This article is translated from a story which first appeared on ElNacional.cat via the following link on August 8. Thanks to El Nacional, our Catalan sister paper, for supplying this reporting.
President Carles Puigdemont has not been arrested. He has fulfilled his duty, he appeared at the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, he gave a speech in front of some 5000 people, and then he disappeared.
Nobody knows how, but he got into a white Honda vehicle and, after making several passes around the Parliament, where he was detected by the Mossos d'Esquadra, he disappeared.
Nobody knows how, but the vehicle in which President Puigdemont was travelling has vanished in front of a Mossos d'Esquadra force of more than 300 police officers, with a helicopter and drones activated.
The Mossos d'Esquadra had sealed off the entrances to the Parc de la Ciutadella, and one could only enter through two doors, which were completely sealed off by the Mossos. The Catalan police had predicted that when Carles Puigdemont wanted to enter the Parliament, with the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull , and the other Junts deputies, he would be intercepted, identified and arrested.
The deputies have entered the Parliament and have been checked one by one to prevent the president from entering. In addition, the vehicles entering the Parliament were inspected and their windows were lowered, but there was no sign of the president. Puigdemont's legal team, led by Gonzalo Boye, has entered the Parliament grounds, in the Parc de la Ciutadella, a fact that has made the Mossos imagine that the arrest would be imminent, but nothing. Everything was prepared, but something, which still no one can explain, has failed. The white vehicle has made another turn and they have lost sight of it.
Nerves have taken hold at the Mossos headquarters. The regional and general police commanders, who were in the Coordination Centre (CECOR) and in the same building of the Parliament, have seen that the script was not going as they had thought - that not agreed, Puigdemont's defence did not accept the president's surrender - and other resources have been activated to try to catch him. They knew what car he had used to leave the event and it was decided to activate, first in Barcelona, and then throughout the country, a device reserved for serious crimes, such as shootings or murders, to find him, the so-called Jaula device, road controls at various points to close the perimeter of the city of Barcelona and be able to intercept him; so far, without luck.
With the Jaula in motion, with road controls in progress, with vehicle inspections in various parts of the country looking for a man, the nerves were growing in the top of the Mossos, who had lost the objective and who, even now, do not know where he may be. The Mossos Information Services expected the president to be inside the Parliament building, to appear when it was Junts' turn to respond to Illa, but it was the Vallense spokesman, Albert Batet, who replied to the candidate for president, and that was when it was confirmed that Puigdemont is not inside the Parliament either.
All the sources consulted by ElNacional.cat, both police and Junts, admit that they have no idea where President Puigdemont is.
He has escaped from a maximum-scale Mossos operation, with more than 300 police officers , and with controls also from the air, and right now no one knows where he is, or how he got to the Arc de Triomf.
The Junts deputies assure that it is not over and that not everything is yet written about this return and disappearance of President Puigdemont on this hot August 8, 2024. Within the Mossos, however, no one dares, yet, to make assessments. Something has failed and we will have to find out what.
This article is translated from a story which first appeared on ElNacional.cat via the following link on August 8. Thanks to El Nacional, our Catalan sister paper, for supplying this reporting.
