María Jesús Cañizares
28.09.2019 00:00 h.
Whether due to the lack of troops, or for professing an independence ideology, agents of the Mossos d’Esquadra have expressed their refusal to guard the Civil Guard barracks in Catalonia. The arrests, by the Civil Guard, of members of the Comités de Defensa de la República (CDR) who allegedly had prepared terrorist acts have been used by secessionist groups to lash out in parliamentary headquarters against the “oppressive state”. To the point that, last Thursday, Junts per Catalunya, ERC and CUP added their votes so that a motion for a resolution favorable to the expulsion of the Civil Guard out of Catalonia would be passed, with the abstention of the Comúns.
This initiative, which caused a very strong parliamentary quarrel that ended in the expulsion of Citizens’ spokesman, Carles Carrizosa, while secessionists shouted “freedom” has increased the internal tension that, for months, has been living in the regional police, dependent on an Interior Counseling very politicized. “The only thing that is said in my escamot [section] is that there is no intention to strengthen the Toga operation in the Civil Guard barracks. They are feeding hate”, an agent of the Mossos explains to Crónica Global.
He refers to the surveillance device that was put in place to protect judicial buildings at the beginning of the year, following the vandalism attacks committed by the CDRs as a protest against the start of the trial on the 1-O referendum in the Supreme Court. That custody, which the police unions call “monitoring walls”, has been reduced since then until, last week, the president of the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (TSJC), José María Barrientos, ordered that custody be withdrawn at six judicial locations – it is kept in the Courthouse and in the Judicial City – based on a Mossos report that aimed at a reduction of the risk of new attacks.
However, the arrest of the CDRs and the political tension has turned around this situation and during this week protests have already taken place around the Civil Guard barracks of La Travessera de Gràcia (Barcelona). Also, on next October 9, the celebration of the patron saint of the Civil Guard is planned in the barracks of Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona). Previously there is a designated date, the second anniversary of the illegal 1-O referendum. These celebrations are joined by the imminence of the sentence and another anniversary, that of the unilateral declaration of independence (DUI) on October 2
Interior Minister to send 750 CNP antiriot squad
The Interior Ministry has already informed that it will send 750 riot police of the National Police to Catalonia, while the Mossos announced that they will use pepper gas if there are altercations in the street. As published by this media, the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, did not like the fact that this planning of his regional police was made public, so it would imply confrontation with the CDR. Torra asked for the head of the new head of the Mobile Brigade (Brimo), Xavi Pastor, who acceded to the position last January, but police officers prevented him. “Justice must be above force and revenge. Above all, proportionality”, Torra told the Mossos in his speech during the General Policy Debate.
The Brimo had already been in the spotlight last year, when the Catalan police charged against the independence radicals. “There are many mossos who do not even greet the patrols of the National Police and Civil Guard. The Generalitat is interested in the conflict of the CDR with these police groups, not with the Mossos. I don’t think they send us to push against the activists”, explained a Catalan police command.
Silent clashes at police stations
In that state of internal division, which causes “silent confrontations in the police stations every day”, said those sources, a union meeting will be held on Monday, the 30th, with representation in the Police Council with the commanders of the Mossos, in order to “analyze the police scenarios of next autumn”, according to the statement sent to these associations.
“We do not know what we will find”, the summoned unions point out, but “what is clear is that we will not let them violate our rights as workers or that the schedule decree is not breached again, as happened with the Cronos display (anti-terrorism devices) and Ágora (October 1 referendum)”
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