The company Desokupa set up an access control system at the Punta Arabí Club yesterday to prevent the theft of furniture and electrical appliances in preparation for the eviction planned for this morning, although some of the squatters have already begun to leave the area with their belongings. Among the 150 squatters who are said to be living in the area, there is “a group of 40 very violent and organised people who were dismantling the whole complex, taking furniture, TVs and vitro-ceramic hobs”, according to Daniel Esteve, the director of Desokupa.
Around twenty security guards were deployed at 7am to reinforce surveillance and prevent vehicles or people from entering the site, where a hippy market is held during the summer. At the end of the season, the hotel chain Azuline, after two years of non-payments, stopped managing the complex, which it had leased to the businesswoman Paquita Sánchez, the owner of the controversial Casa Lola. Since then, there has been widespread squatting in the tourist flats.
Desokupa controls in Ibiza
Desokupa, who explained that they have been contracted by the new managers of the Punta Arabí Club, set up an initial operation two days ago. Although, it was not originally planned to be put in place until this morning, the new managers of the complex asked for the area to be monitored because “the looting had begun in earnest”, Esteve explained in front of the complex.
The eviction company official’s statement was accompanied by photographs and videos of the looting, as well as the number plates of “20 vehicles that have been removing items”. Among them, there was a van with the Red Cross logo “that has been filmed several times”, he said.
The four security guards posted at the complex entrance on Tuesday morning were threatened and intimidated by “a violent group of squatters, made up of around 40 people”, according to Esteve. “They have installed themselves in the area at the back of the complex and yesterday [Tuesday] they came armed with knives, sticks and dogs. Many witnesses will be able to confirm this”, he stressed.
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