Pandora II, new arrests in Madrid, translation of statement by arrestees:
On Friday, October 30, the nine anarchists arrested two days earlier in Barcelona and Manresa in the second phase of Operation Pandora were brought before the Audiencia Nacional, a high court in Madrid. Two of them were released on provisional liberty pending trial, six of them were released on a relatively high bail, and one of them was given preventive detention, remanded to prison until trial. All of them are charged with criminal organization under Spain’s anti-terrorism laws. Specifically, they are accused of belonging to the GAC-FAI-FRI, a fictitious organization stemming from the police’s imaginative combination of the GAC, a public anarchist group responsible for publishing a book criticizing democratic government, and the FAI-FRI, which happens to be the only international anarchist organization considered terrorist by the European Union. Police allege that a wave of sabotage actions and politically motivated arsons that occurred between 2012 and 2013 were carried out by their fictitious organization, though neither of the two actual groups in question claimed or has been connected to any of the attacks (nor was anyone injured in any of them).
The Barcelona anarchist who is currently locked up awaiting trial was already on provisional liberty awaiting trial for charges stemming from the March 2012 general strike, in which he is accused of damages against the Corte Inglés, a large shopping mall on Plaça Catalunya. He can be written at:
Enrique Costoya Allegue
CP Madrid V Soto del Real
Ctra M-609, km3,5 Módulo 15
28791 Soto del Real (Madrid)
Spain
The arrests occurred the same day that the Audiencia Nacional decreed another two years of preventive imprisonment for Monica and Francisco, two anarchists from Chile who were already acquitted of all charges in the “Bombs Case” in that country, and who are currently accused of placing a small bomb in a cathedral in Zaragoza, an action claimed by the “Commando Mateo Moral” which produced no injuries.
In a common pattern, the Pandora II arrestees were involved in supporting those arrested in the first phase of Operation Pandora, who in turn were involved in supporting Monica and Francisco. Parallel to Operation Pandora, carried out by the Catalan police, in March 2015 the Spanish police launched Operation Piñata. In total, 63 anarchists have been arrested under the anti-terrorism law in the last three years in the Spanish state.
As is now usual, relatively large solidarity protests occurred in many cities across the Spanish state on the heels of the latest arrests. At least in Catalunya, the feeling of many people on the street is that the operations are some kind of political scam, given that few people perceive any kind of anarchist terrorism. However, a common sentiment is that the investigation, carried out by the Audiencia Nacional, is another attempt by the Madrid government to interrupt the Catalunya independence process, as though the anarchists were the radical wing of the independence movement. This widely expressed opinion does not take into account the fact that in an independent Catalan state, anarchists would be public enemy number 1, and they have been the most vocal critics of the independence process who do not support the domination of Catalunya by the Spanish state.
It is probably no coincidence that the Catalan police did not carry out the corruption-related raid against the Pujol family, a centerpiece of Catalan politics, in another investigation ordered by the Madrid courts, yet they were the ones in charge of the raids and arrests against anarchists that same week. Although all evidence acquired has been sent to Madrid, the Catalan police will retain copies in their extensive files on anarchist, in the event of an independent Catalan state.
On the other hand, it is also necessary to point out that the CUP, a far-left activist platform turned political party that is now one of the most sizeable and important minority parties in the Catalan parliament, vocally expressed solidarity with the anarchists the day of the arrests, serving to dilute the government narrative of “anarchist terrorism”.
Madrid update:
On Wednesday, November 4, five more anarchists were arrested in Madrid under the anti-terrorist law, also accused of belonging to the GAC. In this case, however, the Policia Nacional (who carried out Operation Piñata) are accusing them of the explosive artifacts that were placed in the cathedrals of La Almudena (Madrid) and El Pilar (Zaragoza). Two comrades, Monica and Francisco, have already sat two years in prison accused of the latter action, and evidence the police fed to the media upon their arrest suggested they acted as a pair, and showed blurry surveillance footage showing two people, not more. Nonetheless, the police have shown that they can claim the GAC to be dismantled and then arrest another 14 supposed members, and they can arrest as many people for the same illegal action as they want, and the media will never question them, on the contrary, it will only continue to act as their mouthpiece. In that vein, and with typical racism, the newspaper La Razon duly parroted the xenophobic police emphasis on the Latin American origins of three of the latest arrests in Madrid.
The total number of anarchists arrested on anti-terrorism charges in the Spanish state in the last three years is now 68.
Among the numerous protests and solidarity actions that have occurred in Madrid in recent days, a number of people have been injured or identified by police, and heavy fines may follow.