On Sunday, the referendum on secession from Spain for the state of Catalonia descended into chaos and never really had an outcome. Federal police used tear gas and truncheons to keep Catalonians from participating in a vote Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy branded "illegal."
As to how the Trump Administration should react to a dispute that captured the world's attention for the past few days, the former Spanish ambassador to the U.S. told Newsmax that "the administration and its spokesmen should remember the American pledge of allegiance and say they stick to it."
"The key words in the U.S. pledge is 'one nation under God, indivisible,'" Javier Ruperez, Spain's ambassador to Washington, D.C., from 2000-04, told Newsmax on Sunday, "[Spain] should not allow its Constitution — which calls for a united Spain — to be forgotten, and when discussing what happened in Catalonia, the U.S. and its official spokesmen should not forget their own pledge of allegiance."
Ruperez, who spoke to us from Madrid, was referring to two recent and very controversial statements about the secession vote in Catalonia by State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
Asked about the Catalonian vote on September 13, Nauert said: "We will let the government and the people there work it out, and we will work with whatever government or entity that comes out of it."
When asked by Newsmax on September 25 if the U.S. would accept a Catalonian vote for independence, Sanders replied: "I don't have anything further than what Heather has already said on that issue. If it changes after that takes place, we'll let you know."
During a joint news conference with Rajoy the following day, President Trump said he was comfortable about a "united Spain." But Ruperez felt the comments of Nauert and Sanders were "disgraceful" and showed an "ignorance" of the Catalonia controversy.
"Think how Americans would react if California suddenly began a secession movement," he said, "Or Texas. Or Idaho. The territorial integrity of the U.S. is in its constitution, as Spain's is in its constitution."
Ruperez, who also served as an assistant secretary general of the United Nations, added that "we have a system in place that allows them to secede. If they made their case to the parliament, won a vote of two-thirds in each of its houses, and then won a national referendum on secession, so be it. Catalonia would be independent."
Ruperez added that the message the Catalonian separatists would now try to send to the world was "that federal police were trying to keep people from voting freely. In truth, they were carrying out orders from judges that this vote was illegal. Spain has been a unified country since 1492 and, like the U.S., it is 'one nation under God, indivisible.' I hope its official spokesmen remember that."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.