On the brink of the anniversary, "Chronicle" returns to Praia da Luz and considers how Portuguese and British
police are more worried over their private war than looking for the child. The Portuguese insist: she is dead, and the McCanns,
implicated. The British still believe she is alive.
Section: Chronicle
Date: 27.04.2008
Journal: El Mundo
We can never lose our policemen’s intuition, [expletive deleted]. We must remain skillful ... we are
not Norwegians, Finns,[expletive deleted]. We are Portuguese and Portuguese cops will dig around, improvise, rely on intuition,
make use of the CSI, that is true, but we can also walk around like angels with white christening gowns, properly sterilized,
starched and eating lettuce leaves because they are healthier. The member of the gang smokes, likes to eat and drink a few
drinks." [Note: “Malta,” so far as I know or can find in any dictionary, is not a Spanish word; it is Portuguese.
It means “gang,” but rather in the sense, I think, of “our gang” or “band of brothers,”
than any sort of group of bad fellows.]
So exhorts the chief Joao Tavares, from the passenger seat of the Ford Focus, to the inspector Francisco Meireles.
They are cops. They are a gang of friends. They are Portuguese police. When this conversation occurs, it has been five months
since Madeleine McCann disappeared from the apartment of her parents in the Algarvian locality of Praia da Luz. Since that
night of May 3 in which the girl disappeared, they make this trip from Portimao to Luz frequently. At night. They have done
it so many times in these five months that Meireles could remove his hands from the steering wheel, because the Ford Focus
already knows the 21 km from memory. If you don’t know it by heart, the Ford Focus is also Portuguese, a brother. That
night, Tavares is angry, and therefore wanted to return. It is the night of October 2, 2007 and his boss, Gonçalo Amaral,
has been removed from the investigation. Amaral has been removed, he says, because of those lettuce-eating Englishmen who
are trying to protect the McCanns: because Amaral Tavares, Meireles and the whole group of Polícia Judiciária of Portimao
are convinced that the couple are guilty of the disappearance of their daughter. And they have succeeded in concealing it
thanks to the high-level influence that the McCanns enjoy in the British Government.
April 23, 2008. The journalist parks the car at the same place and Tavares Meireles waits: “To see if
the dead girl tells us something." The girl remains silent ...
The little fence of apartment 5-A Rua Françisco Gentil Martins is closed with a cumbersome padlock, because
there are still curious pilgrims to the unburied mystery of the Virgin Madeleine. Already, in the Algarve, nobody is worried
about her. Tourism has not fallen. The periodicals re-sell what they sold before (they tripled their print runs and visits
to their sites in the hot period of the investigation). In the small garden are blooming well-arranged wildflowers, some flowers
that someone must take care to safeguard from the dryness of this premature summer. The tulips of the neighbourhood are already
lying down in the sun, and April has not yet ended. Everything remains as before Maddie. They who most agree are the only
ones of this luxurious neighbourhood of white houses that speak Portuguese: the domestic servants, the delivery men, the fishmongers.
In Porto da Luz [Note: Must mean PRAIA da Luz.] there is no census. The population is floating [fluid]. British,
French, Germans, Americans appear for a summer and disappear forever. Of course, no one is accustomed to losing a child.
So, perhaps, the McCanns acted with little good sense that night of May 3. They called Britain before the
Portuguese police. And, before the Portuguese police, they called all their neighbours, so that when Gonçalo Amaral, coordinator
of the Polícia Judiciária, arrived with his team of investigators, the flat at 5-A Françisco Gentil de la Rua was brought
to a standstill by fat, British, self-designated field marshals organizing searches on which there was no agreement. And trampling
evidence like imbeciles.
It was the first thing that made Gonçalo Amaral suspicious, who on Wednesday after 28 years on the force,
has agreed to leave the police with a paltry pension of 1,000 euros per month. Why? "There are things that have no price.
Dignity is one of them, and it has been withdrawn by their superiors in Lisbon," said one of his men, who spent a decade a
decade working alongside him.
