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In Spain, just two weeks prior to Christmas 1996, book confiscations and arrest were the order of the day when police raided the bookstore Librería Europa in Barcelona. Police seized the entire inventory of twenty thousand books, taking into custody bookstore owner Pedro Varela, who at the time of the raid was 39, on suspicion of “defending genocide.” Deprived of his freedom and livelihood, Varela was left with no other option than to close down his book business.
Professor Fernando Savater of the University of Madrid decried the police raid and the laws that had made it possible, warning that such arbitrary actions constituted a palpable threat to civil liberties. The professor intoned that such laws were setting a dangerous precedent and voiced his dismay over the fact that the raid was generally hailed in the liberal media as a “victory for progress.
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