Behind the Headlines: Kurdistan and Catalonia: The Politics of Self-Determination

Ruth Good points. Let me reply.

Issue: planned conflict

Important to understand that this conflict has been engineered. Many parties are needed to execute it. Even within the Spanish government. The army shouted 5 years ago to intervene. To neutralize the threat before it grows. Planning to act against the law. Without being sanctioned by the King or the Government. Bad generals were retired or demoted. Not a single one was allowed to talk in public. Not even to their troops.

Issue: Spanish police

There is no need to force them to obey orders. This is what they do. Some shock troops are trained in this way. Not to think, just to act and react. To break into a mass protest or riots. I suspect the violence seen is normal. A Spanish government officer said it seems someone was eager and looking for dead bodies. To send the news directly to the BBC. This could have been the worst scenario. Indeed one voter, father of a Catalan police agent, suffered a heart attack. I guess this event was a severe warning for Spanish authorities. As if one dies, shit will fall from the sky. Maybe the trigger to stop. As an order was given to interrupt all police activity and return to base.

Issue: what's next, speculation here

There are different conspiracy theories.

(1) Force radical changes within Spain. Switch to a Federation. So to greatly reduce or even remove central government power.

(2) Feed a conflict to increase global tension. So an outside authority is forced to intervene. Maybe the European Union. So new powers are established and used. The problem gets fixed. Now the super authority is allowed to disrupt into any nation internal affairs. So more conflicts can trigger. As the great Union will come to the rescue.

(3) Break Spain forever. To show how outside forces can act as an umbrella. To protect the innocent that requested and voted for independence. I envision NATO or United Nations going to the rescue. Using this incident for global propaganda. To encourage all the oppressed people in the world to rebel and become independent. Which is useful to induce global chaos. Making old empires to loose grip on weird colonies they still hold. Even to break existing nations into small pieces, within Europe too.

Issue: ¿more violence on the way?

I was also thinking about this recently. Looking at the secret history. Reading about mass murderers in past conflicts (like Nazi death squads). I remember this also happened in the old Yugoslavia. Mercenaries punctually acting in the form of death squads.

Take much care as I now speculate here. If this happens in Catalonia, the propaganda machine will soon after show to the rest of world. The narrative will be ready. To place the blame on to the Spanish state. Which failed to protect citizens against extremist groups. Unable to stop a new civil war. The victims will unite and the army will patrol the streets. Like in other places in Europe. And this is scary to me, as I live in Catalonia.