“If they find me dead in a ditch…”

National Police officers arrested music producer Nacho Cano on Tuesday for allegedly hiring illegal immigrants for his musical ‘Malinche’ in Madrid. Once released, the former member of Mecano and close friend of Isabel Díaz Ayuso called a press conference and lashed out at the police and the Spanish government: “The criminal is not me, it’s the police. If they find me dead in a ditch, they already know who it was.”

Accompanied by his lawyers and by the Mexican students who are taking part in the musical Malinche, he explained that he had set up a scholarship programme for 19 young people who had come to Spain to collaborate: “We wanted talented artists in difficult situations to succeed. We’re not talking about bringing workers from here. You come, you train and you come back. At one point, one of the participants, who is conflictive according to what I’m told, wants to go back to Mexico. You give him a ticket, he doesn’t want to, you give him another and another, and he threatens to file a complaint,” he revealed.

A police investigation then began, in which 17 students were questioned for alleged irregularities in their employment. They claim that the police action was targeted and that they have already taken legal action: “Last night, 17 complaints were filed for the absolutely inappropriate, illegal, irresponsible, coercive and intimidating treatment of the Police. I am not the criminal, the criminal is the Police. They are the ones who need to be investigated.”

Friend of Diaz Ayuso

Cano claims that “at no time, of the 177 workers at Malinche, with 500,000 euros in payrolls, has anyone been fired, on the contrary, it has been expanded as much as possible” and speaks of a plot due to his known friendship with Isabel Díaz Ayuso: “We are not criminals, it is the police. We are going to go against them. I tell the public that if they find me dead in a ditch, they already know who it was. The police act with such impunity, for the sole reason that I support Ayuso. I have not done anything wrong, there is nothing to hide here, it is all absolutely transparent.” And he adds: “My lawyer told me that I had to go to the police station to testify. I thought I was going for something else, in no case to have my photo taken and my fingerprints taken to appear in El País and on SER. There are many people trying to harm me.”

He also said that his arrest was the end of an orchestrated operation to destroy his public image that began a few weeks ago: “Before the elections, there was a break-in at my offices. The police came, broke the lock and left. I reported it and they told me that all the cameras in the perimeter were turned off. Which was a lie.”

Against the government of Pedro Sánchez

Cano has not only singled out Marlaska for his friendship with Ayuso but also for the latest scandal involving the wife of the President of the Government, investigated for alleged crimes of corruption and influence peddling: “My opinion is that attention should be diverted from the investigation of Pedro Sánchez’s wife and since I am a friend of Ayuso and I am not a communist, because I am not an idiot, because I have travelled a lot and have met many Cubans, Venezuelans… then they are going after me, because this is excessive.”

The composer added bluntly: “The police have acted in a targeted manner, they have come after me to find trouble and take it out of context and that is very dangerous, we are living in a country that is not what it used to be.”

According to the description, the program includes a period of practice, not work, which has led these 17 students to act in various performances of the play. “They are not working, they are doing practice. And many of them are on stage,” he insisted, “the hours they can be on stage are stipulated by law. They are not hired, they are on scholarships.”

“I’m not measuring the hours that people put in to succeed,” he argued, justifying the fact that these young people had performed the musical as just another member of the cast, under different conditions. “They have their hours set, their teachers can attest to whether this is exploitation,” he argued.