Throwing that verbal dagger that is yelling “monkey” at a soccer player was repeated during this Holy Week on a field in Getafe, in Madrid. And the viral video of a possible cruelty in the use of force during a police search of two young black men in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés once again set off alarms in Spain about how to combat racism and xenophobia.
This time it was the turn of the Argentine world champion Marcos Acuña, who plays for Sevilla. During this weekend, his team was a visitor to the Getafe Club de Fútbol Coliseum stadium when, in the 68th minute, The match was suspended due to verbal aggression that the Argentine received.
“In the 68th minute I had to stop the match because there were racist insults on the visiting team’s number 19, with words like ‘Acuña mono’ y ‘Acuña you come from the monkey’, from fans located in the central area of the field behind the position of my assistant referee No. 2 – the referee detailed in the minutes he left in writing -. “This incident, following the protocol for action in these cases, was announced over the public address system, with the game not resuming until two and a half minutes later and not occurring on any other occasion during the match.”
During that same match, Sevilla coach Quique Sánchez Flores also received insults: They shouted “gypsy” at him.
“I am proud of every pore of my veins that can breathe gypsy,” said Sánchez Flores when the match that his team won 1-0 with a goal from Sergio Ramos ended.
“But it is one thing to be a gypsy and another to be used as an insult. “It seems aberrant to me,” he added.
Vinícius’ 18 complaints
The attacks on Acuña and his coach They are not an isolated episode in Spanish football. The Brazilian Vinícius Júnior, who plays for Real Madrid, has already made 18 complaints about the chants he receives on the playing fields.
“Hello, hello, hello, Vinicius chimpanzee” or “You’re a monkey” are some of the insults chanted by the fans of the opposing teams.
On Monday, March 25, during the press conference prior to the friendly that Brazil played with Spain in Madrid, Vinícius couldn’t hold back his tears when they asked him about the racist attacks he suffers.
“I have been studying the topic of racism for a long time and I have less and less desire to playr,” said the 23-year-old Brazilian, who was captain of his country’s national team for the friendly.
As soon as he learned that the Argentine Acuña suffered the same insults that he endures, Vinícius said: “Racists must be exposed and the games cannot continue with them in the stands. We will only have victory when the racists leave the stadiums straight to jail, a place they deserve.”
“Racism in football is a problem that depends on everyone, on the entire society and obviously we all need to improve,” said Argentine Diego Simeone, former player of the Argentine national team and current coach of Atlético de Madrid.
According to a report by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (EU), 37 percent of black residents in Spain claim to have experienced discrimination and episodes of racism in the last five years.
Police abuse?
The same EU report notes that 52 percent of respondents andn Spain claims to have been subjected to controls for being black.
Since the weekend, a video has been circulating on the networks in which two young black men are subdued with excessive violence in the Lavapiés neighborhood.
The images show that, while one of them was immobilized by a police officer on the floor, the one who was standing was beaten by another uniformed officer, even though he showed no resistance.
The Police argued that, during the arrest of the young people in an anti-drug operation, Those arrested became violent.
However, the organization SOS Racismo Madrid called for a mobilization for Sunday to denounce police violence, “the criminalization of racialized people.”
“No human being is illegal”
About 350 people gathered on Sunday, at seven in the afternoon, in the Plaza de Lavapiés. With posters of “Black lives matter” (in reference to “Black Lives Matter” that identified the demonstrations against the 2020 murder of the African-American George Floyd committed by police officer Derek Chauvin, who suffocated him by pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes) and “Power black,” the protesters chanted: “No human being is illegal” and “Enough of police violence.”
Serigne Mbaye, former Podemos deputy in the regional Parliament known as the Madrid Assembly, denounced during the protest: “Police brutality and harassment is something that racialized bodies have to endure daily in Lavapiés.”
Mbaye was born in Senegal and has been in Spain for almost two decades, where he became naturalized.
“We demand that the government take measures to eradicate all racist violence,” added Mbaye, who is a member of the Association of the Undocumented and the Manteros Union of Madrid.
The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, asked this Monday the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
“This absolutely gratuitous and unjustified police violence that is repeated against racialized people cannot have a place in a democracy,” said Belarra. “The best thing for the State Security Forces and Bodies would be to act on their own initiative, removing those who do not do their job well.”
The government partner asks for explanations
From Sumar, the party that makes up the coalition government with Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE, they also came out to ask for explanations from the Ministry of the Interior: “Last Saturday a video went viral in which you can see an excessive action by security agents. the National Police before two migrant and racialized people – Ernest Urtasun, spokesperson for the party and Minister of Culture, said this Monday. From Sumar we condemn these events and we want this police action to be investigated in depth.”
The Ministry of the Interior reported this Monday that it opened an investigation into complaints from anti-racist organizations.
It will be the National Office for the Guarantee of Human Rights that will determine whether or not there was police violence in the operation against two young black men over the weekend in Lavapiés.
In July of last year, the same Minister of the Interior presented the Report on the evolution of hate crimes in Spain 2022. According to Grande Marlaska, hate crimes in Spain grew by 3.7 percent compared to the previous year.