LATIN AMERICA Catalonia Not Well OE Watch Commentary: Barcelona continues to be a political tinderbox. The most recent disturbances were investigated by the Audiencia Nacional, a tribunal with appellate and trial competence, with jurisdiction throughout Spain. It has its own investigative capacity as well. It may be a particularly Spanish institution, established in 1977 during the transition after Franco’s death in 1975. It is intended to consider terrorism, drug-trafficking and other major organized criminal activities of that reach, including rebellion, while hopefully avoiding prosecutorial excesses. As the first accompanying passage notes, its report of the disturbances in Catalonia finds what some Spanish take as a flash of the obvious -- that they were the creature of a radical political organization, not just a public reaction. Understanding the order of battle of radical leftist opposition organization in Spain is a difficult task, however, given the overlap of mainstream and locally governing parties and social organizations and competing goals among those entities. The second accompanying reference is of a completely separate yet completely related issue – Spain’s central government, led by socialist Pedro Sánchez is acting to control an effort by the Catalonian government to create an independent database of Catalonian citizens for purposes of citizen identification and control. The intention is to further Catalonian independence, the contraption even being called the Catalonian Digital Republic. The Spanish government in Madrid is not having it. The tiff, however, is a clear example of the overlap of physical territoriality and cyber-struggle. The third reference evidences another, background problem in the application of violent forms of struggle. The economy of Catalonia, which is a leading wealth producer in Spain, has been taking a beating. The litany of hits on the Barcelona economy is a long one, but the fourth referenced article was apparently intended to bring the problem home to a wider set of Spanish citizens. The author claims that most of the direct costs of the violence is going to be borne by nation-wide insurance companies, not local government. End OE Watch Commentary (Demarest) “…Those acts of protest were organized, that is, they were not spontaneous…” Source: Carlota Guindal and Mayka Navarro, “Los disturbios de Cataluña fueron organizados, según la investigación (According to the investigation, the Catalonian disturbances were organized),” La Vanguardia, 25 October 2019. https://www.lavanguardia.com/ politica/20191025/471176431035/disturbios-cataluna-investigacion-organizacion-actuacion-policial.html/ “…The open investigation at the Audiencia Nacional of separatist groups that are the protagonists of the altercations of this past week is arriving at the conclusion that those acts of protest were organized, that is, they were not spontaneous, or out-of-control radicals, but that they were remotely controlled by an organization and have a political leadership…” Source: Editors, “Cataluña: El Govern ve un “golpe de Estado” el decreto ley contra la República digital catalana (Catalonia: The Govern sees the legal decree opposing the digital Catalonia republic),” El Mundo and Europa Press, 31 October 2019. https://www.elmundo.es/ cataluna/2019/10/31/5dbad9e9fc6c83d3438b469d.html “…The Pedro Sánchez Executive Office is avoiding, by way of royal decree, that the Gereralitat use data of the Catalonians to further independence…‘Sánchez is announcing a digital coup d’état in Catalonia’… It [the Catalonian government] asserts that the Spanish government is afraid of Catalonia advancing digitally… ‘The socialists are demonstrating that, just like the PP [traditional rightist party], that their only interest is governing against Catalonia’…” Source: César Urrutia and Raquel Villaécija, “La revuelta tras la sentencia del proceso sacude la economía de Cataluña (The Uprising after the trial decision shocked the Catalonian economy),” El Mundo, 18 October 2019. https://www.elmundo.es/ economia/2019/10/18/5da8b07c21efa0d9678b45b9.html “…The impact arrived in the form of a withdrawal of billions of euros in bank deposits toward entities outside Catalonia… In just three days the signals are being felt in areas such as tourism and conventions and fairs…The impact on tourism is immediate… Barcelona is also an important logistics point and the strike convoked today will generate delivery problems…” Source: Marcos Iriarte, “La factura de los disturbios en Barcelona ya rebasa los 1,5 millones y la pagarán todos los asegurados de España (The bill for the disturbances in Barcelona is already topping 1.5 million and will be paid by all Spanish insured),” El Mundo, 18 October 2019. https://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2019/10/18/5da97e2821efa079038b45b9.html “…the costs of the disturbances in Barcelona are beginning to accumulate. The bill grows as the nights of flames and acts of sabotage on roads and railways advance… In spite of what the majority of people might think, the bill to fix all this imperfections will not be paid from the municipal coffers or from the State. They will come from the pockets of citizens who have insurance policies, whether car, house or life…” OE Watch | December 2019 75.