El conflicto del Sáhara Occidental en el marco de la Primavera Árabe

Abstract

Several academicians and political analysts considered that the protest of October 2010 in Gdeim Izik, Western Sahara, was the prelude of the Arab Spring that started months later in many Arab countries. However, we consider that this idea cannot be supported and that it is undesirable since it diverts our attention focus from the origin of Gdeim Izik’s events: the sovereignty conflict over the Western Sahara territories. The reasons why we believe that the Gdeim Izik protests cannot be included in the protest movements and the fifth wave of political change in North Africa and the Middle East are as follow: (a) the characteristics of the protest; (b) the political consequences for political organization, representation and participation in Western Sahara; (c) the consequences of the political reform process in Morocco for the territorial organization of Morocco and the Sahara region; and (d) the international consequences for the resolution of the sovereignty conflict in Western Sahara.