This Tuesday, the police evacuated the Atalaya social center in Vallecas, one of the largest and best known in Madrid. Members of the CSO (Occupied Social Center) denounced it in the morning on their social networks, in which videos and images of the police operation aimed at emptying the space were also broadcast. It is located next to the Javier de Miguel Park and its history is particularly well known in the capital.
The Anti-Repressive Movement of Madrid, in its X account, also echoed the expulsion and asked everyone who could to go to the area to prevent this movement. At 7:30 p.m., an urgent demonstration was called in front of the Assembly of Vallecas, seat of the regional government located in the same area as the social center, to protest the latest events.
The building that until now housed this social center belongs to Ivima, the Housing Institute of Madrid, an economic and financial organization of the Community of Madrid. It was formerly a school, but since 2014, the first occupants of the center that it is today began to arrive. The regional government, when asked about this issue, says it does not know whether it has been notified before or not, as the occupiers reported this morning, but they emphasize that since there are “no more official owners » than them, it would be logical that they would not know who there is to warn and proceed directly to the expulsion. Neither the department responsible at the regional level nor the National Police report which judicial decision triggered the operation, but both agree that it was this mechanism that led to the turnaround.
Police sources specify that several units were deployed in the operation, including the UIP (Police Intervention Unit) and certain district police stations, in an action which they describe as “calm and without incident”. Various activities had been organized inside the building for some time. A movement with anarchist overtones and a youthful tone had emerged, which eventually emerged as a multipurpose space. It served as a meeting room, a boxing room, a blacksmith shop or a bicycle factory, a library, an academy for extracurricular courses, an urban garden, a feminist debate room… The The list of options is endless. At the same entrance are displayed the schedules of those which take place daily, and which mainly attract participants from the neighborhood, whether young or old.
This expulsion was sudden and, according to what was initially reported by the CSO of X, it was also not communicated to the occupants of Atalaya. After a decade of history within the Madrid squatters movement, its end seems near. It remains to be seen whether this afternoon’s gathering, which also coincides with the debate on the municipal budget of Cibeles, will manage to pull some strings and give hope to those who want to continue maintaining the space built since 2014.
What was known was that Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida was rehabilitating the area surrounding the park next to which the center is located. The idea was to build a pedestrian route between the viewpoints, but the CSO suggested it might be a planning company attempting an eviction. Whether these assumptions were true or not, the expulsion eventually took place. In fact, there was a preliminary investigation for usurpation and a letter to the police station to proceed with the eviction.
