MADRID (AP) – Spanish police arrested at least 12 people Wednesday in raids on Catalan government offices, news reports said, as national authorities intensified a crackdown on the region’s preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.
It was the first time Spanish authorities have detained Catalan officials since the campaign for a secession vote in Catalonia began to gather momentum in 2011.
The move was the latest spike in tension in the standoff between authorities based in Madrid and pro-independence Catalans. Almost immediately after the news, hundreds of Catalans gathered to angrily protest the raids outside government offices in the region’s capital, Barcelona.
Some demonstrators sat down in the street to block police cars, while others scuffled with officers.
Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont blasted the police operations as “unlawful” and accused the national government of adopting a “totalitarian attitude.”