Barcelona, Spain — The police began a manhunt in Barcelona on Thursday for the former Catalan leader and fugitive Carlos Puigdemonta celebrated Catalan independence activist who made a sensational return to Spain and an equally sensational escape from a speech in the city with the supposed help of a local police officer.
The events took place almost seven years after Puigdemont fled Spain following a failed independence bid, with an arrest warrant outstanding against him.
Puigdemont had previously announced his intention to be in Spain on the day when the Catalan parliament must swear in a new president. The 61-year-old initially lived in Belgium after fleeing Spain in 2017, but his last place of residence is unknown.
Puigdemont kept his travel plans a secret before embarking on the path to the rich catalan region in the northeast of Spain. He gave a speech to a large crowd of supporters in the center of Barcelona, right under the noses of police officers, who made no attempt to arrest him.
After his speech, in a moment of mystery, Puigdemont entered an adjacent tent. There, he ran through an exit, jumped into a waiting car and sped away, according to an Associated Press photographer who witnessed his departure.
Catalan police arrested one of their own officers accused of helping Puigdemont escape, the force’s press office told The Associated Press. No further details were available.
About three hours after Puigdemont disappeared, Catalan police suspended the search without saying why.
The Catalan police are called Mossos d’Esquadra and operate separately from the Spanish National Police. At the time of the 2017 election, the Spanish government suspended the head of the Mossos and put the force under investigation for failing to stop voting. His boss and his staff were eventually exonerated.
Authorities, perhaps wanting to avoid confrontation with the crowd of several thousand separatist supporters, had set up a police cordon at the nearby regional parliament where Puigdemont was expected to address next.
Once Puigdemont escaped, highway police units checked vehicles throughout the city of about 1.6 million people in an effort to catch him. The controls hindered city traffic. Police also checked vehicles traveling on the roads to neighboring France.
Puigdemont faces embezzlement charges for his role in an attempted to separate Catalonia from the rest of Spain in 2017. As regional president and leader of the separatist party at the time, he was a key player in an independence referendum that was banned by the central government but took place anyway.
These events triggered a political crisis that shook Spain for months.
Puigdemont’s appearance in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, and his game of cat and mouse with the police, stole the show on a day when a new government was sworn in in the regional parliament.
Local police were deployed in a security ring around a section of the park where Catalonia’s parliament building is located behind the walls. Meanwhile, Puigdemont, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie, walked with his followers to the nearby stage where he gave his speech.
Addressing the crowd in the park and at times raising his fist, Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of “cracking down” on the Catalan separatist movement.
“For the last seven years we have been persecuted because we wanted to hear the voice of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont said. “They have turned the fact of being Catalan into something suspicious.”
He added: “All peoples have the right to self-determination.”
The gripping turn of events, broadcast live on Spanish television channels, would likely provoke political recriminations.
The leader of the Popular Party, the main opposition to Spain’s center-left coalition government that has long rejected Catalonia’s independence movement, condemned Puigdemont’s return. Alberto Núñez Feijóo published in X that Puigdemont’s reappearance was an “unbearable humiliation” that damaged Spain’s reputation.
Spain’s government encouraged a negotiated agreement after months of stalemate between Salvador Illa’s Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the other major Catalan separatist party, the leftist Esquerra Republicana (ERC). That deal had secured enough support in the Catalan parliament for Illa to become the next regional president on Thursday.
Speaking to Catalan lawmakers before the vote, Illa called for reconciliation and respect for Spain’s controversial amnesty bill. He promised to govern for all Catalans after years of bitter divisions between those in favor of independence and those against it.
Puigdemont has dedicated his career to the goal of forging a new country in northeastern Spain, a fight that has been going on for decades. His largely uncompromising approach has caused political conflict with other separatist parties, as well as Spain’s central government.
A controversial amnesty bill, drawn up by Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government, could potentially exonerate Puigdemont and hundreds of other Catalan independence supporters of any irregularities in the 2017 election. Spain’s central government and The Constitutional Court declared at the time that the referendum was illegal.
But the bill, approved by the Spanish parliament at the beginning of this year, it is being challenged for him Supreme Courtwhich maintains that the pardon does not apply to embezzlement of funds, unlike other crimes which Puigdemont had previously been accused of.
Puigdemont could be placed in preventive detention if arrested.
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Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
