THE United States, in a rare attack on a valued ally, accused Spain yesterday of helping to spread lies by awarding a royal prize to a newspaper for a series of articles on an alleged global trade in stolen children.
Minutes after King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia handed the award to Correio Braziliense, the US embassy, which had unsuccessfully tried to stop the ceremony, issued a strongly-worded statement expressing its dismay. "We view with extreme regret the jury's decision," it said.
"We are puzzled to find a western European government with the full facts at hand associating itself with a dangerous and damaging fiction and thus lending it credibility," it added.
At the Spanish Foreign Ministry, which has worked closely with Washington recently in a number of key fields officials were not available for comment.
But the author of the 1924 Correio stories, Ana Beatriz Magno, said she could not understand why Washington was upset.
"I don't see why the Americans are in such a state, since my stories mentioned neither US citizens nor their government," Ms Magno told Reuters after receiving the prize.
The Correio stories were mostly about illegal international adoptions, with only two cases mentioned of Brazilian children kidnapped in Brazil and returned minus one kidney, she added.
A US embassy spokesman said last Friday that the stories, similar to earlier reports since 1987 which have implicated US citizens, could create serious long-term problems for international adoptions and organ donations.
In an editorial yesterday the Brasilia-based Correio said there was no reason for the US anger. "On no occasion have the American authorities mentioned or questioned this trafficking in children There is no mention in the material written by the reporter for the Correio Braziliense of accusations against American citizens," it wrote.
"Under pressure from the American government, the jury of the Kings of Spain award, made up of officials from six countries, met again to re-evaluate the reports and confirmed the award," it added.
Until the dispute broke out, relations between Madrid and Washington had been at one of their high points in recent years following the appointment of the former foreign minister Mr Javier Solana as Nato secretary-general in December and the signing this month of a new bilateral extradition agreement.