SPAIN: Deportation of Venezuelan Band Sparks Outcry

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Sep 10 2007 (IPS) - Four well-known Venezuelan folk musicians were deported when they arrived to perform at Spain’s Canary Islands, where the community reacted with anger and pointed out that the South American country took in tens of thousands of Spaniards during the 1939-1975 dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

The members of the Ensamble Gurrufio arrived at Tenerife airport on Saturday, to perform at the 29th Sabandeño Festival, but as soon as they had disembarked they were detained, and three hours later they were on a plane back to Caracas.

Carmen Delia Leal, activities director at the Canary Islands Centre of Popular Culture, which organised the concert, told IPS Monday that the Centre will demand an apology and indemnification from the Spanish government for the Centre and the quartet.

The music festival was sponsored by the government of the Canary Islands, the local government of the island of Tenerife, and the city council of La Laguna, where the concert was held. But the musicians were denied entry to the country by the national police stationed at the airport, who are accountable to the central government of Spain.

The Spanish government has neither commented nor taken any action with respect to the incident so far.

Leal said the four musicians arrived in Spain in full compliance with the law, as they had a formal invitation to participate in the concert, hotel reservations and tickets for a return flight the next day. They were planning to spend only the night of their concert appearance in Tenerife.

Spain’s current immigration law, which was approved on May 10, stipulates that foreigners wishing to enter Spanish territory for tourism or private purposes must show airport police a form with their personal details and guarantees for their accommodation costs.

The police officer who detained them at the airport regarded the letter of invitation signed by Los Sabandeños as invalid, and said that “anyone could have written it,” since he did not know the signatories.

Los Sabandeños, created in 1966, is regarded as the leading promoter and disseminator of Canary Islands folk music, and has been inviting music groups and singers from all over Latin America to its festivals for 21 years.

One of its founders, Juan Díaz, was at the airport to meet the Ensamble Gurrufío, and tried to find a solution, but to no avail. He said the Venezuelans “were treated like criminals, and we were given no opportunity to put a stop to this astounding and deplorable episode.”

Leal said that the visitors were not only acting within their rights, but that there had been “a flagrant violation of the law” on the part of the police officer, who held the travellers in detention without providing a defence lawyer, and without consulting the Venezuelan consulate in Tenerife.

“What’s more, the consul is godfather to one of the members of the Ensamble Gurrufío, so the consulate certainly had plenty of relevant information,” she said.

Central government authorities in Tenerife said that the four Venezuelans required work visas, not the tourist visas they presented, according to Cadena Ser radio station.

Leal pointed out that for years, Venezuela took in thousands of Spanish migrants, especially people from the Canary Islands, who would take passage on ships stopping over at these islands, off the northwestern coast of Africa, en route to the Americas.

“It is inconceivable that four musicians, coming to play at a concert, and intending to spend one night on Tenerife and go home the next day, should be rebuffed in this way,” she said.

Just as Los Sabandeños are famed and acclaimed in Spain, so is the Ensamble Gurrufío in Venezuela. When they founded the group in 1984, Cristóbal Soto, Luis Julio Toro and Asdrúbal “Cheo” Hurtado named it the Gurrufío Chamber Ensemble. A year later they were joined for a while by Jesús González, and later by David Peña and Juan Ernesto Laya.

At present the group is made up of Hurtado on the “cuatro” (a four-stringed instrument similar to a guitar), Peña on double bass, Laya on maracas and Toro on the flute.

Since 1991, their international tours have taken them to Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Puerto Rico, the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries.

Among their albums are “Maroa” (1993), “El Cruzao” (1994), “El Trabadedos” (1996), “Cosas del ayer” (1998), “En Vivo” (1998), “Gurrufío y Orquesta” (1999), “Serenata con Gurrufío” (2001), “Sesiones con Moisés Torrealba” (2002), “El reto” (2005) and “Riqui riqui riqui ran”, a CD/book for children recorded in 2006, the first edition of which sold out in less than a month.

The government of the Canary Islands, a coalition with nationalist sentiments but which also includes former communists and centre-right politicians, publicly deplored the incident on Monday, and demanded an explanation from Madrid for what had happened. Díaz of Los Sabandeños pointed out that the level of development attained by the Canary Islands is largely due to the remittances sent by Spanish emigrants in Venezuela “when Spain was going through hungry times.”

He said apologies should be made to the deported musicians, and that “the mistakes made should be rectified.”

La Laguna Mayor Ana Oramas would also like to see such an outcome, and said she is more than willing to co-sponsor another invitation to Ensamble Gurrufío to come and perform on the island.