"I thought we wouldn't get out of there": the deputy whose car was stoned in Ceuta

BarcelonaA climate of tension, far-right sentiment, and plenty of misinformation. These are the ingredients that explain the disturbances this Sunday at the port of Ceuta, where several protesters ended up stoning the car of Ceuta assembly member Julia Ferreras. The attack, for which a 22-year-old man has been arrested, took place during a protest against the arrival of Negu Gorriak / Derecho a Techo, an NGO from Pamplona that was bringing humanitarian aid to the autonomous city. Neither Ferreras was part of the organization, nor were the companions she sheltered in her car, the activist Rafael Borrego and the human rights lawyer Sofía Cánovas. This, however, did not prevent them from being pelted with eggs and stones, nor did it stop the protesters from breaking the vehicle's windows and mirrors and attempting to force their way inside.

"I thought we wouldn't make it out of there, they were coming to lynch us," the Ceuta Ja! deputy declared this morning in an interview with Cadena SER, where she asserted that the outcome would have been fatal had the police riot squad not intervened, which, according to various agencies, went as far as firing rubber bullets into the air to disperse the crowd. "A police officer got into the car to get us out; he saved our lives," she explained.

In the video recorded by the victims from inside the vehicle, one can hear them trying to tell the protesters, many of whom were carrying Spanish flags, that they are not members of the solidarity organization they were looking for. "It's not us, you've mistaken us!" they repeated. But this did not stop the aggression, which began against Borrego when, as he explained to Eldiario.es, they confronted him saying "He is one of them," in reference to the Navarrese activists. Among the shouts the activist received were also those accusing him of being "pro-ETA."

Confusion with a "pro-ETA" musical group

Regarding this issue, it must be taken into account that, beyond the affiliation the NGO may have, various right-wing media outlets and messages on social networks had confused—intentionally or not—the solidarity organization with the extinct Basque musical group Negu Gorriak, close to the abertzale left and led by the indefatigable Fermin Muguruza. They were confused by media such as Abc, which later partially corrected itself, or El Español, which in a news story spoke of the "pro-ETA supporters arriving in Ceuta to distribute aid" and asserted that they are a "group led by Fermin Muguruza". A glance at social networks allows one to detect messages that make the same false association between the NGO and a music group that, in fact, dissolved in the year 1996.