Marches, strikes rattle Catalonia as anger flares
BARCELONA, Spain — Masses of flag-waving demonstrators demanding Catalonia’s independence and the release from prison of separatist leaders jammed downtown Barcelona on Friday as the northeastern Spanish region endured its fifth straight night of unrest.
Chaotic scenes of violence erupted after more than a half million protesters, including families with children, marched in the Catalan capital, according to local police. Many were clad in pro-independence ‘estelada’ flags and shouted “Independence!” and “Freedom for political prisoners!”
Some of them had walked for three days in five massive “freedom marches” from towns across the northeastern Spanish region. They converged on Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million people, and joined students and workers who also took to the streets during a 24-hour general strike.
But at night, police resorted again to rubber bullets and, for the first time this week, to tear gas and water cannons to repel masked youths hurling cobblestones and flammable bottles, building barricades and setting dozens of bonfires with large garbage bins.
Around 400 people, roughly half of them police officers, have been injured according to regional and central authorities, and 128 arrested since separatist sentiment surged on Monday, when the Supreme Court sentenced to lengthy prison terms nine separatist politicians and activists. The nine had led a 2017 push for independence that triggered Spain’s deepest political crisis in decades.
On Friday, the huge displays of support were mostly peaceful, but protesters and police battled over the control of Barcelona’s center after protesters circled the gates of the national police’s headquarters. As clashes with police escalated, the chaos spread to other areas of the Catalan capital.
Albert Ramón, a 43-yearold public servant joining one of the rallies in the northern city of Girona, said the convictions — including fines for three more separatists — had soured the political climate.
“These verdicts violate fundamental rights and hence people are reacting,” Ramón said.
The separatist movement is proud of its history of mostly peaceful campaigning. Officials have accused a relatively small number of agitators of provoking the recent riots.
Spanish authorities suspect a secretive new group called Tsunami Democratic is using encrypted messages to orchestrate some of the attacks, which have included torched cars and burning barricades in the streets.
The group appeared on Sept. 2 and in just over six weeks has gained nearly 340,000 followers on its main channel in Telegram, a messaging app.
A National Court judge on Friday ordered the closure of websites linked to the group.
Rights group Amnesty International called on “all authorities” to refrain from contributing to the escalation of tensions in the streets and to respond “proportionally” to outbreaks of violence.
The group said in a statement that it had observed “various cases” of “excessive” use of police force, “including inappropriate and unjustified use of batons and other defensive equipment against people who posed no risk.”
But the interim interior minister, Fernando GrandeMarlaska, defended the police action as “proportionate” and warned Catalan separatists that Spain will apply the criminal code “with all its force,” threatening them with prison terms of up to six years.
Tourists also felt the turmoil. At least two large cruise operators diverted their ships to other ports, and those which had already docked in the port of Barcelona cancelled their passengers’ excursions to the city. Architect Antoni Gaudí’s modernist Sagrada Familia also closed its doors due to a protest blocking access to the basilica.
Naoya Suzuki, a 34-yearold tourist from Japan, complained about the disruptions to “people who have nothing to do with Spain.”
“I’ve had a look at the news and I can just about understand why they are angry, but not why are they are doing all this and stopping the sightseeing of tourists,” he said.