Jesús Molina, who put a padlock on the entrance to a squat in Palma, Mallorca and was arrested

Jesús Molina at the squat. | Miquel À. Cañellas

Andrew EdePalma19/04/2024 09:32
TW
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On the C. Manacor in Palma is a plot that is owned by the so-called bad bank Sareb, which was formed in 2012 to manage high-risk assets of banks that had to be nationalised as a result of the financial crisis. The plot has squatters, something that a local resident, Jesús Molina, has been denouncing for several months.

On Wednesday around 9pm, there was a call to the National Police emergency number saying that a neighbour had put a chain and padlock on the entrance to a property that didn't belong to him. When officers arrived, there was Jesús Molina. He admitted that it was him. He had padlocked the place to prevent individuals from re-entering and causing a nuisance to the closest residents.

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The police told him that he couldn't do this. It wasn't his property. On the plot was a shanty. Squatters' belongings were inside it. An officer proceeded to break the padlock with bolt cutters, at which point Jesús Molina said that he was going to denounce the officer. Given this threat and the fact that he didn't appear to appreciate that he couldn't install a means of security, he was arrested for coercion.

A few days prior to this incident, he had explained that the squatters had been evicted but that there were concerns that they would return. "The plot has been vacated. We now have to prevent them from entering again."