Who were the rioters and how were they organized?

A hundred people were arrested this Saturday in Barcelona after the riots in the city center, which resulted in looting in 14 businesses, more than 30 fires and clashes with the Mossos d'Esquadra. The call, spread on social networks under the slogan “Instituts Indignats”, brought together between 500 and 600 young people in the surroundings of Plaza de Catalunya.

The chief commissioner of the Mossos, Sílvia Catà, explained that there are 128 detainees. In statements to Catalunya Ràdio, he pointed out that 73 of them, more than half, are minors.

The Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, explained that these were “unorganized” groups that were not defending any rights nor were they related to the camp for access to the home installed for weeks in Plaza Catalunya, but instead committed “gratuitous violence and vandalism.”

The mobilization was spread mainly through TikTok, under the name “Blocus”, and from there those interested were redirected to closed Telegram and WhatsApp groups. According to the investigation published by La Sexta, around twenty profiles with similar identities began to recruit young people from October 18 and 19 to replicate the student protests in France in Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Valencia, Alacant and Bilbao.

On these channels, instructions were given to wear dark clothing and cover your face. The main groups detected, one for Barcelona and another for Madrid, had around 700 participants each.

The motto “Instituts Indignats” refers to the French Lycées Indignés movement, which emerged in recent weeks in protest against the lack of teachers, the deterioration of institutes and the conditions of access to universities. Parlon spoke of a possible “mirror effect” of the European mobilizations, although he insisted that nothing that happened in Barcelona responded to a specific demand.

The incidents began around 6:00 p.m., when groups of young people, many with their faces covered, broke windows of electronics, clothing, footwear and optical stores and stole merchandise. They also set fire to containers, terrace awnings, street furniture, motorcycles and bicycles, and erected barricades around Plaza Cataluña.

The Firefighters had to extinguish 33 outbreaks, while 14 establishments were destroyed or looted. The preventive closure of department stores such as El Corte Inglés temporarily trapped hundreds of customers, who were able to leave through back or emergency doors.

The Mossos deployed some 210 agents from the Mobile Brigade and civilians, with support from the Urban Police. The Urban Police closed the access to Plaza Cataluña and the Rodalies and FGC stations stopped making stops at that point until the service was normalized after 11:30 p.m.

The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, announced that the City Council will appear in judicial proceedings to claim responsibility for damage to public property and warned that the events “will have consequences” for both adults and the parents of minors. “We will not allow what happened in Barcelona to go unpunished,” he stated.

The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, condemned the destruction and stressed that “violence has no place in Catalonia.” Parlon did not rule out new arrests during the night or as the investigation progresses, and guaranteed “zero tolerance” for a possible repetition of the altercations.