Barcelona's Plaça de la Bonanova, 5am on an autumn morning. Journalists and plainclothes police officers of the Mossos d'Esquadra pace around to keep warm while awaiting the official "green light". From the CECOR, Mossos command centre, the operation designed days earlier is given the go-ahead by the chief commissioner of the force in Barcelona, Montserrat Estruch.
Accordingly, several teams from the ARRO riot squad leave the positions where their vehicles are parked on Avinguda de la Bonanova, and move to Carrer de Sant Joan de la Salle, the location of the buildings known as el Kubo and la Ruïna - "the Cube" and "the Ruin" - and cordon off the area. These are two names that became well-known to the Barcelona public in the first few months of 2023, when the neighbourhood controversy over their use for several years as squatter homes exploded into a city-wide issue after the private eviction firm Desokupa became involved. The issue divided public opinion and led to some conflictive protests in the lead up to this spring's municipal elections. In the end, the private firm stayed out of the picture but after all the correct judicial steps were taken, it was the Catalan police who were eventually given the task of executing the now-legal eviction order.
Thus, as it was getting light, the first throwing of objects and pyrotechnics at the police began, until officers from the Mossos mobile brigade eventually entered the courtyard and, subsequently, the interior of the two buildings owned by Spain's so-called "bad bank", Sareb. The complex operation lasted more than six hours, but in the end the threats of a violent response mostly failed to materialize. Many gathered to watch and applauded when squatters who had taken refuge on the roof of one of the buildings were removed. In total, seven people were arrested.
Six hours live
Below, the full video recorded by ElNacional.cat of the action, starting a little before 5:30 in the morning.
At the end, Estruch herself, accompanied by Catalan interior minister Joan Ignasi Elena, Mossos general director Pere Ferrer and the chief commissioner, Eduard Sallent, went to ground zero and congratulated the different heads of the units who participated in the operation to evacuate el Kubo and la Ruïna, this morning, November 30th. On Saturday, another episode, with the squatter movement having called a demonstration at Plaça d’Alfons Comín, in Vallcarca, at 7pm.
Below, images of the eviction by Carlos Baglietto.