Featured image: Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
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You can’t make this stuff up! Madrid appears desperate to justify its unjustifiable imposition of direct rule over Catalonia, suspending its autonomy, effectively eliminating it, intending to install subservient puppet governance through rigged elections when held – flagrantly breaching the UN Charter and other international law.
Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis lied, calling referendum day video images and photos seen worldwide in real time “fake.”
“Many many of those pictures have been proven to be fake pictures,” he outrageously claimed, adding “if there was any use of force it was a limited one.”
“According to some pictures there was some use of force. It was not a deliberate use of force. It was a provoked use of force.”
Nearly 1,100 injured Catalans, some seriously, tell a different story. On referendum day, national police and civil guards unleashed unrestrained police state thuggery.
Catalans exercising their right to vote were viciously assaulted with batons and rubber-coated steel bullets – the same tactics all police states use, notably Israel against nonviolent Palestinian demonstrators.
Massively assaulting Catalans tried disenfranchising them – in polling stations and streets near them, an outrageous display of Madrid viciousness, encouraging Catalans more than ever to seek independence from fascist Spain they want freedom from.
Separately, Madrid claimed actions by national police and civil guards were “prudent, appropriate and proportionate to the objective of ensuring compliance with the law and the rights of all citizens.”
Images seen live by millions of people proved otherwise – aired by Catalan television, RT, and likely other broadcasters. Many thousands of witnesses saw police state violence firsthand.
International human rights groups condemned state-sponsored viciousness. Brussels and Washington were largely silent.
Dastis’ remarks came after PM Mariano Rajoy exercised Article 155 of Spain’s constitution, imposing Madrid rule over Catalonia, a state-sponsored coup d’etat by any standard.
Not according to Dastis, arrogantly saying “if anyone has attempted a coup, it is the Catalan regional government.”
Later this week, Catalan parliamentarians will meet to discuss how they’ll respond to Rajoy’s actions, Puigdemont saying:
“I ask the parliament to meet in a plenary session during which we, the representatives of the citizens’ sovereignty, will be able to decide over this attempt to liquidate our government and our democracy, and act in consequence.”
“Catalan institutions cannot accept this attack by Spain…Long live Catalonia.”
On October 1, over 90% of Catalans voted for independence from Spain. Puigdemont promised he’d declare it within 48 hours of the vote.
Instead, he equivocated and so far abstained. It’s time to act to uphold the will of the people – what democracy is all about if it’s to have any meaning.
The only option for Puigdemont and parliamentarians is declaring independence from fascist Spain, announcing the formation of a new Catalan republic.
Anything less is betrayal – regardless of how Madrid is sure to respond.
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