King, other leaders join demonstration for peace in Spain
500,000 march with rally cry of ‘I am not afraid’
BARCELONA, Spain — Hundreds of thousands of peace marchers flooded the heart of Barcelona on Saturday shouting “I’m not afraid” — a public rejection of violence following extremist attacks that killed 15 people, Spain’s deadliest in more than a decade.
Emergency workers, taxis drivers, police and ordinary citizens who helped immediately after the attack on Aug. 17 in the city’s famed Las Ramblas boulevard led the march. They carried a street-wide banner with black capital letters reading “No Tinc Por,” which means “I’m not afraid” in the local Catalan language.
The phrase has grown from a spontaneous civic answer to violence into a slogan that Spain’s entire political class has unanimously embraced.
Spain’s central, regional and local authorities tried to send an image of unity Saturday by walking behind emergency workers, despite earlier criticism that national and regional authorities had not shared information about the attackers well enough with each other.
In a first for a Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI joined a public demonstration, along with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other Spanish and Catalan regional officials.
Some citizens whistled their displeasure as authorities passed and held banners criticizing the king’s role in promoting military exports to Saudi Arabia.
Barcelona police said some 500,000 people marched Saturday.
The Islamic State group has claimed the vehicle attacks in Barcelona and the coastal town of Cambrils that left 15 dead and over 120 wounded. The investigation has shown that the extremist cell planned even more deadly carnage but accidently blew up a house in Alcanar where explosives were being built.
Eight suspects are dead, two are jailed under preliminary charges of terrorism and homicide, and two more were freed by a judge but will remain under investigation.
Medical authorities said Saturday that 22 people wounded in the attacks are still being treated in hospitals. Six of them remain in critical condition.