Ex-Mecano founder Nacho Cano arrested in Madrid for allegedly hiring undocumented immigrants
Spanish National Police have detained Nacho Cano, a renowned music producer and former member of Mecano, the iconic Spanish band behind the hit song ‘Hijo de la luna’.
The arrest was made following allegations that Cano employed undocumented immigrants in his current musical production ‘Malinche’, which tells the love story between Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés and the Mexican slave.
Cano was subsequently released and is waiting to receive a summons from the court investigating the facts.
Following his release, Cano gave a press conference, in which he explained that a scholarship programme does not mean taking jobs away from Spaniards.
"Sometime last year Jimena Carraza from Casa de México calls me and tells me that they are going to set up a scholarship programme and that they have decided to give three to Malinche. Since we had planned the premiere in Mexico for next year, we expanded the scholarship program to 19 people. I go to Mexico, we do the casting and the people are chosen. We are not talking about bringing workers to take jobs away from the people here.”
He added that the Mexicans participating in ‘Malinche’ receive a remuneration of €500 per month and live in a hostel together with the teachers.
"We started with this scholarship program in collaboration with the school, ensuring that everything would be developed properly,” added Cano. “At no time are workers replaced; they come to add.”
Cano didn’t end things there, and stirred up a conspiracy theory for his arrest.
"I’m not the criminal - it is the police who must be investigated,” he declared. “All this has been orchestrated by the police. It’s like the Stasi. It’s a dirty and disgusting operation.”
He explained that 12 policemen appeared two weeks ago at the school where the classes are given, and that the officers took the scholarship holders to the police station.
"There is no need for 12 policemen unless you want to crush, coerce,” he added.
Cano further stated that his arrest is an action "directed" to take attention away from Begoña Gómez, wife of Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is currently on trial.
Gómez received a court summons for 5 July, in connection with a corruption probe into her business activities. The summons follows the launch of a preliminary investigation into Gómez in April, relating to “the alleged offences of corruption in the private sector and influence peddling,” according to the court.
Cano also reiterated that he is a friend of the President of the Conservative People’s Party of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, which in his opinion influenced his arrest.
“My proximity to Isabel Díaz Ayuso is the key to everything.”
"You have to get the attention elsewhere than the imputation of the wife of the president of the Government, and I am a friend of Ayuso and I am not leftist because I am not an idiot. All of this is part of the agenda to go after me.”
"If they find me dead in the gutter, you know who it was," he added.
This is not the first scandal the Spanish artist sparked regarding his play ‘Malinche’.
While promoting it before its premiere, Cano gave an interview to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in which he said: "If we had not discovered America, Hitler would have won World War II.” He added: "Thanks to Christopher Columbus or Hernán Cortés, we now have the iPhone" and "Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and El Salvador should be grateful because if it had been the English, they would not have left a single one alive" - in reference to the arrival in America.
Cano was also involved in controversy because of the 30 meters high Aztec pyramid that he proposed to erect for the show. The project was going to have more than 1,000 seats and a 400-space parking lot in the district of Hortaleza. However, locals weren’t best pleased about the plans and started a petition that tallied around 20,000 signatures to stop the construction of the pyramid and the parking lot.
