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The violent riots of the last days in the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan cities bear the seal of the Defense Committees of the Republic (CDR), acronyms that have been made with the protagonism of the protests against the sentence of the process, before the bewilderment of the Government of Quim Torra.
Last night, in full swing of the incidents, with multiple clashes between protesters summoned by the CDR and agents of Mossos d'Esquadra, the president of the Generalitat appeared on television to call for calm and attribute the altercations to "groups of infiltrators and provocateurs . "
What are the characteristics of the protagonists of the violent protests that are shaking Catalonia since Monday?
What is your profile?
These are basically young people, including minors , who are sometimes hooded and who, unlike other riots in recent years in Barcelona, seek almost melee confrontation with the police .
Torra has pointed to the presence of "groups of infiltrators" in the riots, while the Minister of Interior, Miquel Buch, has remarked that the violent integrate "anti-system" groups that use "violence as a tool to slander, condemn and persecute " to the independence movement.
Which political groups give them support?
Despite the conspiracy hints that point out that the images of barricades, launching of objects against the agents and burned containers are the work of "infiltrators", the organizations of the independentist left linked to the CUP have had no problem claiming the actions publicly .
The promoters of street mobilizations are the CDRs, which viralize their calls through social networks and, although their coordinators act from anonymity , many groups of the independence leftist adhere to their actions.
The CUP has insisted on denouncing the "repression" against protesters and accusing the Government of "criminalizing them."
Endavant , one of the main organizations of the CUP, issued a statement that justified the protests and made them his own: "The self-defense response to extreme police violence, apart from being totally legitimate, has also sent a clear message to the whole town: we don't give up or resign. "
The youth protest in the streets is also cheered from the social networks by the Sindicat d'Estudiants dels Països Catalans (SEPC) , also linked to the independence left, which, after leaving Torra on television to ask for "serenity" and demand that they stop "Right now" street riots, he replied from Twitter: "This will stop when the popular movement decides."
The youth of the SEPC also lashed out at the ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, for denouncing that the incidents were not "civil disobedience" but "violence" : "ERC criminalizing us. Popular independence will pass you over! disappear, Gabriel Rufián ".
The SEPC also welcomed the protests in Manresa by hanging a photo of burning containers, next to the message: "Manresa on fire! Let's continue the revolt!" .
From Arran , a youth organization linked to the CUP, they disseminated the call last night of the CDRs in Barcelona and videos, photographs and messages about nighttime protests in different Catalan cities have been on the social networks.
The anarcho-syndicalist CGT Catalunya is positioned next to the protests and in a statement calls "actively participate in mobilizations and resistance in the street", because "the current struggle is both against the State Government and against that of Catalonia."
Are they related to Tsunami Democràtic?
On Monday, as soon as the sentence was known, the new Tsunami Democràtic platform was activated to channel the protests, and its plan took effect, since calls to collapse the El Prat airport were followed by thousands of people, also encouraged by the CDR , which immediately joined the call.
Tsunami Democràtic - whose direction is also secret and promotes actions of "civil disobedience" from "nonviolence" - counted from its birth, this summer, with the endorsement of the majority independence forces, JxCat and ERC .
Its promoters aim to give the mobilizations a more forceful tone than the manifestations of the ANC and Òmnium Cultural , but avoiding images of violence and the clashes that the CDRs have often starred with the police forces.
However, after Monday's action, which ended the first clashes between protesters and agents, Tsunami reaffirmed in a statement in its strategy of "non-violence" and announced a withdrawal of a few days without calls , which has left the CDR mobilization initiative.
What are your slogans?
"Popular revolt" is the slogan with which the CDRs accompany their messages on their Telegram channel and in their messages on Twitter .
The CDR constantly denounces police "violence" against protesters and insists on calling for Buch's resignation.
"Let's not fall into the trap of those who want to demobilize us with the false argument of violence. The only violence we have suffered in recent hours has been that of the Mossos d'Esquadra and the National Police ," they said in a statement.
What fighting methods do they use?
In the last two nights the rioters have staged an escalation of violence using urban guerrilla methods , according to police sources consulted by Efe, with simultaneous sources of conflict and a progressive use of the power of their attacks.
Throwing fences, stones, bottles and lifting hundreds of barricades with containers burning in the riots last Tuesday night, Wednesday, the violent took another step in Barcelona and threw molotov cocktails, attacked the police line with acid and fired material pyrotechnic against a helicopter flying over the area, according to police sources.
A totally different strategy to the practices of disobedience and passive resistance that had so far led several of the episodes of the process.
Given this situation, those responsible for the police bodies agree that they have a range of tools for use in public disturbances, including a state-of-the-art water tank of the National Police that has arrived in Barcelona in the last hours.
How many detainees are there so far?
In three days of protests, the Mossos have arrested 69 people - a figure that the acting Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has raised up to 97 - for riots throughout Catalonia, especially in Barcelona, of which for now four have entered prison for the pitched battle on Tuesday night in the center of the Catalan capital.
The Mossos made three arrests on Monday, 30 on Tuesday - of which four have entered prison - and 36 yesterday - two of them have already been released with charges by court order after trying to prevent the leader of Citizens, Albert Rivera, I could leave an event in the Horta neighborhood of Barcelona.
Most of the detainees have the legal advice of the group of lawyers Alert Solidària , linked to the independentist environment and who also exercises the defense of the members of the CDR arrested in September in the "Operation Judas" for allegedly preparing sabotages with explosives.
How do riots affect the independence story?
One of the obsessions of the leaders of institutional independence since the beginning of the process has been to preserve the "peaceful and civic" character of their mobilizations.
But the images of the CDR mobilizations in recent days have completely eclipsed the five "Freedom Marches" promoted by the ANC and Òmnium Cultural and have caused alarm in JxCat and ERC, which see their calls for peaceful protest broken in a part of independence.
"We do not give them what they are looking for. We do not give them an undercover 155. We have to defend our citizens and our institutions. Let's get away from all violent attitudes and purge unjustified actions," said the Vice President of the Government and National Coordinator of ERC Pere Aragonès.
The discrepancies for the civil response have been added to the independence division for the institutional response to the ruling.
There are two reopened gaps within the Government due to the clashes between Mossos and protesters: on the one hand the action - "disproportionate" for some independent sectors - of the agents and, on the other, the different tone used for reject violence in the street.
How has the Government reacted?
On October 1, 2018, on the first anniversary of the unilateral referendum, Torra addressed "the friends of the CDR " to encourage them to continue pressing for effective independence: "Squeeze, do well to squeeze," he said in Sant Julià Ramis (Girona), some words that caused stupor in the Ministry of Interior led by Miquel Buch.
Precisely the political relationship between Torra and Buch has been deteriorating with the crisis of these days, especially when yesterday the president ignored the altercations of the previous night and it was not until midnight when he appeared on television to condemn the violence of the protesters.
Before, Buch had asked the independence movement to isolate the "violent minority groups" to avoid disturbances and not to put at risk the Catalan powers in police matters.
Meanwhile, ERC issued a statement in defense of the right to mobilization of citizens to protest the sentence of the process and pressured Buch to demand "responsibilities" for the police charges he considers "unjustified."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- CDR
- Barcelona
- ERC
- Mossos d'Esquadra
- Cup
- Catalonia
- Jordi Sanchez
- Manresa
- Gabriel Rufián
- National Police
- Òmnium Cultural
- ANC
- Citizens
- Albert rivera
- Telegram
- Fernando Grande-Marlaska
- Girona
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