Catalonia rattled by marches, strikes amid separatist anger
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 day of unrest.
More than a half million protesters, including families with children, marched in the Catalan capital, according to local police. Many were clad in proindependence ‘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.
More than 200 people have been injured and nearly 100 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.
This week’s huge show of support at times turned violent, with some protesters and riot police fighting running battles.
On Friday, the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, though police clashed with a few hundred young protesters who hurled bottles, eggs and paint at the gates of the police headquarters in the center of the city. Large trash containers were burned before police responded by shooting rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
Albert Ramón, a 43-yearold public servant joining a Friday rally 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.”