The large police deployment avoids incidents between anti-systems and Desokupa in a tense Bonanova

A large police device, made up of almost 380 Mossos d'Esquadra and urban Mossos, has prevented clashes between protesters for and against the squatters on a high-voltage afternoon in Barcelona's Bonanova square, coinciding with the start of the election campaign.

Barely 200 meters separated the two antagonistic concentrations: the one called by support groups for the squatted houses in Plaza Bonanova, El Kubo and La Ruïna, and the one against the squatters, which has brought together some neighbors and, mainly, followers from the extrajudicial eviction company Desokupa.

On the eve of the campaign, Desokupa had heated up the neighborhood conflict in Bonanova, in the upper part of Barcelona, by announcing that tonight he would forcibly evict the 150 squatters who live in the El Kubo houses -taken in 2016- and La Ruïna —in 2019—, although he ended up giving up intervening in the buildings and announced that he would only demonstrate “next to the neighbors”.

This forced the Mossos d'Esquadra to design a special device to prevent riots, which has mobilized 300 agents —from riot police to plainclothes police— and another 80 from the Urban Guard. The Mossos d'Esquadra literally took over Plaza Bonanova, in the upper area of Barcelona, to avoid possible confrontations.

Around 7:00 p.m., the agents made their first intervention to evacuate the square and isolate at one end a group of 150 people who had gathered in front of the squatted houses to protest against the squatters.. As time passed, the Bonanova anti-squatter demonstration grew in number and reached half a thousand people, according to estimates by the organizers..

In a video released live from Plaza Bonanova, almost at nine o'clock at night, Daniel Esteve, from Desokupa, boasted of having brought together the neighbors to protest and that 15,000 people had followed his demonstration live on social networks , for which he challenged the mayoress: “Ada Colau, match me”. In the midst of insulting shouts against Colau, Esteve affirmed that “we have blown up the Barcelona elections and this is fucking madness”.

Shortly after, two columns of protesters with antagonistic signs tried to advance towards the square: from Lesseps square the pro-squatters set out, some 600 according to the Guàrdia Urbana, and up Muntaner street marched Desokupa's followers, half a thousand, who chanted cheers to their leader Daniel Esteve and insults to the mayoress of Barcelona, while they sang “go for them”.

The pro-squatter protesters, many of them with their faces covered, reached the occupied houses, but not before staging a minor incident with a line of riot police who charged against some protesters to prevent them from passing through a street that the police had decided to close..

Just after 9:30 p.m., a small group of protesters carrying the banner to start the demonstration (with pads to defend themselves from police beatings) tried to break through the police cordon, but lost the banner and position, winning only a few beatings. in the legs.

Almost at 10 at night, the anti-system demonstration decided to withdraw, although some of its members dedicated themselves, during the return to the Gràcia neighborhood, to destroying street furniture (they also tried to break a shop window) while being rebuked by neighbors from the balconies.

The Vox candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Gonzalo de Oro-Pulido, present until the end, announced that on Sunday Santiago Abascal himself will visit the Sarrià neighborhood and denied that his presence in the place was electoral.. “Barcelona is fed up with this mob that breaks into other people's houses and destroys families. We are going to support any neighborhood rally against squatting”.

In the neighborhood rally to demand the vacancy of the squatter houses in Plaza Bonanova.

VOX next to the neighbors, before, during and after the elections. pic.twitter.com/ahoSWrKLD6

— Gonzalo de Oro 🇪🇦 (@gonzalodeoro) May 11, 2023

With their heads covered with motorcycle helmets and entrenched behind metal fences, the squatters of El Kubo and La Ruïna, who displayed a sign with the slogan “Whoever governs, we will be ungovernable”, welcomed the protesters amid shouts of solidarity and anti-capitalist slogans..

In turn, some residents directed insults at the squatters from the windows of their houses, to which the anti-capitalist protesters responded with slogans such as “people without houses and houses without people” or “where is Desokupa?”.

Previously, the anti-system groups activated Antifascist Alert, an operation to “monitor the movements of fascism in the surroundings of La Ruïna and El Kubo in Bonanova”. They warned their activists that “if you see fascist movements in the surroundings, use the hashtag #AlertAntifa with the time, the street, photos/videos and any information that can be used to detect them.”. Let's watch and act.”. The communication channel served to immediately alert that “four members of the fascist gym Puro Impacto are around the Bonanova square. They wear neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbology on their clothing and tattoos. They have threatened the compañeras from La Ruïna with coming to shoot each other”.

Through their social networks, they also followed the movements not only of the protesters against the squats, but also of the vans and motorcycles of the Mossos d'Esquadra. The activists inside warned that there were many cameras and a drone scanning the area.. “If you can, cover yourself,” they advised the anti-system militancy.

Media defending squatters

The squatters of La Ruïna also broadcast a video this Thursday morning in which they interviewed the president of the neighborhood association and several residents of the squatted houses and they all attacked “the right, the extreme right and Desokupa” because, they claimed, everything is due to an orchestrated campaign due to the upcoming municipal elections. The neighbors affirm that there was never any problem with the tenants of the houses La Ruïna and el Kubo. Two organizations linked to the commons collaborated on the video: Spanish Revolution and La Futura News, which included images from Betevé, Barcelona's public municipal radio station (and, therefore, controlled by Colau) to make the video itself..

Despite the laundering content, in a letter from the okupa collective also distributed this Thursday, it is stated that the two squatted houses have suffered different attacks. Already in 2019 they had several attempts to set fires and launch pyrotechnics, “coinciding with the social response derived from the process and the opening of the neo-fascist Empel social club, a few meters from Kubo and La Ruïna. These isolated attacks have continued over the years.”. In addition, they point out that “from the beginning of 2019 to the summer of 2022, coinciding with the media campaign against the occupation, some became emboldened, the level rose and the shooting with pellets began, always from the same balcony, at vans parked inside and near the house, to the windows when they saw people inside, and to the patios when we were outside”.

They also say in the same document that this year the attacks increased and “daily fireworks began, for several weeks, on certain occasions in the form of firecrackers and batteries of firecrackers during events at the social center, such as the one launched on 18 February coinciding with a daytime concert located in the corner of the patio, where a nursery space was prepared for children [sic] to come (…) there are people who bragged about it on their social networks”.

Another arson attempt took place on March 23, when an eviction from the center was aborted “and there are reports from firefighters that can be consulted. Since then, there have been a multitude of fire attacks, most of them frustrated, due to the constant state of alert. Smoke canisters and homemade automatics, gasoline bottles have been thrown into the house and many people have been caught red-handed in these attempts. Kids come up every day to shout, throw stones, bottles, also wearing helmets, encouraged by companies, parties and the media and with the clear impunity and complicity of the police”.

The squatter offensive is not limited to direct action to ‘defend’ the two squatted houses. They have also begun to prepare dossiers with personal information of the ‘enemies’, among which are the mayoral candidates of Ciudadanos, Valents and Vox and Daniel Esteve, director of Desokupa, who is presented as an “individual of testosterone action with a history of kidnapping and extortion, who leads, along with Vox, Valents and Ciudadanos a rhetorical escalation and threats against the squats La Ruïna and El Kubo de la Bonanova to condition the election campaign”.