Night of police charges in Bilbao. Five people were arrested when they tried to prevent the eviction of Etxarri II gaztetxe, which took place today (April 4) at 11am. At 19h a demonstration is called from the Amezola park.
After more than a decade of activity and five years of resistance, the Ertzaintza (autonomous police force for the Basque Country) has proceeded to the eviction of the Etxarri II gaztetxe, located in the Bilbao neighborhood of Errekalde. They did so after the massive demonstration, supported by numerous groups from the metropolitan area of Bilbao, which on March 28 went through the streets of the neighborhood demanding the end of the eviction process that would activate an urban development operation -in which Amenabar, one of the construction companies that has worked most closely with the Basque Government, participates- that will replace the industrial buildings where the gaztetxe is located with luxury housing.
March 28: Stop the eviction of Etxarri! Defend the Gaztetxes!
The operation, which began during the afternoon of April 3, extended throughout the early hours of the morning with an extensive police deployment that included drones, helicopters and numerous members of the mobile brigade, the Ertzaintza’s anti-riot unit.
In response to the disproportionate police response, the Etxarri II assembly decided to call a demonstration in the historic working class neighborhood of Errekalde at 20:30 in the evening. During the demonstration, slogans were shouted in favor of the gaztetxe and the demand for self-managed spaces in the neighborhood.
When the demonstration came up against the security cordon that prevented access to the street where the gaztetxe is accessed, the riot police began to charge the demonstrators, resulting in five arrests, after a night of races between neighbors and demonstrators in the streets of the neighborhood.
These events, with fireworks launches from the gaztetxe brought to mind the images of the eviction of the historic gaztetxe Kukutza III in 2011, also located in one of the neighborhoods of the Biscayan capital that has never been among the priorities of the public administration.
Identifications
In the course of the operation, the agents took control of the two buildings adjacent to the social center, from where they have finally managed to execute the eviction. For several days inside the gaztetxe, a group of young people had been trying to resist the eviction. After a whole night and a large part of the morning locked inside the walls of Etxarri II, the young people finally left the building voluntarily around 11 am on April 4. They were identified by members of the Ertzaintza.
This operation marks the end of a space that had resisted several eviction attempts, including one stopped in October 2020 after its squatting in 2014, in a building that had been abandoned for two decades.
Thousands of people ask to “intensify the fight” to defend the gaztetxes after the eviction of Etxarri.
They denounced that the Ertzaintza injured several demonstrators and one of them had to undergo emergency surgery for a rubber bullet. They pointed out the alliance between Bilbao City Hall and Amenabar.
Thousands of people in Bilbao denounce the eviction of the Etxarri gaztetxe and the police repression during the previous hours by the Ertzaintza. In addition to the arrests, the charges and the wide deployment of agents, in the march this Friday, which has ended in front of the City Hall, whose members have been pointed out as responsible and accomplices, along with the construction company Amenabar, involved in urban development in Errekalde, it has been specified that one protester had to undergo an emergency intervention when he was shot at a distance of less than 20 meters.
Passing in front of the Palace of Justice, in Buenos Aires street, several people have shown photographs of people who were beaten by the police on the night of the eviction. “They have taken Etxarri away from us, but we will come back stronger in the future. Etxarri is still alive!”.
Etxarri II Gaztetxea
Errekalde, Bilbao
https://radar.squat.net/en/bilbo/etxarri-gaztetxea
Directory of squats in the Iberian Peninsula:
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XE/squated/squat
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC/squated/squat
Spanish State: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/ES/squated/squat
Directory of groups (social centers, collectives, squats) in the Iberian Peninsula:
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XE
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC
Spanish State: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/ES
Events in the Iberian Peninsula:
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XE
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XC
Spanish State: : https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/ES
