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“I have been an agent for 15 years and I have never found myself in a situation like this. It looked like a Brazilian prison, like when one of those riots comes out on TV. A rebellion. The immigrants had completely taken over the apartments. People on the rooftops, others breaking windows, completely drunk, others throwing all kinds of objects out the windows … “.
It is the testimony of one of the agents who intervened in the events of the Portobello. A hotel complex in Mogán, south of Gran Canaria. There they host about 150 of the migrants who have arrived in the archipelago in recent weeks. A small powder keg where there are conflicts every day and where a real pitched battle took place early on Tuesday.
Smashed furniture, flying microwaves, stones at the educators and the security forces that were approaching. Fights and assaults. At the reception, half a dozen educators entrenched themselves, unable to leave because they were going to be attacked. On the floor of the complex, broken glass mixed with blood stains from the migrants themselves.
The migration crisis in the Canary Islands
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The disaster has resulted in the arrest of 4 of the immigrants housed. The 4 of Moroccan nationality, three minors and one older. Curiously, in these apartments called Porto Bello, in the area of Puerto Rico (Mogán), only minors are accepted. Many of those who are staying, however, are adults. But they pose as minors and it is not being possible to discern who is under 18 years old and who has sneaked in.
EL ESPAÑOL has also had access to the videos and photographs taken during and after the rebellion. The apartments have been seriously damaged, although the company has declined to comment. And the agents call for reinforcements. The worst, according to sources in the area, is that it has not been an isolated case, but an escalation of violence that does not look cold. It has gone from admonishing migrants for swimming in the pool without permission, to not being able to quell a full-blown riot. An episode that can be repeated.
This is how the rooms were after the revolt
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The alcohol
“I couldn’t tell you what the trigger was. I don’t think there is a spark or a concrete reason for her to get as fat as she has this week in those apartments. Are on the outside [de los apartamentos] all day. I know they are calm in the afternoons. As they can go out, you see them on the streets, almost always with cartons of wine. Get rubbery and then, when they spend the night, that’s when everything explodes ”.
He tells it to THE SPANISH one of the civil guards present during the events of the night of Monday, February 8, after 11pm. “In principle we went to a first notice. We were about to finish the service and they called us to turn around and go back to the complex, for the one that had been mounted there.”
Broken glass all over the room
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The one that had been set up was from a movie: “People on the roof, going from balcony to balcony, throwing things out the windows … madness. We had to go in because all the caretakers were entrenched in the reception. These people he had completely taken over the complex, “he explains, noting that” there would be 5 caretakers. Minors there are between 130 and 150 “.
When he refers to caregivers, he talks about the monitors of the NGO Social Response that is in charge of this task and that they were victims of attacks and threats, as these same police sources have confirmed. But this entity has refused to speak to EL ESPAÑOL and does not confirm or deny said attacks. They have not even wanted to confirm the name of their organization.
Very big kids
The videos and photos leave no room for doubt. “We entered and it was to see it. A pitched battle. They say they are minors and I do not understand the great level of destruction that these people can have even if they are minors. That one thing is that they are minors and another that they are children. That they are uncles of 16 or 17 years. Or over 18, who have slipped some older. Therefore, when we say minors, watch out, don’t imagine a group of 10-year-olds. These are uncontrollable. And if they have drunk, then much worse “, continues this agent of the Benemérita.
A microwave served as a throwing weapon
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Precisely one of the detainees belongs to that group of adults who has posed as a minor. They found out after their arrest: “The only way to know how old they are is the bone test, but it is not being done. Or have your passport appear, which is what happened to this subject who has been arrested after ‘the move’ “, points out this agent, who highlights that” if it is discovered that one of them is not a minor, the most they do is throw him out of the apartments. What it causes is more immigrants wandering the streets of the area and more complaints from neighbors.
The setting inside the Porto Bello was that of a war. There were several sources of altercations. On the one hand, people fighting. On the other hand, people destroying everything they found. The same umbrellas as appliances. Windows were smashed and some got cut on broken glass. Blood stains on the walls and on the floor of the common areas. Inside the apartments, smashed refrigerators. Even the bathrooms broke, causing more sharp debris, in this case ceramic.
Blood stains on the walls
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Throw microwave
“When the caretakers tried to approach the building to mediate, they received them by throwing a microwave at them. They threw it out the window as a throwing weapon. If a microwave falls on you from a third floor, it kills you,” continues this source, who believes that ” The people who manage this have been great. There are very few people in charge and they cannot control so many people. “
The damage was widespread
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Finally, 16 agents of the Civil Guard ended up intervening: 8 from the anti-riot group and 8 more from Citizen Security. Also 4 local police from Mogán. They ended the battle and proceeded to arrest these four people. This time they have not had to regret casualties, but this is not always the case. Because this ‘night of broken glass’ at Porto Bello was not the first. There are already several serious incidents registered in the hotels in the south of the island, which have not yet been emptied. And in some they have had to lament injuries.
In mid-January there was a serious altercation in the same area of Puerto Rico. In that case it happened in the Tamaco apartments: a group of minors housed in said complex attacked one of the educators. Police and civil guards had to intervene, who were received with stones by the migrants. “There they also smashed furniture and windows. There were windows on the floor and they also threw soap and water so that we slipped and hurt ourselves as much as possible,” says another Benemérita agent who was present. He fared better than two of his teammates, who were hit during another incident on New Year’s Eve and have been out since.
That conflict was put down by force, just like that of Porto Bello. But the situation, far from calming down, points to new revolts. For this reason, local police and civil guards are calling for reinforcements. There is a lack of agents and that is not new. Only in the Civil Guard there are 300 places to fill in the province of Las Palmas, about 600 throughout the archipelago. From the Unified Association of the Civil Guard of Las Palmas (AUGC), for its part, they request the return of the Rural Security Group No. 8. Right now it is on the island of Tenerife, but its members were already in the municipality of Mogán last January, after several incidents of these characteristics.
The battle took place in the Porto Bello apartments
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Who is in charge of managing this hot potato? In this case, as they are minors, it is not the competence of the Ministry of Migration, but of the Ministry of Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth of the Canary Government. THE SPANISH you have tried to contact them, without success. At the moment they have not issued any statement in this regard.
Be that as it may, the fires of this migratory crisis are happening all over the island. In the north, the Canarias 50 camp (Las Palmas) has suffered several flood problems that have stirred up the 400 migrants housed there. In the south, hotels are still not empty. The situation has gone from tense to pitched battle. The material damages are, for now, incalculable. And the feeling is that every night a ‘night of broken glass’ can be repeated like the one on Monday at Porto Bello.
The common areas were also damaged
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