Tuesday was a day of tense demonstrations and traffic cuts thoughout Catalonia as the pro-independence activist groups Committees in Defence of the Republic (CDR) carried out coordinated actions across the country to show their indignation with last Sunday's arrest of exiled Catalan president Puigdemont in Germany and the imprisonment of pro-independence leaders.
The main vertebral motorways running from Catalonia's border with France in the north to Valencia in the south, and Aragon in the west were targeted by the protesters from the early morning hours. The north-south AP-7 was cut at several points of its passage through Catalonia, for example in La Jonquera, Tortosa, Ampolla and Figueres, and as well as outright blocking there were several slow marches such as that at Vilademuls, in Girona province.
Some violent episodes took place on the A-2 motorway in the west of Catalonia near Soses (Lleida province), where the Catalan Mossos police carried out baton charges on the protesters who had cut the road. One injured demonstrator needed hospital attention. The A-2 was also cut at a second western point, near Alcarràs.
Apart from these actions, the CDRs also cut a series of other highways: the N-152 and the N-154 near northern Puigcerdà; the N-340 at Alcanar and Ampolla in the south; the C-17 around Sant Quirze de Besora, the N-II in Llers and C-37 in the Vall d'en Bas.
In Barcelona, the arterial Avinguda Diagonal was cut in the morning rush hour. In the afternoon, hundreds of people took part in protests around Barcelona's largest rail station, at Sants. The demonstration, which started around 6pm, originally announced its aim to completely surround the station, but changed to a more conventional rally, when the numbers were insufficient for the original goal. Bus lines and metro station access around Sants were also disrupted.
Later in the evening there was renewed tension in the Avinguda Diagonal, with Mossos once again acting to dislodge protesters who were cutting traffic.