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Squat "Gazpacho" in Barcelona evicted on Febraury 28 th

el borinot | 01.03.2001 22:55

On wednesday February 28th at 8.15 a.m. in the morning the Police broke in the doors of the squat Gazpacho.
The 12 squatters were alarmed through the noise of the breaking in have been woken up and went to the top of the roof of the house.

Squat "Gazpacho" in Barcelona evicted on Febraury 28 th
Squat "Gazpacho" in Barcelona evicted on Febraury 28 th


The cops arrived soon at the edge of the roof but could not make any arrests.
The roof was tiny, hard to walk on and also very steep. It was quite dangerous to make any moves there.
Therefore the cops decided not to try to arrest anyone from there, but were throwing cans and buckets of water once in a while on the people, what became quite dangerous, making the roof more slippery and harder to walk on.
After six hours the squtters left voluntarily the roof, took the stuff from their rooms and went on the streets after identification was taken by the police. Among the 12 identified persons were 4 italiens, 4 germans and 4 french people. No arrests were made. The squatters left , when the information became evident, that the appeal against the eviction order was not accepted by the judge dealing with the case.
While the squatters remained for six hours on the roof, a lot of journalists (TV, newspapers) were arriving at the spot and taking footage of the whole scene. Also a lot of supporters (other squatters and people from the left scene) came to the house, standing outside , chanting slogans, bringing food and showing their solidarity with the roof occupants. Gazpacho was again occupied on Novembre 24th last year, after it was evicted a year before
Gazpacho was not just a living house but also a meeting point for social and political events for the squatting movement and the left in general. (parties, political discussions, silk screen-printing and other stuff).
After all squatters left the house the police closed it down.

On the evening of the same day a few hundred people gathered in the neighbourhood of Gracia and made a spontanous demonstration against the eviction of Gazpacho. Banks, McDonalds, estate agencies and a very fine restaurant for the rich, the Botafumeiro, smashed, barricades were put up and all along the route of the demonstration slogans against the eviction, the police and the capitalist system were painted on the walls. i.g. " today Gazpacho- tomorrow your house ..."
Especially the bank Caixa Catalunya was targeted heavily, cos` this bank was giving much money/loans to the new private owner of the house, which want to tear down the whole building and build a new one..
The police could not arrest anyone- all the demonstrators dispersed before the police arrived.

On March 9 th is going to be a big demonstration in Gracia against all evictions of the squatts and the ones who are threatened to be evicted in Barcelona , the criminilazation of the whole movement and the mafia of speculation of housing and grounds. Just a few days before the Gazpacho-eviction, another incident took place when around 15 men, armed with clubs and metal-sticks, and probably paid by owner, stormed the squats La Discordia and Josefina, beat them up and destroyed many things inside the houses. A few persons had to go to the hospital., one persons nose was broken. This illegal action was intended to evict the squatters, who are also fighting against a legal eviction process. The eviction of Gazpacho and the ongoing threat of more evictions goes along with the criminilazation of the whole movement. The authorities and the media try to link the arrests and the alledged accusations against two people being supposedly members of the commando Barcelona (ETA) with the whole squatting movement in general and therefore are creating an image of " violent, terrorist squatters".
The two arrested persons have been supposedly living in squats or some other kind of relations to the squatting-scene.

The meeting place for the demonstration will be
on March 9 th at 6 p.m. at Metro Joanic in Barcelona.

el borinot
- e-mail: borinot@gracianet.org
- Homepage: http://gracianet.org/borinot