No immediate end is foreseen to the dusts that the eviction of the Etxarri II youth center in the Rekalde neighborhood (Bilbao) took place: the space was evacuated on Friday of last week by the Basque Government after the riders clashed with those gathered there. Well, a week later, Iker Arana, who lost a testicle during these protests, held a press conference in front of the youth center to denounce the "disproportionate violence" used by the border guards that day.

"I will denounce the gunman who deliberately wounded me with a foam bullet and those responsible for the operation," said the resident of the Irala neighborhood (Bilbao), with about a hundred people behind him. The 33-year-old man, however, is aware that the litigation will be "long and hard", since "the state institutions support the police": "As seen in similar cases, they make it difficult to clarify the facts and find those responsible."

With the aim of "not normalizing" this type of attacks by the Basque Government, Arana has declared that she does not intend to silence them.He also told the newspaper El Correo: "He shot me face to face, pointed at my testicles, less than 30 meters away.I was close to more neighbors, including older people, as a sign of support, peacefully and without participating in riots."

Statements by the witness

Along with Arana, Susana Ruiz de Tapia, a resident of the Recalde, also spoke at the press conference. The gunman speaks as a witness of the moment when the man was wounded, and one appears with the narration of the wounded man: According to Ruiz de Tapia, no one expected the gunmen to attack them because the atmosphere around them was "very calm" and nothing was happening. In addition to throwing Arana’s testicle, the witness explains that another man on the site was hit by the foam bullet in the thigh.

No news of the fifth detainee

According to the Gedar media, during the protests against the eviction of the youth center, five people were arrested by the Ertz: four were released the next day, but there is still no news of the fifth. In addition, the same media reported that a detainee had been “beaten” inside the picket truck with handrails and was “totally defenseless.”