The police in Spain have arrested the leader of an anti-immigrant group on charges that he helped to incite days of violent clashes between far-right demonstrators and police officers in the southeastern town of Torre Pacheco, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.
The man, who was identified only by his initials C.L.F., is a local leader of Deport Them Now, a group that has spread hateful messages about immigrants on the Telegram app, driving days of riots in the town, in the Murcia region. He was arrested on Monday and accused of inciting violence. Police also seized the man’s computers and tried to limit access to the group’s Telegram channels.
The town was bracing for more violence on Tuesday evening, as the authorities deployed dozens of riot police and members of the civil guard. The recent clashes are among the worst public violence in Spain, where for years a liberal government has relaxed immigration laws, making it easier for undocumented immigrants to become legal citizens.
For four consecutive nights, rioters attacked businesses linked to the town’s Moroccan residents, trashing shawarma restaurants and halal grocers. They also vandalized stores catering to the town’s other immigrant communities, including Pakistani, Turkish and Latin American businesses. Some residents tried to protect their homes and business.
The rioters clashed with the police, and by Tuesday morning 11 people had been arrested, 10 of whom were linked to the far-right groups that came from elsewhere.
Prosecutors in Murcia said they were also investigating the leader of another anti-immigrant political party, Vox, for using hate speech that may also have whipped up the violence. The party’s regional leader, José Ángel Antelo, is a professional basketball player turned politician, who was elected to the Murcia regional assembly in 2023 on a ticket attacking Spain’s immigration policies.
The violence started on Friday after images of a 68-year-old man, battered and bruised, were circulated on social media. Messages on social media said the man had beaten by young Moroccan men living in the town.
On Monday, the police arrested three men linked to the assault, including a 19-year-old who was caught as he tried to flee to France by train, regional police said in a statement. The two others, believed to be in their early 20s, were arrested earlier. The 19-year-old is accused of carrying out the beating, while the other two men were accomplices, the police said.
Anti-immigrant groups seized on the incident. In dozens of messages, Deport Them Now encouraged its followers to “hunt” down migrants and people of North African descent in the town of Torre Pacheco. In others, the group shared misinformation about the beating, publishing a video of another incident not linked to the attack in Torre Pacheco. Heeding Deport Them Now’s call, dozens of anti-immigrant groups from other towns and cities streamed into the town.
Torre Pacheco, an agricultural town near the southern coast of Spain, is home to people of 98 different nationalities, and about a third of its population is foreign-born, according to authorities. Many are also first-generation citizens, the children born of North African immigrants who have lived only in Spain.
Telegram blocked access to channels linked to Deport Them Now on Tuesday but not before the group had distributed another statement, calling for “for neighborhood patrols to hunt down North African criminals.” Despite the arrests, anti-immigrant groups said online that they were planning their largest demonstration in the town yet.
Also on Tuesday, the town’s mayor met with religious and political leaders in a bid to quell the violence, pleading with people in immigrant communities to stay home and asking anti-immigrant groups to stay out of Torre Pacheco.
“Given the current situation of uncertainty in our town, I reiterate that maintaining peace is the only way to reduce the kind of intense incidents that could lead to violence,” the mayor, Pedro Ángel Roca, said in a statement after meeting with local leaders.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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