se ven obligados a viajar a EEUU con visado diplomático para no ser detenidos, como Pinochet. El otro día escribí que el asunto trae cola, porque el Departamento de Estado norteamericano está avisando a empresas que se planteen invertir aquí que se anden con cuidado ya que el respeto a las decisiones judiciales es poco más o menos el mismo que el de las repúblicas bananeras.
Barcepundi, que explica que avui havia de celebrar-se el judici a Barcelona i que s'ha posposat, senyala que la transcendència de l'afer ha estat recollida fa uns dies pel Financial Times, que com tothom sap està pagat pel PP.
The Forum spent more than €400m ($540m) organising a six-month cultural festival in Barcelona in 2004 – an event that was widely condemned as a flop and a waste of taxpayers’ money. Mr Rosalini and Mr Albá were among the artists commissioned by the Forum to produce content for the event.
The filmmakers’ alleged offence has been to seek payment for a film project that was cancelled by the Barcelona Forum without the customary kill fee. In April 2004, a US court in the state of Illinois ordered the Barcelona Forum to pay more than $4m in compensation to the filmmakers. When Messrs Rosalini and Albá, through their lawyers, Jones Day in Chicago, sought to enforce the Illinois judgment in Spain, they were accused of extortion.
The trial comes shortly before an expected official trip to Madrid by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state. Ms Rice has not yet confirmed her visit, having twice before cancelled engagements in Spain, but Spanish officials expect her to be in the city in the first week of June.
Spain and the US have big differences over Iraq and Cuba and how to engage with leftwing Latin American leaders such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. Relations are therefore distant.
The filmmakers’ case has become another thorn in a prickly relationship, as it has implications for US companies doing business in Spain.
