Simon Wade
NEIGHBOURS protesting outside two squatted buildings in Cuenca have led to a rapid eviction within ‘hours’.
Residents in Horcajo de Santiago informed Guardia Civil of suspicious movements and a vehicle moving people into the abandoned properties last Saturday evening.
The local council revealed that neighbours ‘carefully manipulated’ bars across the properties’ windows to make entry and forced eviction easier later that night, if necessary.
Then on Sunday afternoon, dozens of residents gathered in front of the houses, demanding the immediate departure of the inhabitants, allegedly from Madrid.
After several hours of mediation by the Guardia, the squatters arranged for transport to take them away just before midnight.
A City Council press release said: “Thanks to that citizen pressure, the resolution of the incident was achieved in a few hours, taking into account that legislative procedures would have taken months.”
It follows an Olive Press report last November in which squatters who broke into the home of a 94-year-old woman in the Basque Country were evicted by an angry mob of neighbours.
Hundreds of angry residents descended on the house of a 94-year-old woman in Portugalete, before two parents and two young children requested police assistance to vacate the property under fierce threats of violence outside no. 66 in the Grupo Progreso urbanisation following five days of protests.