The sin of Amaral was of thinking – after it would be of word and deed, not of omission – ever
since that first night: when the Portuguese arrived and the whole world, starting with Kate and Gerry McCann, spoke of abduction.
Nobody suggested that the three-year-old girl could have left by her own feet, despite the McCanns’ admitting not bolting
the door in case something happened in the house. And his entire group of Judiciária suspected another thing: the twins Sean
and Amelie, despite all those beery British field marshals in the adjoining room, were not awakened at any time. Neither when
the parents decided to move them in their arms to another room did they open their eyes.
- These kids were doped, as it
showed then.
- That was not proved.
- Many things were not checked.
COLONIAL WAR
It is not only Amaral’s team in the Algarve that thinks that the investigation on the McCann culprits
has not existed. The journalist Helder Nunes, director of the weekly Windward of Portimao, and who has followed the Maddie
case in great detail, announced to Chronicle a few hours before it happened the news of the week: "Gonçalo Amaral will leave
the police and will write the book of what really happened to Maddie." (Amaral, who no longer speaks with the press, announced
his resignation just three hours after claiming that he wanted to regain his ‘freedom of expression ‘).
Nunes, who knows Amaral, explained his reasons before the decision of the police will have been formalized:
"The Portuguese police are convinced that there was an accident at home, that the McCanns have a social and political position
to defend and that they went mad and disposed of the corpse. The British police spend the whole investigation by concealing
evidence that might incriminate the McCanns, because that would involve Gordon Brown." Nunes does not forget that the British
prime minister gave to the parents one of his closest advisers, Clarence Mitchell, to be the spokesman for the family before
the media. Do not forget that Gerry McCann was in the spotlight of the British ministry of Health to access a relevant government
office. Do not forget that parents called Britain prior to the Portuguese 112, when they were closer.
Chronicle was with Gonçalo Amaral, "the great enemy of the McCanns” -as his resignation on Thursday
to the police was called by the Portuguese newspaper 24 oras - one week before he was to depart from the case. [Note: This
is a rehash of an interview that was printed in September 2007.]
- You have not seen the mother. You do not know the mother. She is cold. She is smart. She is an actress.
Amaral was set off by the press to criticize the efforts of the occult British police, their stubbornness
in preventing the McCann investigation. And also charged to McCann after a tense night interrogation on 7 September. Two days
later, the couple and the twins fled the Algarve and took refuge in Britain. Six days later, Amaral spoke for the first time
with the press since the disappearance of Maddie. He chose a foreign means: Chronicle. He requested that the meeting not be
recorded as an interview but as a result of third [party] sources. He only wants to be transcribed his denials in those matters
in which the British press has just screwed him: they have accused him of drunkenness, laziness, and, that which hurts him
most, of being a bad dresser.
-- Do you not want to respond to the accusations?
- No.
-- Doesn’t the media
commotion bother him so much?
- As San José said, justice is done in silence.
It is no longer necessary to maintain that anonymity. Gonçalo Amaral met with the journalist in an uncouth
bar in Olhao, 80 kilometres from Portimao. His appearance agrees with that of which he is accused by the British lettuce-eaters:
undoubtedly he has slept in the suit in the past three days; he hasn’t shaved; as he has a reputation as a drinker,
the journalist- also with true pleasure –orders one whisky after another during the interview, glasses that the red
eyes of Amaral continue following with anxiety; but the Torrente who dramatised Gonçalo Amaral on my whiskies and his waters
immediately shows other cards:
- You're talking to me of police novels. You write police novels. I do other things. I read
other things. I do not you see you. And I read a lot.
Afterwards one learns that Torrente has studied, with the highest marks for his promotion, criminology, psychology,
sociology and law. One day one of his subordinates asked him:
- Chief, and what is the branch of investigation that puts
you over?
- People.
