Gilbraltar Opening Up

End to the blockade

While a Welsh men's choir sang Rock of Ages and a cheering crowd waved Union Jacks, the civil governor of the province of Cadiz, Mariano Baquedano, last week placed a key in the brass lock of the gate that for 16 years had separated Spain from the British crown colony of Gibraltar. The lock would not budge. Embarrassed, Baquedano handed the key to a Spanish policeman, who also wrestled nervously with the reluctant mechanism. At one minute past the appointed hour of midnight, the lock finally gave way, and the large green gate swung open.

Despite its awkwardness, the ceremony put...

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