia's sister had committed suicide. This fall, groups of Catalan nationalists publicly burned photos of the king and queen, and last week, Morocco's monarch temporarily recalled his ambassador from Madrid to protest the Spanish monarch's visit to the contested cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Through it all, Juan Carlos and his wife Sofia have maintained their habitual calm, confident, no doubt, of both of their high approval ratings and their own exquisite manners...
...countries that claim to be the closest of allies, Spain and Morocco sure do fight a lot. The latest chapter in their ongoing love-hate fest came this week, as Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia made a trip - their first as monarchs - to Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish cities that Morocco claims as its own. They were on official state business and it was the first time a Spanish monarch had visited since 1927. Last Friday, Morocco's King Mohammed VI protested the royal visit by withdrawing his country's ambassador to Spain and on Monday, as thousands...
...Located on the coast of western North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla have been part of Spain for more than four hundred years. But Morocco views the two cities as occupied territories - a last, insulting bastion of Spanish colonialism. Much as any gesture of British sovereignty in Gibraltar raises Spanish hackles, so do assertions of Spanish identity in North Africa irritate the Moroccans. Five years ago, for example, the two countries came to the brink of war when a band of Moroccan soldiers raised their national flag on a tiny, uninhabited island called Perejil that Spain considers its territory...
...their part, members of the Spanish government are trying to placate the Moroccans. Spanish defense minister José Antonio Alonso assured the press that the royal visit "wasn't against anyone." But with nearly a third of Ceuta's 75,000 population turning out to greet the king and queen by waving flags and singing "Olé, olé, olé, we're Spaniards," that message may not make it across the border...
...While economic disadvantage can be easily quantified, only a hint from the current relations of the Spanish and Moroccan governments can predict the toll on the social landscape. The two countries both claim the cities Ceuta and Melilla that lie in Northern Africa—a gripe that has caused tensions for three centuries. In fact, a year and a half before the announcement, Spanish marines and Moroccan soldiers were caught in a wrangle in the islet of Perejil, which each country claims...