The Situation in Catalonia 101

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro with the Catalan “estelada” independence flag.
Hello Fernando –
As an avid reader of your blog I am curious about your opinion regarding the news from Spain and the possibility that Catalonia will declare itself a separate country.  Any SHTF advice regarding this at all?  Would love to see you blog about it.
-Tim
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Hi Tim.
What you see happening in Cataluña is simply an attempt to overthrow the government.
The recent referendum, which was illegal both according to Cataluña law and the Spanish constitution agreed by all Spaniards, including Catalans, in 1978.
Spain has always been far more complex than what most people think. For example, Spanish, although the official language of Spain for obvious reasons, is not the only language across the country. In Galicia there’s Gallego. In Basque country here’s Euskera and in Cataluña there’s Catalan, a Spanish dialect with a few bits of French here and there.

For centuries, these autonomous regions have mostly lived in peace but there have been sporadic attempts to secede from Spain. Given that common sense generally prevails, these rarely have much support from a majority of the population. You probably remember the ETA terrorist group. A perfect example of trying to achieve through violence what is impossible through democratic means.
In the case of Cataluña, rather than using terrorism, separatists took their time and used a far more effective tactic: Attacking children. Taking advantage of the independence they had as an autonomous region in control of the education, they started brainwashing the very young. Although legally obligated to teach children Spanish, it was limited to 1 hour a week. Children were in fact punished by their teachers for speaking Spanish, even during break time. An alternative version of history was taught, one in which Cataluña was violently annexed to Spain. The idea was to plant an anti-Spanish, anti-monarchy sentiment in children and in due time across society in general. After 30 years, it was time to reap what they had sowed.

Who did this, who are the separatists? A complex group, but mostly its left, far-left, anti-capitalist, anti-system, anarcho-communists and liberals. There are of course very rich people, with a liberal speech and agenda but an aristocrat’s bank account, that have been promoting separatism as well. This would be the very rich, very corrupt Catalan elite (Pujols for example). Their main concern is creating a separate State so as to avoid going to jail given the many corruption scandals they have been involved in over the years. Politically speaking the Spanish right, called the PP(People’s Party) is very much against separatism, while traditional the further left you go (PSOE socialist party, Podemos left wing populism) , the more sympathetic they are with these separatist, anti Spain agendas.

Communists and Antifacists in Spain have been strong allies of Cristina Kirchner in Argentina and Hugo Chavez and then Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela… and they are strong supporters of Cataluña independence. In my book, that tells me all I need to know about these people.
After the failed referendum attempt, illegal, with no national or international monitors and ballot boxes full of votes even before people started voting, the powerful Catalan press is at it again and the mainstream liberal media eats it up.

You’ve probably heard that there’s been 900 wounded. But Cataluña hospitals only report treating four people in relation to the protests that day. A woman supposedly had all her fingers broken by the Spanish police… turns out she was only treated for a luxation… in one finger…
CNN will not tell you that Spanish police has been attack for upholding the law and entering illegally occupied schools. I doubt they’ll report that in public schools children of police officers have been singled out by commie separatist teachers and verbally abused.
The situation now is tense in Cataluña to say the least. The rest of Spain watches with attention as the situation over there develops.

Legally speaking The Spanish government has every right to charge the Cataluña government for attempting to overthrow the government. At this point I believe they are trying to jail these criminals with as minimum negative press as possible. This will be difficult to say the least since they have to support of significant part of the society. It may not be the majority, but as you know they can be loud and rebellious while the silent majority goes unnoticed.

At this point I would simply recommend to stay calm and prepared as we always do. For those is Cataluña, avoid the urge of going to the streets and engaging with troublemakers. That’s precisely what they want. I believe stores are closed in many places across the territory so you better have your supplies sorted out.

It’s a serious crisis and it is worth watching carefully. I wouldn’t bug out of the place just yet, but then again I would have never lived in a place that even years ago was clearly overrun by a left wing mafia.
FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”