A police officer points a child at gunpoint; He makes several feints and ends up shooting at the ground, a short distance from his legs. Two streets away, a young girl receives a violent blow to the head from a riot shield and, very close to this location, another crowd of officers try, together, to subdue a minor. This is the image left on Friday by a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Education of the Region of Murcia; A few thousand students gathered at the gates of the educational institution to complain about the uncertainty and lack of coordination of the EBAU, the university entrance tests.
Marcos is one of the students who participated in the protests and explained to elDiario.es that at the time of the accusations and contrary to the official version, there were throwing of objects – citrus fruits and eggs, mainly – on the facade. of the Ministry on Avenida de la Fama in the capital of Murcia: “I read in other media that they shot police officers and pedestrians. It’s a lie. In all the videos that have appeared, I have not seen any attack on anyone from us, against anyone.”
According to the students, riot police and professional riot units began arriving “suddenly,” armed with sound guns, rubber bullets, batons and shields. “I don’t know, it seemed very disproportionate to me. They arrived and automatically started repressing us very aggressively; “It scared me a little to see these people who are supposed to protect us act.”
And dozens of images of arrests and attacks against demonstrators have gone viral on social networks. “We see that, without anyone provoking them, they start to hit each other. I took some myself. And the way the press acted seems even worse to me, saying that they reacted to the acts of vandalism. I was telling my girlfriend about the whole incident on the phone and saw how they attacked a child, hitting him with a baton while he was on the ground; I said to my girlfriend ‘what bastards’, and a man grabbed me from behind, a policeman, called me a son of a bitch and asked for my ID.”
“It seems to me that we are demonstrating for a just cause, because it is our future and we have the right to know how the EBAU will work, just as other second year baccalaureate students knew. This system crushes us and exhausts us. And what we experience now as students, we will experience later as workers; “We see to what extent the police are an actor in the defense of privileged sectors of society. »
Mariola Guevara, Government Delegate for the Region, dissociated herself from the police action and made it clear that “at no time did the Government Delegation order the use of force against the students”.
The police chief assured Guevara that the device had been “proportionate to establish a perimeter that would prevent more serious situations from occurring.”
Report to clarify responsibilities
“I understand that the images that have been published may be sensitive and that is why I have requested a report ensuring that if any inappropriate action is detected, appropriate responsibilities will be addressed. “I want to expressly censure the irresponsibility of certain people who claim, among other lies, that the government delegation ordered bullets to be fired against minors.”
Víctor Egio, Podemos deputy in the Regional Assembly, said that “what we experienced was a totally disproportionate action by the police. Most of the students demonstrated peacefully, but the police response was charging, hitting, shoving, and shooting with non-lethal ammunition that injured at least one boy who was next to me. “I know this for a fact, because I was on the front lines.”
According to Egio, the government delegation must give many explanations. “But I also do not want to forget the responsibility of the Ministry of Education of Mr. Víctor Marín and President López Miras. If this happened, it was because at no time was there any dialogue. No one, absolutely no one from the regional government or the Ministry of Education came to speak to the students or collect their demands.
“And, obviously, given the lack of response, tempers got heated. Therefore, the ultimate responsibility lies with the Minister of Education, Víctor Marín, for the truly regrettable performance of this morning and for what he is doing to the EBAU students who, to this day, still do not know the criteria which are normally always fixed. in June before the start of classes.
