Word: spain
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...late 1980s, Spain had become Europe's wunderkind: its foreign investment ballooned, its 4% cumulative annual growth was the Continent's highest and, with the help of European Community subsidies, it built $30 billion worth of highways and other public works. No longer did Spaniards have to emigrate north for jobs: their income rose to 79% of the E.C. median. Culturally, Spain became fashionable: the campy fantasies of filmmaker Pedro Almodovar; the sunswept abstractions of painter Miguel Barcelo; the postmodern extravaganzas of architect Ricardo Bofill; the prankish sexiness of fashion designer Sybilla. Madrid promoted itself...
Braving the labor unrest, Gonzalez seems determined to wrestle Spain's economy into line with inflation and budget-deficit targets set out in the E.C.'s December agreement at Maastricht. Despite growing doubts elsewhere in Europe, a majority of Spaniards still support the treaty, and Gonzalez has not wavered since he told parliament this spring, "For a country like ours, historically isolated, no effort should be spared to board this train. Our well-being and our stability depend on our success in adapting to the construction of Europe." The restructuring of Spain's noncompetitive heavy industry is under...
Next January Spain's seven-year E.C. transition period will be over, and the country will be forced to compete full throttle in a 340 million consumer market. For every businessman concerned that this will mean a foreign takeover of Spanish industry, another argues that Spain can muscle its way into the big leagues. In his Valencia porcelain factory, Jose Lladro offers his 2,300 employees, 85% of them women, an Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts and Friday afternoons off. But the atmosphere is far from relaxed. Quality is rigidly controlled, and any worker who arrives six minutes late...
...Spain is one of the few European nations that must still contend regularly with terrorists. But the Basque extremists, who had threatened to disrupt the 1992 festivities, were severely weakened by recent arrests of their top leaders. Nevertheless, the group showed signs of life last month when it bombed a navy van in Madrid, wounding 13. Although Spain's 17 regions are gaining more autonomy, the national-identity issue remains explosive. Catalans and Basques, who control their own schools, police forces and television stations, envision an even more independent future under a Euro-umbrella. The Basque country, says Guernica Mayor...
Polls show that drugs, more than terrorism or the economy, are Spain's most incendiary political issue. The country has become a principal gateway for South American cocaine, Middle Eastern heroin and North African hashish. Although the government has stepped up enforcement, its combat against the drug trade is uneven. Colombian Justice Minister Fernando Carrillo Florez recently charged that "the battle against the Medellin cartel is being lost because of Spanish bureaucratic hassles" in delivering evidence against dealers...