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Many years ago I visited Sweeden. I don’t spek Sweedish but when a cop came along and told us to move our motorcycles, I had no problem undeerstanding his hand and arm signals. This yard bird in spain needs to do the time in the callaboose (sp?). When he gets out, even if it is a six month sentence, he will be fluent in Spanish.

My brother had a run in with a hotel management and police over there. The hotel insisted my brother damaged a chair in the hotel (deep scratch). They called the police and extorted the money from him to pay for the value of the chair.
After it was all over and they extorted the money, my brother grabbed the chair and started to walk out of the hotel. The manager said to leave the chair, at which point my brother informed him the chair was now his as he was forced to purchase it. That took the hotel manager and police by surprise. He promptly smashed his chair and broke it to bits to the amazement of the hotel manager and other guests. They wouldn't run that scam again with the same chair.

The article is not heavy on the details of the incident that got this guy arrested and thrown in jail. So it is hard to tell what happened to get him in trouble with the authorities. We only have his and his family's side of the story.

When I was younger, I lived in Spain for several years. I loved the culture and the people but I learned several things that apply here.

First, don't go to a foreign country and expect it to be like the US in it's customs or the law. Seriously, that is why it is called "foreign".

Second, don't play the ugly American and expect that behavior to be endearing to the locals. To them, you stick out like a sore thumb because you are a foreigner. It's like the guy driving the fire engine red Corvette and expecting the cops not to notice you speeding on the highway. You're going to draw attention, no matter what.

And finally, learn the culture and some of the language before going, so you avoid getting into the trouble this guy did. One thing stands out from the article that caught my attention was this was his first time out of the US and he didn't know how to speak Spanish. My thought was, uh-oh, a recipe for trouble.

He may very well be innocent of the charges. But he more than likely acted inappropriately for the circumstances in a place where he didn't know the customs, culture, law or language. A perfect storm for trouble in a dangerous world nowadays for travelers.

I wonder if these plainclothes policemen were Guardia Civil (the national police). Under Franco the Guardia Civil was a group you didn’t cross if you didn’t want to disappear. Nowadays they don’t do that sort of stuff but when I loved over there the locals told me you could just ignore the local cops but never the Guardia Civil. People are still a bit nervous around them.