Torre Pacheco, a city in Murcia, South-East of Spain, has been the epicentre of violent clashes between far-right protesters and immigrants. The incidents reignited the debate on immigration in Spain, but also on how extremist and far-right groups, organised through Telegram groups, feel unpunished and sometimes even protected by half of the political spectrum in the Spanish institutions.
Neither the right (PP) nor the far right (Vox) political parties publicly condemned the racist attacks by extremists who gather in Torre Pacheco hailing to "hunt" immigrants, mostly people of Moroccan origins. They were claiming to defend the town from the violence caused by immigrants, yet most of the people arrested by the police, 14 people as of Wednesday, were not from Torre Pacheco, and simply came to the village as an excuse to let off their violent and xenophobic nature.
The incidents began on Wednesday, July 9, when a 68-year-old man was assaulted by three men of Maghrebi origin. All three were arrested days later far from there, trying to flee to France.
On Friday, July 11, the council of Torre Pacheco organised a demonstration against violence and crime. The demonstration took place in a peaceful way, with people from all ethnic groups and religions, in a town where about a third of its population was born in other countries.
But in parallel, extremist and violent people started to chase and attack, some with bats and clubs, every person with Maghrebi looks. The streets quickly become a battle zone, and things get even more heated over the weekend, including a kebab restaurant being destroyed on Sunday, forcing over 75 Guardia Civil agents to patrol the streets.
Those attacks were incited and organised through Telegram groups, many using as pretext a video of a homeless man in Almería, who suffered an homophobic assault last May.
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The man himself recorded a video dismantling the hoax, but not before it was spread by many political and opinion leaders, including Vox councilman José Garre, who later didn't delete the post.
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One of the people arrested was the leader of Deport Them Now, the Telegram group that incited and organised the "hunting". After a weekend of serious altercations, things returned to normal from Monday to Wednesday. A new demonstration called by far-right movements only attracted 150 people on Tuesday, according to police sources.
Domingo, the man who was assaulted on Wednesday last week, resumed his normal life a week later, without major injuries other than a black eye, and called for a return to peace in an interview with RTVE. "I don't wanna be the protagonist of the movie", he said laughing, playing domino in a bar with his friends, as he does every afternoon.
A return to normal seems to be certain after nights without serious incidents and a heavy police activity. The mayor of Torre Pacheco, Pedro Ángel Roca, from PP, met with the imams of the region to discuss the situation of immigrants and strengthen good relations and peaceful coexistence between neighbours from all ethnic group and religions.
(Sources consulted: El País, RTVE, El Diario.es).