"The agents of the Civil Guard and the National Police played a fundamental role on October 1, 2017 in Catalonia in the defense of the Constitution and the rule of law, at a critical moment. Their intervention was necessary to preserve the integrity of "our nation and respect for the Constitution. Any action by the Government that questions these principles and leaves our colleagues defenseless is manifestly unjust, inadmissible and unacceptable." This is how the joint manifesto that the leaders of the Unified Police Union (SUP) and the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) presented in Barcelona this Friday began, during a rally against the amnesty that was held at the gates of the City. of Justice.
A concentration in which less than a hundred people have been present and which has been attended by leaders of the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, in addition to several civil associations. The protest has served to demonstrate the "absolute rejection" of the pact reached this Thursday by the PSOE and Junts and which contemplates "criminal oblivion" for all causes related to the process, between 2012 and 2023. An agreement that the conveners have been summed up in the following slogan that they have chanted throughout the morning: "Criminals amnestied and agents indicted." The protest coincided with the appointment this Friday of six of the 13 national police officers investigated in a complaint from one of those detained during the October 2019 riots. One of those investigated testified from Palma de Mallorca, where he is currently stationed, another has has been removed from the case because he has proven that he was not even in Barcelona when the events occurred. Three others have testified, although their lawyers have reported having had access to the case just a few hours before the summons, without time to prepare the statements.
"The situation that the prosecuted police officers and civil guards are experiencing is humiliating. There are agents with permanent disabilities due to injuries suffered during the protests in Catalonia," recalled Juan Fernández, national secretary of AUGC. And they have recalled the case of the member of the Police Intervention Unit (UIP) already retired after being seriously injured during the Urquinaona and Via Laietana riots.
The protesters carried Spanish flags and banners accusing the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, of being a "traitor".
In the joint manifesto, SUP and AUGC denounce that the amnesty "intends to undermine" the principle of equality before the law, by exonerating from criminal responsibilities "those who attempted to break social cohesion and break the foundations of coexistence, creating a dangerous precedent." . For AUGC and SUP, the situation faced by the agents prosecuted for the 1-O charges and for their intervention in the 2019 riots in Barcelona is "humiliating", since those responsible "are going to be amnestied" and they continue to be investigated. For this reason, they have demanded "responsibility and transparency", since justice "must be blind to political interests", which is why they reject that "impunity prevails over responsibility and equality before the law."
José Antonio Rodríguez Neyra, general secretary of the SUP, has denounced that the agents accused of their actions in the procés riots in 2019 have been denounced by the "urban terrorists" who carried out the incidents.
