Tense wait in Torre Pacheco: the town locks down to prevent the fourth night of "hunting in the Maghrebi"

Torre Pacheco (Murcia)At seven in the evening, Jésica distributes leaflets to a group of Moroccan citizens having tea at the Istanbul café, just a few meters from the Civil Guard unit that begins to seal off access to the San Antonio neighborhood, where most of the Moroccan community of Torre Pacheco, Murcia, lives. "Go home at night, don't be like them," she pleads. Jésica tries to calm the waters after three nights of clashes between young Moroccans (many of them minors) and people linked to the far right, fueled by parties like Vox, which arrives from nearby municipalities to "hunt" the young people, whom they accuse of attacking a 68-year-old man last week.

The tension is palpable throughout the neighborhood. Broken glass litters the ground from the fights of recent nights, smashed cars, and suspicious glances. A distrust that has only now surfaced. Everyone agrees that Spanish citizens and Moroccans have always lived together peacefully. Pedro and Mohamed exemplify this with hugs and laughter. "If they don't want me here, I'll sell the house and leave," announces this gardener, who has been in Spain for 23 years. "What are you saying?" his neighbor snaps. Mohamed points to Vox and hate speech toward immigrants as the trigger for what's happening. "Young people from the same town don't fight; they're all from outside," Pedro points out.

While a drone monitors the neighborhood from above, people are approaching the police control area. Dozens of curious onlookers peer in as it gets dark. Soon it will be time to lock themselves inside. Abdoul's two daughters, ages eleven and seven, must go upstairs. They don't trust being at street level. In fact, the family has parked their car far away, outside the neighborhood, so it wouldn't be broken into. "It's like a war, I'm scared," Abdoul admits. He feels singled out, even though he's always had a good relationship with the locals. "I bought a house here. Do I have to sell it and go back to Morocco?" he wonders.

He is clear that what is happening in Torre Pacheco is a "spark," something isolated, that the far right has taken advantage of to fuel racism, but that, in reality, this is not about "nationality, but about youth." This is an idea that all the neighbors with whom ARA has spoken agree with. The problem has nothing to do with people's origins. The neighbors point out that, on the one hand, there is a group of young people "from here and there who have no respect for anyone," as Mohamed points out, and, at the same time, the hate speech of some neo-Nazi groups and organizations has led people from other municipalities to look for trouble in the town. "We are also looking for the three boys," says another neighbor, of Moroccan roots but born in Spain.

At 10:30 p.m., the leaders of the various Islamic communities in Torre Pacheco approached the group of young people gathered near the police checkpoint (many wearing masks to hide their faces) to try to calm things down. As Hamza says, it's the "police" who should do the job, and all the Moroccan citizens ask is not to be treated "like animals." "I've never been stopped on the street before, and these days they've asked for my ID four or five times a day," says Ayoub, who was unable to go to work this Monday due to the situation in the municipality. When the religious leaders leave, some of the young people let out a cry of rage, and firecrackers are thrown. Any spark can ignite everything again.

The mayor of Torre Pacheco, Pedro Ángel Roca (PP), has demanded an end to these movements of citizens from nearby municipalities. "I ask the people who are being encouraged to come and solve the problem not to come, that we will solve it with the State security forces, and that they leave us alone because what the people of the town want is not to be afraid and uncertain that night will come and we will have altercations," Roca explained. Marius LamorIn this regard, a call is circulating on social media for July 15, 16, and 17 to "hunt the Maghrebi."

This Monday, the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) of Murcia and Podemos decided to file a complaint seeking justice following José Ángel Antelo's messages and the xenophobic attacks of the past four days. Furthermore, Ione Belarra's party also announced that it will take the far-right party's leader, Santiago Abascal, to the Prosecutor's Office for inciting hatred against immigrants.

Necessary Workers

In one of San Antonio's squares, a group of neighbors are enjoying the fresh air before dinner. "When it gets dark, we'll have to get under the bed," Manoli announces. She assures us that the coexistence with the neighbors from the Maghreb is very good, that they bring her "melons and potatoes" from the countryside, and that all they want is to work. "They have the right to work," notes Juana, a fellow chatterbox until dark. "If it weren't for them, for the citizens of Morocco, there would be no countryside. We don't want to work anymore," adds Javi. While they chat calmly in the square, a couple of workers of Moroccan origin stop to chat with them.

Over the past few days, police checkpoints have identified around eighty people, most of them trying to come to the Murcian town with baseball bats or knives. Ten people have also been arrested so far, including the alleged perpetrator of the attack on the first day, who was arrested in Errenteria (Guipúzcoa) as he was about to board a train to Irún with the intention of leaving for France. The two young men who were with him when the attack occurred and did nothing were also arrested. None of them were residents of the town. The remaining detainees (six Spaniards and one Moroccan) were arrested for disturbing public order.