Word: malvarrosa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...warm night in Valencia, 300 citizens gather in the streets of Malvarrosa, a beachfront neighborhood. Passing a megaphone back and forth, they snake through the streets, shaking their fists at apartments where, they claim, heroin traffickers live. "Drug dealers out! Out! Out!" they shout. For seven years, the barrio was besieged by addicts. "Our children couldn't go to buy a loaf of bread without having their coins stolen," said Maria Jose Fuentes, who was marching with her nine-year-old son. "Old ladies were ! attacked. Prostitutes were everywhere, and addicts walked around with needles in their arms." Last September...
Last fall, when the protests were televised, similar demonstrations flared in Barcelona, Madrid, Santander and Murcia. Embarrassed, the national police stormed Malvarrosa and attacked unarmed demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, injuring 35. But the assault backfired: two weeks later, 25,000 Valencians turned out to protest against the police and uphold the vigilante movement. "If necessary, we'll continue our protests forever," says bartender Jose Lopez...
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