MADRID (AP) – The Latest on independence efforts in Spain’s Catalonia region (all times local):
11:45 a.m.
Spain’s Finance Ministry says it has imposed further controls of the Catalan government’s finances to ensure no public money is used for a planned Oct. 1 vote on the region’s independence that Spain says violates the constitution.
Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro signed an order late Tuesday that limits new credit and requires central authorities’ supervision for every payment of non-essential services in the northeastern region of Catalonia. The decision came after Catalan officials failed to voluntarily agree to the controls.
With the latest measure, virtually all Catalan spending will be in the hands of Madrid. The finance ministry took over the direct payment of basic services such as education, health and civil servants’ salaries last week.
Regional officials have vowed to hold the referendum on Catalonia’s secession from Spain despite fierce opposition from the central government and a suspension order by the Constitutional Court.
The prosperous Catalonia region, whose capital is Barcelona, generates a fifth of Spain’s economy. The region’s 7.5 million inhabitants are nearly evenly divided over independence.
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11:05 a.m.
News reports says Spanish police have arrested 12 people in raids on offices of the regional government of Catalonia as a crackdown intensifies on the region’s preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.
Spain’s Europa Press news agency and other media outlets said the raids Wednesday mostly targeted the region’s economic and foreign departments as Spanish authorities worked to halt all preparatory moves for the planned Oct. 1referendum.
Hundreds of people gathered to protest the raids and shout pro-independence slogans outside offices in the region’s capital, Barcelona.
The Catalan regional government confirmed Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, was among those arrested.
Police and judicial authorities would give no details on the operation, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it.
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10:10 a.m.
The Catalan regional government says that a top official in the management of the region’s economic affairs has been arrested as a crackdown intensifies on preparations for a secession vote that Spanish authorities have suspended.
The arrest of Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs and number two to the region’s vice president Oriol Junqueras, took place on Wednesday morning as agents of Spain’s Civil Guard searched the premises of the regional department of economy, a spokeswoman with the institution said.
A spokesman for Junqueras confirmed the arrest and said that other Catalan government premises were being searched by the agents. Both officials declined to be identified by name, following internal protocol.
The central government is waging myriad legal battles to halt the Oct. 1 referendum called by the pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia, in northeastern Spain.