The entry into prison of the Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél the past 16 February unleashed a wave of protests that has rocked Spain in recent days.
Hasél was convicted of “exalting terrorism and insults to the Crown and state institutions” for some of his letters and tweets.
Upon accumulating previous convictions for crimes such as assaults and threats, the Spanish justice decreed his entry in prison.
After Hasél’s prison admission – born as Pablo Rivadulla Duró in 1988 – were produced virulent protests to demand his freedom in cities such as Madrid, Valencia, Pamplona or Barcelona, demanding the freedom of the rapper.
But what began as a protest against what the protesters denounced as an attack on the freedom of expression, became the that several of the participants describe BBC Mundo as an expression of anger at the accumulated frustration due to the lack of future expectations of a generation hit by the economic crisis and now also the effects of the coronavirus pandemic .
In Barcelona, the demonstrations were repeated for more than a week and on many occasions led to riots and actions violence against the police and some businesses, which were condemned by the citizens and the authorities.
On Saturday night there were serious disturbances, for which at least 14 people were arrested, in which an attempt was made to burn a van of the Urban Guard -the city police- with an agent inside, the fire of a barracks of this body, and shops were looted again, offices vandalized banking, between other damage.
The incidents occurred after about 4. 000 people demonstrated peacefully in the Catalan capital to demand the freedom of the rapper Hasél and to vindicate other social demands such as the regulation of rental prices.
The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, condemned the acts of violence.
” The right to protest is totally legitimate. Violence and vandalism, no. My resounding condemnation of today’s violent events in Barcelona after a peaceful demonstration ”, he published on his Twitter account on Saturday night.
Precariousness as “gasoline”
The protests do not have a clear convener or an identifiable objective. “ It is something transversal . Some of the participants are organized in political platforms. Others are less politicized kids who saw it as a opportunity to express their anger “, Lluís Cruz, a journalist from Betevé, the local television station in Barcelona, tells BBC Mundo.
“There are very different profiles; very young boys and girls, about 20 years, but there are up to 16. It is difficult to pigeonhole the protesters into a specific profile ”, adds the also local journalist Marta Font.
One of those young people is Pablo Castilla, a student of political philosophy from 21 years and militant of an anti-capitalist organization. He assures that the lack of “future prospects” is one of the factors that pushes him to demonstrate daily in the Catalan capital, as well as “see that what we have in front of us is more and more precariousness, more cuts in rights and freedoms. ”
“ The trigger was the imprisonment of Pablo Hasél, but I was very clear that it was not just because of that. There are many more things behind it ”, adds Castilla.
“ Our generation will live worse than our parents , we cannot find work, we see the future black,” says, for his part, Biel López, also from 21 years and student of Political Science.
Spain is the country with the youth unemployment rate highest in the entire European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD). The 40 7% of young Spaniards do not have a job; twice that of Colombia and five times more than Mexico, according to data from the OECD itself.
But having a job is not a guarantee for young people. According to the Youth Emancipation Observatory of the Spanish Youth Council – a report published in 2020 – one in five of young people who work is at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
In addition, according to the same report, only two out of ten children under 30 years has been able to emancipate himself. The Youth Emancipation Observatory also points out that in Catalonia the high housing prices mean that “the theoretical payment of the rent would have meant the 119, 6% of individual salary. ”
The Councilor for the Presidency and government coordinator of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Martí, tells BBC Mundo that “the gas tank, of social rage, is very full” .
“Indignation is growing over a system that offers few expectations to the young people and the pandemic has exacerbated it. ”
Although the difficulties faced by young people are recognized from different levels, the fact that some protests have ended in riots provoked criticism from some authorities towards some protesters.
“There is no cause, no place or situation that could justify the use ofviolence ”, said the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.
“There is a criminalization that tries to blame young people for infections”
Pablo Castilla assures that the “police persecution that young people suffered during the pandemic” it also plays a role in the demonstrations.
“In the summer we were blamed for holding illegal parties and then it was seen that the main outbreaks were among seasonal workers, migrant workers with precarious working conditions.”
According to Castilla, the employment situation of some young people in a pandemic, with “precarious jobs without security conditions”, has played an influential role in the perception of Young as transmitters. “How many illegal parties are there in a subway car at eight in the morning in Barcelona?” He wonders.
In July, the director of the Spanish Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simón, asked young people not to forget “the effort of their elders” in reference to the “bottles” – meetings of young people to drink in the open air – that took place in summer in some parts of the country.
“Cuts in rights”
For Biel López, added to the economic difficulties are “the rights cuts with Hasél’s imprisonment. ”
The rapper is the highest-profile person to actually go to prison for a speech offense in Spain in recent years, but his case is only one of many that have caused controversy.
Other interpreters or blo gueros have incurred the crime of “glorifying terrorism” , which has such a wide range that any example of justification of a terrorist act, even if it took place a long time ago, may lead to a conviction.
Amnesty International tweeted that Hasél’s arrest was “terrible news” for freedom of expression in Spain.
The Spanish government announced who planned to reduce the penalty for crimes related to freedom of expression such as glorification of terrorism, hate speech or insults to the Crown and religion, in the context of cultural activities or artistic.
