AMY GOODMAN: The Bush administration is entering a period of intense diplomacy intended to strong-arm reluctant nations into passing a new U.N. Security Council resolution. The resolution would pave the way for a U.S. attack on Iraq. The U.S., Britain and possibly Spain are planning to introduce the resolution early this week.

But the U.S. has met with unprecedented opposition. Last Saturday, tens of millions of people marched in the streets of major cities around the globe in opposition to a U.S. attack.

More worrying to the Bush administration, only three Security Council members ­out of 15 are supporting the U.S.: Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. Nine votes are required to pass a Security Council resolution.

Bush hosted Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, over the weekend. On Saturday, Bush and Aznar held a strategizing meeting via telephone with the British and Italian prime ministers, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi.

Bush appears to be calling on his few allies to try to lobby other Security Council members. Aznar has already met with Mexican President Vicente Fox and is set to discuss the issue with Chile.

Spain is emerging as the Bush administration’s strongest ally, second to Britain. But according to the latest poll in Spain, 94% of people are against war with Iraq. Last Saturday, some 3 million people marched in the streets against the war. That’s about one in every 13 Spaniards and was perhaps the largest protest in the world.

Just yesterday, some 200,000 took to the streets of Madrid. They began protesting the gigantic oil spill off the Galician coast, but the demonstration turned into an antiwar protest.

María Carrión, filmmaker and former Democracy Now! producer, joins us from Madrid.

Welcome, María.

MARÍA CARRIÓN: Thank you, Amy. It’s good to be with you.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you with us. Well, why don’t you start with what happened as Aznar was meeting with Bush in Texas, this latest protest?

MARÍA CARRIÓN: Well, the reason why people gathered in Madrid, and thousands upon thousands of people from Galicia took overnight buses to Madrid, is because of a gigantic oil spill three months ago. The Prestige oil tanker spilled millions of tons of crude all along every single beach on the northern coast of Spain. And the government has not done a very good job of cleaning up. So they came here to protest, to demand some resignations and also to tell Aznar that if he wants oil, he doesn’t have to go to Iraq, he can go to the northern coast of Spain and pick it up himself.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of the meeting with Aznar and Bush, and why, as the people of Spain massively protest — and maybe you can describe what some of these protests feel like, like the February 15th one — he is becoming one of Bush’s closest allies?

MARÍA CARRIÓN: Well, you know, Aznar has thought of himself as something other than just a regular president of Spain. He wants Spain to cease being a sort of a small county with minimal power. And he wants to be the man who goes into history as having brought Spain to a new level as a very staunch U.S. ally. I think he also has aspirations to bring Spain into the G8 and become strategically powerful in Europe vis-à-vis Germany and France. And I think that’s why he’s taken it upon himself, despite massive opposition here in Spain, to work out deals with Bush. He also is fighting a war against ETA, which is the separatist group, armed group, in Spain in the Basque Country. And the U.S. has provided massive support for that, including intelligence, which has permitted Aznar to arrest dozens of people deemed to be part of ETA. So, that’s his personal, I think, reasons for doing this.

Aznar has been going around trying to convince other allies, or possible allies, and Security Council members. He miserably failed in Mexico on Friday. Vicente Fox basically did not go out to the press conference after they met. He did not go to the airport to greet him or to accompany him afterwards. And Aznar left Mexico among an enormous protest, Mexicans saying, “What is going on here? We’re no longer a colony of Spain. You know, don’t bring us your trinkets and expect us to give you gold in exchange.” But that’s what Aznar is doing. He’s going around trying to rally up, you know, a support for this new resolution and is sometimes said to be more pro-American and pro-war than Bush is. As far —

AMY GOODMAN: María —

MARÍA CARRIÓN: Amy, as far as the protests, they are truly spectacular. I mean, we went to the one last Saturday, the 15th, and there were over a million people just marching in Madrid. And it was overwhelming. The organizers did not know what to do with it. And there actually was a parallel march to the actual official march because people just did not — were not able to fit in the streets that had been designed or assigned as the marching streets. So it’s been tremendous, children coming out with homemade banners against the war. The actors have led the protest, actually. The world of film in Spain has taken a lead in this. And, see, weeks ago we had our version of the Oscars in Spain, and everyone came out with an antiwar pin and, you know, came out against the war on live television, on state television, which Aznar did not like at all.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, María Carrión in Madrid, can you talk about the Guernica, Picasso’s famous painting, the city, and how it ties into what’s going on right now at the U.N. Security Council?

MARÍA CARRIÓN: Well, it’s Picasso’s most famous painting, of course, the Guernica. It depicts a town of Guernica in the Basque Country being bombed by the Nazis in 1937, where a third of the town was killed. And it’s an incredible painting where you see women and children screaming in terror because of these bombings.

The U.S. basically had the United Nations remove a replica of the Guernica from just outside of the room, the Security Council room. And it just so happens that it’s placed exactly where Security Council members stop to talk to the press and TV cameras right after they have had their sessions. The official reason is because it might be confusing to TV viewers, and something more sort of neutral like a little blue covering would be much better. Of course, all the diplomats are saying privately that it’s because they did not want — the U.S. did not want Powell or other Americans to be speaking out for bombing Iraq with the backdrop of screaming women and children.

And also, Amy, I have to add to that, this was on the 5th of February, when Powell gave his speech before the Security Council arguing for a war in Iraq. And that same day was when the painting was covered by a blue curtain with a U.N. logo. And that same day, the employees of the museum Reina Sofia, which houses the Guernica here in Madrid, came out in protest. Outside of the museum, they held a huge replica of the Guernica with antiwar slogans painted over it.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, María Carrión, I want to thank you very much for joining us from Madrid. Thank you.

MARÍA CARRIÓN: Thank you, Amy.