“It’s an important moment for Latin America,” says former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, who is visiting the region

oriol junqueras He is the former Catalan vice president sentenced to 13 years in prison and disqualified for organizing an unconstitutional referendum that led to Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2017.

That attempt to separate from Spain failure and while Carles Puigdemont -who presided over the government of the Generalitat at the time- fled from Spain to avoid prison, Junqueras remained: he was imprisoned since November 2017 and has purged the sentence that the Court of Cassation had granted him in 2019 until June of last yearwhen the PSOE-Podemos coalition government he forgave him.

Today he is the president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, the independence party that governs the Spanish territory that Junqueras wishes to see it become a republic one day.

Esquerra has parliamentary representation in the Congress of Deputies and was one of the smaller but decisive parties when it came to add subscriptions so that the social democrat Pedro Sánchez managed to become head of government of Spain.

Since, support or abstentionof Esquerra is almost crucial for the coalition government of Sánchez, rubble these days by a furious opposition to the proposal of the Executive of Eliminate the crime of sedition from the penal code and to review embezzlement, crimes for which Junqueras and eight other pro-independence leaders were sentenced to between 9 and 13 years.

Junqueras has just ended a ten day tour of Argentina, Chile and Colombiawith the intention of giving international visibility “to the Catalan cause and to the repression of the Spanish state”.

is first time leaving Europe since that provocative referendum on self-determination of 1 October 2017 which ended in police repression, part of the Catalan government on the run, the rest in prison, and Catalonia has intervened by the national government which, at that time, was presided over by Mariano Rajoi.

“There is a parallel between the repression that Argentina suffered during the military dictatorship and that which occurred in the Spanish state during the war and during Franco’s dictatorship, and also with elements of repression that continue to exist today in Catalonia,” he said. said. clarion Junqueras.

In our country was with Estela de Carlottopresident of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, with Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and with Estela Díaz, head of the Ministry of Women, Gender Policy and Sexual Diversity of the government of the province of Buenos Aires.

In Colombia met the president Gustavo Petro and in Chile he met the president of the Senate, Alvaro Elizalde, and the former president of that chamber, Yasna Provoste.

-Why did you decide to travel to Latin America in this period?

-Because it seems to us that it is an important moment for Latin America due to the coincidence of various electoral victories of formations of a progressive nature, with a desire for transformation and democratic depth, as happened recently in Brazil, with the victory of President Lula ( Da Silva) or in Colombia, with the victory of President (Gustavo) Petro.

-What do you take away from the meeting with the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo?

-With the Grandmothers we share those parallels that exist between the repression suffered by Argentina, that which took place in the Spanish State and that which continues to exist both in Catalonia and in many places in Latin America, where on some occasions a part of the judiciary seeks to become a political, executive and legislative body, and seeks to impose outside the polls what their political sympathizers cannot win at the polls, as happened in the cases of Lula (Da Silva) or with (former Brazilian president) Dilma Rousseff or with Gustavo Petro, when he was mayor of Bogota.

-The Grandmothers are close to the current Argentine government, which is very much in tune with the government of Pedro Sánchez, which the Catalan independence movement points to as “repressive”…

We understand that it is the responsibility of a government of any country to have the best possible institutional relations and it is evident that we also seek to have the best possible relations with all governments of the world.

-Did you have to ask for a special permit to leave Spain?

-No. My movements have no restrictions. What it has is that they keep me completely banned for 13 years, which not only prevents me from running for election and holding public office, but also prevents me from doing my job as a university professor because they ban me from teach college for the danger I pose.

-If the Spanish government’s proposal to amend the crime of sedition in the Penal Code is implemented, will the Supreme Court have to review your conviction?

-My personal situation is irrelevant to the situation of justice in general. Therefore, we always act trying to bring justice where there is injustice. In this sense, we are working to obtain the repeal (of sedition), the suppression of a crime that has no counterpart in the rest of the penal codes of the Western world and which is a fossil of the early nineteenth century. It has also been used in a clearly abusive way against some democrats, as has already been recognized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Human Rights Committee, among other international organizations.

-Former partners in the Catalan government, Junts per Catalunya, are against accepting the modification of the crime of sedition, arguing that it is about admitting to having committed a crime. How come?

-With a partisan calculation. Because it is evident that they know perfectly well that it is much more reasonable, better and just to suppress the crime of sedition than to suppress it. They will have to explain why they are aligned with the Popular Party and Vox.

-But based on the nationalist goal, which is the independence of Catalonia, is Esquerra closer to the national government than to Junts?

– Esquerra Republicana is close to Catalonia and Catalan society. And of democracy and international law. This is work, to defend the rights of Catalonia.

-However, when it comes to adding majorities to agree on the self-determination referendum that the current Catalan government is asking of Pedro Sánchez, the pro-independence parties seem to be increasingly distant. Not a good sign, is it?

-What is evident is that Esquerra Republicana works so that the penal code corresponds to the indications of international organizations. And, in any case, other political parties will explain why they work in exactly the opposite direction.

-Does Esquerra’s support to the general state budget depend on the modification of the crime of embezzlement in the penal code?

-In life, the relationship between people and human groups certainly depends on the trust that can exist between them. And in this sense it is evident that it is better to establish possible relationships of trust if the defense of fundamental human rights is shared. We will see if these understandings are finally produced.

-Has it been a long time since you spoke to Carles Puigdemont?

We talk as often as we see fit.

Madrid. Corresponding