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Bilbao antifas call huge demo and block new threats by ‘Desokupa’ fascist eviction thugs

by https://www.briega.org translation thefreeonline

“We take care of each other and defend ourselves,” declared the demonstration of more than 500 people who, late yesterday afternoon, toured the Old Town of Bilbao.

The Desokupa illegal eviction company was scheduled to enter a home in this neighborhood today, as they themselves reported through their communication channels. Different groups organized an anti-fascist breakfast in Unamuno Square that started at 8 am with the presence of almost a hundred neighbors, while preparing strategies to be attentive to how the day w0uld unfold.

In the early hours of Monday to Tuesday, more than twenty Bilbao Municipal Police officers, accompanied by firefighters, evicted building that had recently been squatted, the Arrakala Project, in the vicinity of Plaza Unamuno. At the same time, the ‘ultras’ company announced on its networks that today it would evict another home.

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The Colombian exiles seeking refuge in Spain

LONG READ Features |Refugees

The number of Colombian refugees seeking asylum in Spain has exploded from fewer than 700 in 2016 to nearly 28,000 in 2020. Some of them share their stories.

Mateo Gutierrez, 24, was charged with being involved in a series of bombings in Bogotá. He spent 21 months in prison before being declared innocent and fleeing to Spain [Mauricio Morales/Al Jazeera]

By 2020 there were over 280,000 Colombians in Spain. The Spanish government, in NATO and the EU, supports the far right ‘narco-capitalist’ regime of the Colombian oligarchy, maintained by US military backing. Spain also has big banking and extractive interests cashing in on Colombian resources, while locked out of neighbouring Venezuela. Despite its racism and anti immigration policies Spain has a low birth rate and needs new workers. Especially Latin Americans who already speak the language and are hard working and creative. So it’s still possible though often long and difficult for Colombians to legalize themselves here.

By Mauricio Morales4 May 2021

Ana*, 38, vividly remembers the black-and-white tennis shoes of one of the men who held her and her family at gun point in their home as they searched for her father to kill him. It was 2001, and she was 18.