A rally to ask for justice for the murder of Álvaro, 29, ends with overturned cars and painted house facades | The gypsy associations show their solidarity with the family of the deceased and denounce that the attacks are motivated by “anti-Gypsyism”
The town of Jaén Calf Peal He woke up last Sunday, July 17, with the news of the murder of Álvaro, a 29-year-old who worked as a doorman in an entertainment venue. He had been stabbed with a knife. About two thousand people from the town – which has a little more than five thousand inhabitants in total – took to the streets to seek justice for his death. But what began as a rally to support the family and in rejection of crime, ended with several participants overturning three cars and making graffiti and attacks on facades of houses of gypsy families. A house fire is also being investigated.
What has happened in Peal de Becerro is, according to various entities, “antigypsyism”. One of them is the FAKALI Federation of Roma Women’s Associations, which has shown “its total solidarity and support for the victim’s family” while “expressly and emphatically rejecting the incidents that occurred after the protest rally & rdquor ;.
“We have to wait for what the court says. We need people to calm down. When a forest is burning we have to put it out, not use gasoline. It is irresponsible & rdquor ;, affirms her president, Beatrice Carrillo.
Relatives of those involved have left the town
After the homicide, four men were arrested, all of them Roma. Sources from the Civil Guard explain to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, a newspaper that belongs to the same group as this medium, that while two of them have been released with charges, another two, after going through a judicial order, have entered prison.
There are relatives of the alleged murderers who have already left town. The gypsies who stayed “are restless & rdquor ;. Carrillo assures that neither can the whole town be branded as racist, nor can a crime be attributed to an entire ethnic group. For your part Filigree Shepherdessa lawyer at the Andalusian Cooperative Society Lawyers and an activist for Human Rights, has assured on Twitter that what is happening in Peal de Becerro is “a nnew antigypsy pogrom”.
Carrillo makes it clear that “no one has to be singled out or persecuted & rdquor; by what others do, but he considers it evident that “anti-gypsy racism is very naturalized in Spain”. You just have to look at the networks, he says. He reproaches the crime and shows his solidarity with the family, but assures that he does not understand why the gypsies have to “respond every time there is a criminal act”.
“Unfortunately,” Carrillo points out, “violent acts take place in this country every day. And no one goes after the relatives of the man who commits gender-based violence against a woman. But here there is a certain bend that reminds us of events from the past & rdquor ;.
Other past cases
He talks about what happened in several Andalusian towns in other decades; of the cases of Torredelcampo (1971), torredonjimeno (1984) or royal stain (1991). One of the best known was that of Martos. In 1986, the young gypsy Amador Cortés, the lol, attacked a ‘Castilian’ with a broken bottle. Apparently he was drunk. “Two hundred neighbors, cheered on by a crowd of more than two thousand people, set fire to and destroyed the gypsy neighborhood. Twenty-six houses reduced to rubble and one hundred and thirty-two people, almost all the gypsies from Marteños, forced into exile that still lasts today, was the result of an anti-Gypsy action unparalleled in the recent history of ethnic conflicts in our country & rdquor ;, wrote the University professor from Granada John Francis Gamella in the book ‘Ethnological Yearbook of Andalusia, 1994’.
Most of the families never returned to the village. Gamella explained that one tried, in 1988, but she did not succeed. The neighbors would have demanded that the town hall leave, induced by the rumor that all those who had fled two years before would come after them. “They argued that, since the gypsies left, crime had been reduced by half & rdquor ;.
The day after the Martos event, the terrorist group ETA murdered twelve Civil Guard cadets in an attack. Even so, the case did not stop losing media attention in the national media. Although according to witnesses there were hundreds of people involved, only two neighbors were prosecuted for the burning of the gypsy houses.
From homicide… to possible hate crime
Antigypsyism is defined as all those actions carried out with motivations of discrimination, hatred and stigmatization directed against Roma people, as well as their environment. Last May, the reform of the Penal Code in which this concept is included as an aggravating circumstance in the commission of criminal offences. Also as a motivating element for hate crimes that can carry prison sentences of between one and four years.
FAKALI already has denounced in writing to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office for Hate Crimes Jaen to initiate the pertinent investigations that resolve “possible criminal responsibilities that could derive” from the actions of “a minority group of neighbors who, taking advantage of the peaceful concentration called in rejection of the violent death of the 29-year-old, allegedly proceeded to attack the properties of gypsy families in the village”.
The Federation has also asked the Jaén Hate Crimes Prosecutor’s Office “to thoroughly review the comments that have surfaced on social networks about these unfortunate events & rdquor ;.
“Comments full of insults, humiliation and threats directed at the gypsies and the gypsies that, in no way, can and should not be protected by the right to freedom of expression recognized in our Constitution. Quite the contrary, they should be considered as hate speech and a prelude to violent acts such as those we have seen in Peal de Becerro & rdquor ;, claims the federation.