However, the vice president of the government, Carmen Calvo, asserted in an interview on Cadena Ser that “Pablo Hasél has a whole history, the norms of this country are being applied to him.” and that “all rights have limitations” , referring to violent protests.
Against corruption and mon arquía
Andrea Vallejo, a young woman from 23 years that combines his studies in Sociology with a job as a receptionist to pay his rent, attributes part from the frustration of young people to corruption cases, some of which involve the political sphere and the monarchy itself.
“ They sell us that we are all equal before Justice and that is a lie. We see it with politicians who have been stealing and nothing has happened to them, ”he explains.
In recent years, numerous corruption scandals have been uncovered in Spain involving political parties that have outraged Spanish society. Some are still on trial, such as the so-called “Bárcenas case” in which the alleged illegal financing of the Popular Party is being investigated.
But in other cases there have already been convictions, some of high profile, such as those that led to jail former Minister of Economy and former IMF director Rodrigo Rato, and the king’s brother-in-law and husband of the Infanta Cristina, Iñaki Urdangarín.
Prec It is precisely the monarchy that is one of the main focuses of the demonstrations, in which it is common to see images of crowns upside down under the prohibition sign . Pablo Castilla describes the institution as “brutally corrupt” and Biel López understands the protests as “an attack” on the Crown, “as an amendment to the entire status quo of the current Spanish State.”
The king emeritus himself, Juan Carlos I, is in the public eye for an investigation in Switzerland and Spain about his accounts abroad in a case of alleged tax fraud and money laundering of capitals.
According to Transparency International Spain occupies the position 32 of 180 countries in the perception of corruption that their citizens have.
With better results than Spain In that classification are countries such as Qatar, Chile, Uruguay or the United Arab Emirates, where Juan Carlos I moved his residence last August.
The conflict Catalan
Some protesters also see the protests after the imprisonment of Catalan Pablo Hasél as a continuation of those that occurred in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia in 2017.
At that time, several pro-independence leaders were sentenced to prison for their role in holding a referendum on October 1, 2017, considered illegal by the Spanish Justice, and the subsequent decl unilateral aration of independence from the regional government.
After the sentence there were massive and daily marches in various parts of Catalonia, some of which ended with very violent confrontations with the police in the streets of Barcelona.
“Many of those of us who now go out onto the streets have experienced the demonstrations of procés (independence process) and d on October 1 ”, says Andrea Vallejo.
Biel López, who is also a member of the executive body of the ANC, one of the main civil organizations of the independence movement, assures that “everything drinks from the conflict politician between Catalonia and Spain that has marked Catalan society in the last 10 years, whether you are pro-independence or not. ”
According to López,“ the protests for Hashel’s imprisonment sooner or later will die as did those of 2019. But there will be another wave . The reasons will accumulate and there will be another drop that will fill the glass. ”
The violence of the protests
Many of the last demonstrations called in Barcelona also ended with scenes of burning of containers and vandalization of establishments commercial and banks .
Mayor Colau asked that the protesters not resort to “burning containers, which does not solve anything “And affirmed that” the imprisonment of Pablo Hasel causes indignation, but violence is not the way “.
Councilor Jordi Martí explains that the damage is counted in “hundreds of thousands of euros” but he emphasizes that “that is not the most important thing, it is the wound that these scenes cause in urban life.”
“In the middle of the pandemic in which the economic sectors are having a hard time is the worst time for these events to occur. ”
For his part, Luís Sans, president of the Passeig de Gracia merchants association – one of the most important and luxurious shopping avenues in Barcelona, and also one of the most affected by the riots— valued the losses caused by the destruction and looting in 750. 000 euros (about US $ 905 . 000).
“Only on Passeig de Gracia there are 75 vandalized establishments and 12 shops brutally looted “, he tells BBC Mundo. According to Sans, the riots are the responsibility of “groups that have any excuse to get active.”
However, some protesters say that many of the violent actions are born as response to police charges .
“The burning of containers and barricades are for a matter of defense, to prevent the police from loading or shoot (rubber bullets) ”, says Andrea Vallejo.
The student of 23 years distinguishes these actions from looting in stores: “They are another type of people attending the demonstration, go with the aim of mess it up because if. This does not represent me and I do not agree at all. ”
Another protester, Genís d. B., from 30 years, supports the violent actions of some attendees of the protests: “It seems that the institutions do not understand and n another type of language . I would like it not to be the way, but we have already tried the other one. ”
“ I cannot condemn that a group of young people threw stones at the police when the first day they fired 413 projectiles and burst the eye of a girl ”, adds Biel López.
The Mossos d’Esquadra – the Catalan police force that is in charge of intervening in the demonstrations – received criticism for their actions during the demonstrations.
A participant from 19 years lost an eye in the protests. According to several witnesses and the Iridia Human Rights Defense Center, the culprit was a projectile fired by the police.
The head of the police in the Catalan government announced an “urgent” review of the police model and said that “neither It can happen again ”that someone loses an eye in a demonstration.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, gave his support to the security forces against what he defined “unjustifiable attitude” of the groups that have caused disturbances.
The Catalan police have prepared a preventive security device to try to ensure that the mobilizations called this weekend pass peacefully.
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