When All Fails, Take to the Streets

In Venezuela, in North Korea, in the Peoples´Republic of China,  in Syria or in Myramar, how long would the establishment take in reacting with violence to manifestations like those rocking Catalonia today? Were we not living in a free and democratic nation, masses of Catalonians would be dead or injured right now.  Puigdemont and his hosts refuse to recognize that the Spanish constitution does not allow a region to go its own way. National political leaders have offered again and again to review laws but as a democratic head of government, Mr. Rajoy can not pretend to accept unlawful demands. In Catalonia, it is not the military or the police that are stopping the sedition and rebellion against the Law of the Land. It is the courts! Mr. Maduro of Venezuela  supports the nationalists. Does that tell us anything? What would happen in the USA if a state threatened to declare independence? The solution is dialogue but not with Barcelona or Madrid setting the agenda. Madrid has offered to talk. Barcelona accepts if its conditions are accepted prior to sitting down.