[Note: The journalist appears to have given Amaral the nickname “el Torrente,” which in Spanish
means the rushing stream, the torrent, or the flood. Since it appears that he is also saying that Amaral – somewhat
longingly – stuck to water whilst watching the journalist drink water, perhaps this is a play on the fact that Amaral
was drinking water rather than spirits that night.]
THE HUGO BOSS SUIT
It is not important that they labeled him drunk or lazy. What bothers him is the English press with their
objective of wrinkled suits, sweaty from three sleepness nights of sitting in an armchair in the Judiciária, with crumbs in
lapels and in the understanding (that he is wearing them):
But [censored word], Aníbal. This suit is Hugo Boss!
Finally, Gonçalo Amaral was dismissed as the coordinator of the investigation on 2 October 2007 (25 days after
the McCanns were accused). [Note: The McCanns have not been formally accused. The writer is obviously referring to their being
made arguidos.] The reasons: he had spoken to the press - Chronicle first and Portuguese Diario de Noticias one week later
- criticizing the obstructionist British police. [Note: The adjective entorpecedora, as applied to the British police, is
an important choice of words, in my opinion, and it is not possible to determine exactly what the author is saying. The Spanish
verb entorpecer can mean to obstruct, to hinder, to set back, and also, in the sense of work, to delay. All I can say is,
pick one. The meaning clearly is that the British police were not helping matters.]
Chronicle has managed to speak with one of the collaborators of Amaral. Despite having resigned on Wednesday,
he has not thrown in the towel. He is preparing a book, the book, about the shame felt by Portuguese investigators faced with
pressure from the British in this matter. You're not alone.
Between 1990 and 2007 Paulo Pereira Cristovao was in the Policia Judiciaria as an inspector. He worked in
the departments of Combate y Bandidismo, human trafficking, terrorism, and eastern Mafias. In his publishing success “A
Estrela de Madeleine” – recently pubhished in Portugal by the publisher Presença – he confirms with names
and surnames all Amaral’s theories: their little girl died; they concealed it to avoid a Portuguese prison, which they
consider Third World; they involved their friends and high British officials (the presence of MI6 in the area is common knowledge
with police and journalists living in the Algarve since then; they made the body disappear; turned the case of the disappearance
into the biggest media event in all history; they put forward a false trail in press conference[s]. No one has sued Pereira
Cristavao. His work is not on the shelves of bookstores: it is sold piled on top of the counters.
Julian Peribáñez is a detective. The agency of Julian Peribáñez, detective of the agency Metodo 3, has taken
seven months searching for Madeleine. And contrary to what the Portuguese cops think, they are looking for her alive. More
than 20 detectives have worked simultaneously on the case. An exorbitant cost. [Note: The Spanish word would be “exorbitante,”
but I can’t think of any other way to translate it.] They have checked more than 2,500 clues and have followed a hundred
in Argentina, Mexico, Morocco, Bosnia, Portugal ...
“We continue to look for Madeleine alive. Otherwise we would not be doing it," he says, convinced. He
does not scorn the Portuguese police, but he follows the trail of the British investigators: Maddie is alive; the parents
have nothing to do with it; the Portuguese feel they are being treated like a colony and are going at it the easy way.
"The little girl, unfortunately for us and especially for her, is no longer in the world of the living. Even
if someone had her in his possession, would he keep her alive knowing that she is the most looked-for little girl in the world?
I do not think so. The excessive advertising that [the parents ]gave, since the first night, to her face and iris were her
special condemnation. The rest is lip service, friend. She died and may God take care of her, because she was an innocent
who fell into a world of pure beasts." Thus said Joao Tavares. Amen.
9 CLUES FOR A PUZZLE
After one year, the Maddie case has been converted into an impossible to resolve puzzle. All tracks that,
at some point, seemed definitive, were afterwards dead ends. Here are some:
Parents suspects. Four months after the disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann are declared suspects by the
Portuguese police, of the accidental death of their daughter after being interrogated separately. The contradictions into
which they fell- they argue that they were taking turns in order to monitor their children while several witnesses claim that
they had not moved; they said that someone had come from outside but the window shutter was not forced and denied having left
the apartment that afternoon, when they were filmed in an ice cream shop - they were put in the spotlight of the same British
press that a month ago apologized to them.
