Below you will find an article explaining the prisoners' situation, and below that a fax in catalan which you can send to the council on these numbers: 00 34 93 291 61 61 or
00 34 93 402 74 27.

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!


Background information for 4th February prisoners:

In the early hours of the morning of February 4th, at
number 55 Calle San Pere Mes Baix, Barcelona, the
police violently arrested nine people outside a party.
Three of them are being held in prison, two charged
with attempted homicide and the thrid with assaulting
a police officer and incitement. According to the
official story, an officer of the municipal police
riot squad is injured, and in an induced, therapeutic
coma.

In an initial press release, Joan Clos, Mayor of
Barcelona, gave a statement claiming that the officer
was injured by a plant pot thrown from the building
where the party was taking place. Sixteen hours later,
the police contradicted this version saying that the
injury could have been produced by any solid object.
The following day a final official version came out,
claiming that people from the street attacked the
officer with a stone.

Which of the three official versions should public
opinion believe? If we take the original police
version, made public by Clos, then none of the three
people being held under arrest could have been
responsible for the blow that injured the policeman.
Furthermore, so far there is only the police account
of what happened, so there is no way of contrasting
the police/city hall version with any other. The
official version is a personal accusation, which has
changed three times in just two days.

Those accused deny the charges absolutely. Eye
witnesses and those arrested agree that a group of
people was arguing with three police officers at the
door to the party, when the police began to beat
people and called for reinforcements. At that moment,
a group that included the accused arrived in the area.
They were also beaten, meanwhile the officer fell,
injured.

More riot police from the Mossos D’Esquadra (Catalan
regional police force) arrived and continued to arrest
and beat people. It is important to add that the
police shouted “Stop or I’ll shoot!” and fired shots
whilst chasing the people running away from the baton
blows.

The people arrested were beaten and tortured at the
moment of their arrest and continuously in the police
station, hospitals and police vans. They have multiple
injuries all over their bodies, blows to the head,
black eyes, and two have broken arms.

The official version, being spread by the press,
reduces the event to a simple violent confrontation
between police and young squatters. However, the
reality is that it took place in the context of one of
Barcelona’s many neighbourhoods degraded by City
Hall’s town planning policies, where the inhabitants
are victims of rampant land specualation and estate
agent “mobbing” in which local officials are active
participants.

Policies that are completely insensitive to social
reality mean that City officials resort to heavy
police presence in these areas to repress any kind of
response from the tennants and residente affected by
evictions, lack of public services and general
destruction of their neighbourhoods and community
networks. It is no exaggeration to talk about the
criminalisation of poverty.

Many neighbours witnessed the police charges from
their balconies and were shocked by the brutality of
the repression directed at the youths, and anyone else
who was passing through the area. However, police
violence has reached such extreme levels in the San
Pere neighbourhood that most witnesses will only talk
about what happened in private. They are afraid of
what they saw and of the police who have been
occupying the street and the doorways to the houses
continuously since that morning.

People known to live in the neighbourhood, and anyone
who looks like a “squatter” were stopped for ID checks
and recieved threats like “You prefer I kill you here
or I take you to the Industrial Zone”, as well as
punches, kicks to the ankles and even taking off a
victims shoes and abusing her, while each of the
officers stepped on her feet. They justified the
actions claiming that the injured officer had died.

With regard to the “Narko Penya Acultural”
[translators note: the house in which the party was
taking place was a mafioso establishment known to deal
drugs, including crack cocaine, and suspected to have
links to various police forces and City officials] It
is much easier for the City to arrest and charge some
South American youths who look like “squatters” than
to risk an investigation which would ask questions
about their responsibility for the building (which
they own). It is very difficult to believe that the
police were unaware of the Mafiosi practices for which
the building was used
For more info see:
 http://www.liberinfo.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&s

None of this is accidental. The extent of the violence
practiced by the different police forces for a long
time now, particularly since new Civic Zero Tolerance
laws came into effect, and they increased the use
presence of the Mossos D’Esquadra (instead of the
National Police). There is clear harassment of certain
collectives and of areas where the interests of the
City officials are in conflict with the realities of
the people who live there.

We demand the release, without charge, of the people
being held prisoner, an end to the abuses and torture,
and that they give us back our neighbourhoods!

Donations for prisoner support and legal costs:
La Caixa 2100-3002-01-2105267123
IBAN: ES66
BIC/SWIFT: CAIXESBBXXX

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fax to send to the city council between 10:00-13:00 on thursday, march 2nd:

AL REGIDOR DEL DISTRICTE DE CIUTAT VELLA, CARLES MARTÍ I JOFRESA

-A LA COMISSIÓ DE GOVERN DE L’AJUNTAMENT DE BARCELONA

Num. Fax: 93 291 61 61 (Districte de Ciutat Vella)
93 402 74 27 (Comissió de Govern)

El col·lectiu, associació, persona a títol individual, organització, ... a sota signant, en relació a les detencions i empresonament de Juan Daniel Pintos Garrido, Rodrigo Lanza Huidobro i Álex Cisternas Améstica el passat dia 4 de Febrer, esposa:

-que no hi ha cap prova física que els inculpi en els fets, ja que només s’accepta la versió de tres agents de la guàrdia urbana.

-que la presó preventiva se sol aplicar en casos on hi ha risc de fuga o desarrelament social, i en el cas de Juan, Rodrigo i Álex, aquestes causes no es donen.

-que no s’ha respectat la presumpció d’innocència ni en el moment de les detencions ni en l’aplicació de la presó preventiva que estan patint.

-que les detencions responen a la intenció de l’ajuntament de Barcelona d’eludir la seva responsabilitat en uns fets que varen ocórrer en un edifici de la seva propietat, tal com Joan Clos va admetre públicament en un primer moment.

Amb tot això es demana:

LA LLIBERTAT INMEDIATA DE JUAN, RODRIGO I ÁLEX
LA RETIRADA DE CÀRRECS ALS 9 DETINGUTS EL 4 DE FEBRER



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