"Belief, and the Will to Win"

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EXPRESSO - 9/Nov/2002 Friends of Olivença Turn Against Sampaio The Friends of Olivença Group (GAO) in a letter sent to the President of the Republic challenged the conferring of the Great Cross of the Order of Prince Henry ("The Navigator") on the president of the Spanish Region of Extremadura, Juan Carlos Ibarra, alleging that he presides over a Spanish organization that "exercises, in fact, foreign dominion over a part of Portuguese territory". The conferring , took place in Mérida during the course of the meeting «Jornadas Ágora o Debate Peninsular», ("Journeys Ágora the Peninsular Debate)". In the letter, which EXPRESSO has seen, GAO has manifested "their most vehement protest against conceding such an honour", regretting that "its implications had not been fully considered", and invited the President "to explicitly give the reasons for the bestowal". The group point out that Ibarra had in July of this year, in the Spanish press, ie in the regional papers «Hoy» and «El Periódico Extremadura», produced "declarations clearly unfriendly towards Portugal", in saying that "the territorial claims over Olivença were the work of a handful of lunatics who do not recognize its Spanishness". In concluding, the Friends of Olivença reminded Sampaio that "the Portuguese legal system considers Olivença, to be occupied by a foreign power, that it is national territory and that such legal authority asserts itself over and comands the entire Portuguese State, with particular emphasis on the Highest Representatives, and fears that Portugal may give the honour an impression of reduced dignity and of little importance". In Mérida, at the time of the ceremony, the President of the Republic justified it by saying that the conferring rewarded Juan Ibarra for his role in opening " a new cycle in Portuguese-Spanish relations specifically between Extremadura and Alentejo, stripped of prejudices, placed in a balanced vision of the interests and understanding of what is truly essential". José Frota Olivenca olivenca