Sedatives. The Police went so far as to consider the hypothesis that the death of Madeleine had been caused
by an overdose of sedatives. From Kate’s diary can be inferred her difficulties in controlling the child, "hyperactive"
according to the mother. Kate’s father went so far as to speculate in public (albeit to deny it) with that possibility.
It was also published that after the birth of the twins, Madeleine was subjected to treatment to control jealousy and the
doctors prescribed tranquilizers. The track of the pills also faded away, although the twins slept like as angels in the presence
of 40 people the night in question.
The friends. The McCanns had dinner the night of the disappearance with three other couples of doctors, and
the mother of one of them, at the Tapas restaurant, 30 metres from the hotel. The versions do not coincide in some details
as those relating to monitoring of the children. Jade Taner [sic, should be Jane Tanner], present at that table, says she
saw a man with a child in his arms. His description-dark hair, slim, 1.70 meters, served to make a portrait robot [efit] on
the alleged hijacker. He was accused by hearsay of a third party neighbour. Question of jealousy. A few days ago all were
called back to testify. No progress.
The "criminal". Robert Murat is a British citizen who lives with his mother near where the girl disappeared.
He was the first suspect - 15 May. He was released for lack of evidence. Son of a Portuguese, he is divorced and has a four-year
girl who lives with his ex-wife in England. He was denounced by journalist Lori Campell, of the Sunday Mirror, for his strange
behavior during the investigation, in which he worked as a translator for the police. He announces that he is bringing lawsuits
left, right, and centre.
The blood. The dogs used by the Police found cadaver odour on the floor and on the key of the car, a Renault
Scenic, which the McCanns rented after the disappearance of their daughter. They also found traces of blood in the trunk.
Before others had already appeared on a wall of the bedroom occupied by the parents of the girl. However, the analysis laboratories
in Birmingham concluded that the remains in the car belonged to an adult male with a probability of 72%. The walls of the
apartment were cleaned with detergent, and the contamination that was the result of the presence in the apartment that night
of some 40 or so people, eventually invalidated these remains as evidence.
Bones. The discovery of some bones in a dam of the Algarve in January seemed the end. They were animal.
Pictures. Rare has been the month that has gone without published photos with alleged Madeleines anywhere
in the world: Morocco, Spain, Holland ...
The mulatto. The coincidence of some pictures, in which one sees a mulatto man in a park next to Maddie before
her disappearance and the same character accompanying Robert Murat after his arrest, did run the hypothesis of an alleged
paedophile network led by police who drew children of the country in order to sell them abroad for the purpose of the traffic
in organs. All known paedophile networks were swept to no avail.
The flight. Following diplomatic pressure from London, the McCanns left Portugal, although the Portuguese
Penal Code provides (Article 138) the crime of negligence for leaving the children alone without a caregiver could have been
charged.
Lead: Portugal. Abductions. Missing persons. Case of the girl Madeleine McCann. On the brink of the anniversary,
"Chronicle" returns to Praia da Luz and considers how Portuguese and British police are more worried over their private war
than looking for the child.
Signature: Anibal Malva
*
Note: The police officers João Tavares and Francisco Meireles are fictional
characters based on various officers and inspectors, not anyone in particular. They are symbolic of PJ inspectors
working on the Madeleine case.
The translation above was a collaborative work done by Astro,
Beachy, Joana, Tiffany, Stinky Sardine, The Academic, Anna, Santacoloma, Mercedes, Fenugreek, SkinnyDip, Eraumavez, Mantra,
Kazlux, Cassen, Ines and other Spanish-speakers. To all a big Thank you, Muchissimas Gracias e Muito Obrigada.
