Political and judicial repression against Catalonia to
stop the referendum on independence slated for October 1 keeps receiving
attention from media all over the world, as international condemnation
over the Spanish government’s actions in the last few weeks is on the
rise. The latest outrage has come from the US, Canada and Mexico, where a
group of about seventy academics has signed the letter published in The
Guardian last week by about one hundred British and Irish professors
who denounced that what is happening in Catalonia at the moment “was not
experienced since the Franco dictatorship”. This newspaper has printed
the letter and the list of all the professors working in American
universities who have signed it.
Among the
personalities who decry Madrid’s crackdown is Noam Chomsky, the
scientist, linguist and philosopher. Chomsky had already voiced his
views on Catalonia when, at a press conference in 2014, he stated that
he understood the Catalan referendum as a struggle for cultural identity
against the State’s imperialism.
In the letter —the
same that was published by the British and Irish professors— the
scholars denounce that “as the referendum draws closer, the political
repression is intensifying” and that “the Spanish government has stated
that it will physically prevent people entering polling booths to vote
on 1st October and has threatened to arrest Catalan Premier Carles
Puigdemont and more than 750 Catalan Mayors”. They also list the
“repressive measures” taken in recent days: shutting down websites,
taking over the Catalan government’s finances, threatening news outlets
and seizing material for the vote.
The letter ends
with one final call: “We demand that Spain immediately ceases the
political repression in Catalonia and enables the people of Catalonia to
be allowed to freely express their political views”.
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