The operation - that's what they call it - started at night. At 23.00 on Tuesday 10, in the center of Barcelona, about 60 people organized into five groups. And the choreography began, of precise design: each group had 1,500 stickers assigned and a section of the Diada route to place them. The rain would take off a few, but that way the streets of Barcelona would rise on 9/11: lampposts, traffic lights, canopies, subway stops, locals ... to a TV3 truck with messages like «The Republic does not exist! Moron!". Bad augury. But the stickers, made on a floor with a second-hand industrial photocopier, were just the appetizer. José Luis y Juan's anti - Diada was already underway.

«The Diada is not only yours. We are the Resistance against independence! José Luis, a radiologist in Catalan public health, speaks behind a snake mask (he calls himself Yellow Snake because he feeds on "yellow ties") to avoid problems at work. In the open face, another resistant self-proclaimed named Juan Ribas, a janitor profession. They are the two men who on Wednesday blew the Spanish anthem from a hotel at full volume while a bewildered Quim Torra tried to sing Els Segadors in the traditional offering to the statue of Rafael Casanova . Because who waited the party for the president was not a neighbor, as has been said, nor a tourist staying at the NH Collection Barcelona Podium, but a janitor and a radiologist tanned in the brigade brigades that had been preparing for a month.

They wanted to claim Spanishity in the middle of the Catalan party. And they succeeded. This is the story of his particular September 11, which cost them his identification (one more) by the Mossos d'Esquadra.

IN THE ROOM 311

The day started soon. At seven o'clock in the morning, José Luis knocks on the door of room 311 of the hotel, on Bailén Street. It is opened by Juan, who has slept there; 320 euros the night. The two 2,000-watt Yamaha speakers that have rented for 292 euros are already in the suite . The previous day, at noon, after checking-in , they were uploaded in two backpacks. They try them carefully, try to soundproof the room by placing the mattress parallel to the speakers and turn on the television. Thus they see how at nine o'clock in the morning, 32 meters from there, the president and his entourage arrive at the statue to celebrate the first official act of the Day. Then they hit the play. The anthem of Spain sounds all over the street. While Els Segadors sings , Torra and the counselor Teresa Jordà look for the place where the music comes from, which sometimes stops and again plays again.

Juan Ribas and José Luis (masked), making the victory sign with the flag of Spain.

Inside, in room 311, the problems begin. “An employee of the hotel came to ask us to leave,” says José Luis. "Then they cut off the light so that the anthem would stop ringing ... Then three mossos went up and identified John." They were alone again and went out to the terrace. They were already located. From the street, a group of people shouted at them "independence"; They answered "intelligence." At the reception they were waiting for " mossos de paisano". They had to leave the hotel. Before, yes, they hid the speakers in another room and called a trusted lawyer. Once this was done, they took to the streets wrapped by half a dozen "companions." Without a scratch. Mission accomplished...

But the operation was not over; At least its consequences. When his lawyer had already left, while they were walking along the intersection between San Juan Street and Gran Vía, a couple of blocks from the hotel, two Mossos vans "painted in riot gear" appeared. «About 12 agents left. We were identified at six. They checked our minivan saying that maybe we had something dangerous inside and found nothing. They almost took away the stickers that were left over, but the caporal gave them the order to leave them there ... One even wanted to take my mask [the one that José Luis uses in his anti-independence videos, which run like gunpowder from mobile to mobile ]. We had about 15 minutes, very serious, fanning around us, as if we were terrorists ... ». "It is because of my links with the Islamic State and Al Qaeda," summarizes Juan laughing.

A BOAT, A ZEPELIN AND A GIANT FLAG

At five in the afternoon, José Luis, Juan and their companions separated into two groups. They were going to sound the anthem twice more, in two points through which the secessionist demonstration passed. One, from room 611 of the Caledonian Hotel , at number 574 on the Gran Vía, where they also cut off the light and ended up connecting the speakers to a corridor socket. Another, from number 547 of the Catalonia Plaza, in Plaza de España, the nerve center of the march, although there they could only have a speaker - they had not yet been able to recover the ones they had used for the first hymn -, so that the melody She was drowned by the noise of the demonstration.

The flag of Spain of 600 square meters that 'the Resistance' could not display on 9/11. They will "soon," they promise.

"A shame," says the radiologist. It was not the only one: the architects of the so-called Fiesta de Paco 2.0 operation - last year José Luis already played the hymn in full Diada from a rented room and called it Paco's Birthday operation because «Paco is the process and is a name very Spanish »- they had planned more« actions ». A boat to which a huge zeppelin rojigualdo-shaped balloon was attached was going to sail the Catalan coast from Port Ginesta in Sitges to the Masnou, back and forth. And another group of volunteers was going to display a 600 square meter Spanish flag on a beach in Barcelona . The plan of the boat went to waste because of the weather forecast - the rain also dazzled the anti-Diada. And the one on the flag was canceled when the logos with which they wanted to decorate it did not arrive on time. It is taught by José Luis for 466 euros through a retailer in Ciudad Real to a company in Seville that manufactures shading nets. But he promises to look "soon" somewhere in Catalonia ...

In the 11-S of José Luis and Juan participated, they count, more than fifty people from different groups quitalazos: Brigada Tarrasa, Groc & Lloc (headed by Juan), DUE, Garce ... And its funder has been the Spain Respond association, which is chaired by an expert businessman in these battles, José Manuel Opazo . Its name came to light in 2018, identifying itself as the Spanish "beast" to which Quim Torra described in his already famous article The language and the beasts. Opazo, he explains, has disbursed "around 10,000 euros" in this noisy anti-Diada , which ended up in Montjuic with the Resistance displaying a giant helium balloon with the national flag.

The identification of the two men who torpedoed the start of the most dull Diada in recent years has reopened a debate in which they have started from Albert Rivera to the spokeswoman for the Government. The latter, Meritxell Budó , described it as "unfortunate and unfortunate to try to boycott the offering with the anthem of Spain." The PP and Citizens, meanwhile, have denounced the double yardstick of the Mossos - which could even accuse José Luis and Juan of altering an authorized event - and also of nationalism itself, which, on the other hand, considers simple freedom of expression whistle the Spanish anthem in a football stadium.

-We were identified, followed all day ...-complains José Luis, the marked Catalan accent.

-It's the usual performance of the Genestapo - Juan points out.

-And next year?

"More and better," he opens. We will have to innovate ...!

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  • Catalonia
  • Diada
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  • Quim Torra

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