Detained Include Spanish Priests

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31359, 3 May 1967, Page 17

Detained Include Spanish Priests

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MADRID, May 2. Police detained more than 500 people, including several priests, after illegal May Day demonstrations erupted throughout Spain from the Basque areas in the north-east to Seville in the south.

The ugliest scenes were in the Basque holiday resort of San Sebastian, where police fired several times in the air as thousands stormed through the streets overturning cars, stoning police and shouting: “Libertad Sindical” (free trade unions). A 21-year-old student was wounded by a richochetting bullet. In the centre of Madrid, women screamed hysterically amid shouts of “Asesinos” (assassins) as club-wielding police bludgeoned demonstrators and dragged two men to waiting jeeps.

Police answered the shouts of protest with a truncheon charge which scattered the crowd of onlookers down side streets.

The demonstrations, banned by the Franco regime, were called by a powerful underground labour force of workers’ committees grouping rebel Catholics, Socialists, Communists and disillusioned Falangists in a campaign for Western-style trade unions. About 150 persons fled into the church of Santa Maria at the height of the San Sebastian turmoil. Most escaped through the back door. Police later entered the church with the local bishop’s permission and detained 23 men and 18 women.

Communists were blamed for some of the demonstrations but a large number of Roman Catholic priests took part

At the Basque town of Villafranca de Oria, four priests were arrested following demonstrations. Three priests were held in Barcelona, capital of Catalonia.