Elderly assault leads to violence against immigrants

The escalation of violence in Torre Pacheco, a town in Murcia, Spain, continued for the second consecutive night, with authorities on high alert and street attacks leading to new arrests. All because of a midweek attack on an elderly man, which served as a pretext for far-right groups to call for a "hunt" for immigrants and to launch odes to Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator, leading to a series of violent incidents.

This Saturday, new developments were recorded, according to the Spanish press, although citing different figures ( El Mundo reports three arrests and three minor injuries, El País reports five injuries and one arrest). What all reports confirm is that incidents involving attacks against North Africans —of Torre Pacheco's 40,000 inhabitants, 30% are immigrants, the majority Moroccans working in intensive agriculture—continue, after several extremist and xenophobic groups spread appeals and messages such as "we call for a hunt," "neighbor patrols," or "direct justice to meet with Allah ," reports El Mundo.

Other messages from the extremist group Deport Them Now call for violence: "If other Maghrebians don't help us identify them, they will automatically become guilty and pay for what happened."

"What happened" was the trigger for this wave of violence: last Wednesday, a 68-year-old man named Domingo Tomás Martínez, who lives in Torre Pacheco, was walking near his home at around 6 a.m. when a group of young men suddenly brutally attacked him, recording the attack to post on social media. According to the elderly man, the young men appeared suddenly, separately, and the first one lunged at him and began hitting him, especially in the face, as reported by Euronews .

The others then threw him to the ground and continued to attack him with punches and kicks, but they didn't steal anything. According to authorities, the goal was supposed to be to complete a viral challenge encouraging people to beat vulnerable people and post the results.

Those responsible have not yet been identified , but after Domingo Tomás Martínez said that the young men appeared to be of Maghrebi origin, the violent episode sparked even more violence in Torre Pacheco (and promises by the town's mayor, Pedro Ángel Roca, to install surveillance cameras on the streets and call for police reinforcements).

If the story of the initial attack was already alarming, the situation worsened later, with the beginning of messages from extremist groups against immigrants. A "hunt" was called via Telegram for July 15th, 16th, and 17th, promising "popular justice" against those responsible for the initial attack. On Friday, a rally was called for the town hall square, called "Torre Pacheco, free from violence, free from crime."

It was here, as Euronews also reports, that insults and shouts of praise for the Spanish dictator began to be heard ( "Long live Franco!" , "Stand up, Franco!", and other variations), with the rally devolving into violence. According to police, several of the people involved in the altercations do not live in Torre Pacheco and were there deliberately to participate in the rally.

During Saturday's clashes, bottles and other objects were thrown, causing minor injuries to several people. Authorities activated a prevention system involving the Guardia Civil and local police. There are now 75 Spanish National Police officers stationed in Torre Pacheco who are investigating surveillance camera and cell phone footage to prevent further hate crime attacks.

The president of the Murcia region, Fernando López Miras, assured that those responsible for the first attack on the 68-year-old man will "answer to justice," according to El Mundo. "The full weight of the law will have to fall upon them, of course. I understand everyone's frustration , but we must trust the state security forces and bodies, and the law, of course." He also took the opportunity to call for calm: "The neighbors of Torre Pacheco want to live in peace and coexist as they have done before. They cannot allow or tolerate calls for violence, which we are seeing from some and others."

Meanwhile, the national government representative in Murcia, Mariola Guevara Caza, urged the population not to be swayed by hate speech "which only seeks to gain political credit ." And the mayor, Pedro Ángel Roca, told El Mundo that " vandalism has increased significantly recently" in Torre Pacheco, and that residents dislike it: "This is a town that has grown significantly in the last thirty years; that's the reality. But, of course, this can never justify violence against anyone."

Mariola Guevara Caza told El País that there will be more arrests because “many of the people who incited this disturbance of public order and hate crimes are being identified.”

The violent incidents are generating more political reactions, with political parties taking positions on the Torre Pacheco attacks. Vox even organized a rally to "repel the terror sown by groups of North Africans," while Podemos called for a preventive ban on such gatherings. PP president Alberto Núñez Feijóo said on social media that he spoke with the local mayor and López Miras and asked the government to reinforce the number of agents on the ground "to immediately stop the spiral of violence."

As the Spanish press notes, Torre Pacheco relies largely on intensive agriculture and has a largely immigrant workforce, with the 30% immigrant population in the area being double the national average of 15%.