Spanish government sends troops to Catalonia
By
Paul Mitchell
5 October 2017
The Popular Party (PP) government in Spain has dispatched troops into Catalonia. The media reported that this was to provide support to the Civil Guard and national police in preparation for a declaration of independence by Catalan President Carles Puigdemont.
According to information leaked to El Confidencial, the Ministry of Defense has dispatched army units, including the Logistic Support Group 41 based in the Aragonese capital of Zaragoza, which lies 300 kilometres to the west of Barcelona.
At 19.00 hours on Tuesday, just one hour after it was known that King Felipe VI was going to address the nation in a speech denouncing the Catalan nationalist parties, army commanders told their subordinates to prepare to send to Barcelona two contingents in 20 trucks. The unit had already been in pre-alert for a week to ensure it could be relocated rapidly.
The troops left at night to arrive early in the morning at the barracks in Santa Eulalia de Sant Boi de Llobregat, a few kilometres from the city.
According to El Confidencial’s sources, the main objective is to reinforce the supply of food, clothing and washing facilities for the Civil Guard and the National Police as a result of hotels refusing to house them following their brutal actions during the October 1 referendum vote.
However, it is clear the troops are specialised in preparing the ground for future troop deployment. El Confidencial explains that acting as an expeditionary logistics unit, they have the capacity to “project to any place of the world, in a short space of time, personnel and means before a possible contingency and to respond immediately and with total efficiency where its logistics services are needed.”
The unit has…