BEC joins public condemnation of the use of violence against Catalan people

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IMG_20171005_095405On October 1st, 2017, many Catalans waited in front of the voting stations to participate in a referendum to decide the future of Catalonia. The Spanish Constitutional Court had suspended the referendum, but nevertheless the regional government decided to go ahead with the poll. The response by the Spanish Government was to concentrate in Catalonia a massive amount of anti-riot police squads during the previous days, with the order of prevent the voting to take place. Many were convinced that they would never dare to attack the peaceful hundreds of thousands of citizens, that they will just take the ballots and ballot boxes away, and that the voting day will be just a political demonstration, a tour de force between Catalan independentists and the Spanish Government. They were deadly wrong.

The extreme use of the force by the Spanish policemen terrified the people that was just standing up in front of them, raised arms and singing. The media have reproduced horrifying witnesses of the brutal, unjustified and disproportionate use of the strength against the population that just wanted to express a political opinion. Many of us at BEC know well what happened, as we were at the poll stations and saw the indiscriminate use of violence or waited in the lines in the anguish of knowing that they could appear at any time and attack us in sight with no reason.

BEC does not endorse any political position, as in our team all the opinions can be found; but this disparity of opinions does not prevent a friendly respect of each other, as it happens in mature democratic societies. This has nothing to do with what we saw past Sunday.

Visca Catalunya!

The BEC team