The northern miners are always firing this crap off. Nothing new. My ex was a Spaniard. She had missiles.
I don't really speak Spanish, but it looks like they mean business:
http://periodismohumano.com/economia...-santiago.html
It looks like the Greek scenario on a small scale. If the protesters took to firing improvised RPGs at riot police, something pissed them off very badly.
Can some of our Spanish members fill us in? How serious is it?
The northern miners are always firing this crap off. Nothing new. My ex was a Spaniard. She had missiles.
Looks like model rockets fired out of a pipe. I used to do that when I was a teen.
It doesn't look like a protest. It looks like people drinking beer and shooting sh*t.
edit - zoomed in and saw some riot cops. The miner guy might need another beer, and soon.
http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/8648...to-de-cohetes/
Sometimes adding a steel ball of a bearing at the tip of the rocket. An urban legend says that 20 years ago came to shoot down a police helicopter.
They don't like the cuts being made in the miner sector, they are coal miners protesting for 17th days. The mines were expected to be closed in 2011.
The rpg's are just tube + fireworks.
Asturian miners and steel workers have a tradition of violent protests and they sometimes act a bit too much like they're trying to live up to it. They have access to explosive and the knowledge of how to use them. Apart from blocking roads, they've attack party offices belonging to the ruling PP.
I remember in 1987 when a bunch of riot cops ended up having to give up their weapons and leave the town of Reynosa under the protection of the local priest. Of course, they later came back with APCs.
There is also the famous Asturian miner's uprising in 1934 which required thousands of Spanish army troops, including aircraft, Regulares from Morrocco and units from La Legion, to crush in two weeks of brutal fighting. A general named Francisco Franco (you may have heard of him...) was in charge of that operation.
This is a tradition, in other parts of Spain they are running the bulls, here they have their own riots.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18444253
Officials in northern Spain have condemned violence at a miners' strike, which has seen attacks on police and offices of the national ruling party.
The administration in Asturias also urged the government in Madrid to revise its target of slashing subsidies to the mining industry by 64%.
Thousands of miners have been on strike in northern Spain for weeks in protest at the cuts.
A rail passenger was injured when his train hit logs placed on a line.
The man, 44, was taken to hospital with a head wound after the incident in Gijon, where miners are on strike, the Spanish news agency Efe reports.....Continues on link.
Sabotage of railway lines is taking things a bit far.
"For Your Future" I find this picture pretty ironic.
Eloy Alonso / R*****s