The doors of the Spanish justice system have been closed to Carlos Vallejo many times. Now, together with the Irídia collective, this anti-Franco activist has decided to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Vallejo was arrested in December 1970. During the state of emergency, the police were able to detain him for an entire month on Via Laietana. The police used various torture techniques on him, all extremely painful, such as tying his hands under his legs and constantly punching and kicking him. They were never investigated. In November 2022, Vallejo, along with the Irídia collective and Òmnium Cultural, filed a complaint for crimes against humanity against her torturers.Vallejo's lawsuit was the first after the entry into force of the law of democratic memory of 2022. Even the Generalitat supported him and filed a private lawsuit. Despite all the appeals filed, the last one before the Constitutional Court, his case was dismissed, and the Spanish justice system decided not to investigate.

It's already in the BOE: The Via Laietana police station in Barcelona has been declared a space of democratic memory by the Spanish government, Which means they'll put up plaques stating that torture was practiced there, but the National Police that occupies the building will not be relocated. Because, for the State, this isn't about memory but about power, specifically about the display and exercise of power, about continuing to have a Spanish flag hanging from a highly visible balcony in the capital of Catalonia, lest someone forget who's in charge here. The National Police were replaced by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force), and therefore, Minister Bolaños's argument that the officers will not leave because it's a "very important, central, and necessary police station for the regulation of citizen security" is a pure fallacy.

The Via Laietana police station is now formally a memory space, but will continue to host the Spanish National Police. Official State Gazette (BOE) this Tuesday published the Spanish government's resolution by which "the building located at Via Laietana, 43", headquarters of the Politico-Social Brigade during the Franco regime, is declared a "site of democratic memory". Contrary to what the memorial entities claimed and the Catalan parties, however, the formal resignification of the leadership will not imply the transfer of the Spanish police.

The major urban transformations promoted during Ada Colau's mandate in Barcelona continue the particular judicial ordeal. In the labyrinth of sentences On the green axis of Consell de Cent, there is also the questioning from the courts of the reform of the Via Layetana, inaugurated just two weeks ago. How has it progressed? The Vanguard And the ARA has confirmed that the 14th Administrative Court of Barcelona has once again ruled invalid the City Council's agreement that allowed the redevelopment of the street to go ahead. one year The Court had already issued a similar ruling in response to an appeal filed by the Chamber of Infrastructure, Equipment, and Public Services Concessionaires. This time, the ruling responds to an appeal filed by Barcelona Oberta, which connects several commercial and tourist axes in the capital. The judges who have ruled on the green axis of Via Laietana have ruled that, since it is an artery that "has the function of a metropolitan accessibility road and not strictly local or neighborhood," it should have been renovated through an amendment to the General Metropolitan Plan and does not have an ordinary project. The executive redevelopment project "conceals a modification of the essential determinations that the General Metropolitan Plan attributes to Via Layetana without following the legally established procedure for doing so, and by decision of a manifestly incompetent body," referring to the City Council's Ecology, Urban Planning, Infrastructure, and Mobility Commission. The Barcelona Urban Planning Subcommittee, which is a body of the Generalitat, must modify it."

On 10 March 1908, many houses in the Barcelona neighbourhoods of the Cathedral, Ribera, San Pedro, Santa Caterina and Sant Cugat del Rec were demolished to make way for the Via Laietana. Many residents were displaced far from the city centre, and others, such as Francisco Cambó, made a lot of money from the construction of this new urban road. 595 properties were affected, of which 270 were completely demolished (with around 2,200 homes in total) between 1908 and 1913. It is estimated that the works affected 10,000 people. There are photographs of the last days before the works that completely changed the urban landscape but not much documentation. Archaeology can help to construct another story, because the Barcelona Archaeology Service has unearthed five of these houses.

The Ministries of Justice and Interior amend the plain to the Minister of Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, and maintain that the police station on Via Laietana will maintain its police use. In an interview in The Newspaper On Tuesday, Torres said that the "purpose" of declaring the building a memorial site is to move the National Police to another location. However, in an appearance before the justice commission, Minister Félix Bolaños said that it is a "very important, centrally located, necessary police station for the organisation of public safety". "We did not come to an agreement when I was Minister for Democratic Memory, nor do I think we will easily come to an agreement in the near future," he said, responding to the deputy of the Left, Pilar Vallugera, who has again demanded the transfer of the building to the Barcelona City Council or the Generalitat.