Puerta del Sol camp in Madrid draws up protocols over thefts and assaults

Sol camp adopts protocols against thefts and assaults

A camp that presents itself as a space for coexistence and protest has ended up needing internal rules for the most basic thing: protecting people from theft and sensual assaults within the camp itself. The protesters at Puerta del Sol have circulated protocols against sensual assaults and have acknowledged thefts inside the encampment, according to the press clippings circulating on the matter. The detail that has ignited the conversation is not the existence of those protocols, but what they reveal: that life in the square required security measures nobody had anticipated in the original narrative.

The square's narrative is cracking from within

The camp was born as a showcase for a cause — housing — and has ended up managing internal order problems. The protocols against sensual assaults and the measures against theft point to an uncomfortable reality for any movement that presents itself as an exemplary community: there are conflicts inside too. The conversation sparked by these reports has been merciless about the contradiction between discourse and practice.

Another front has been added to this. According to the reports, money in cash has been raised around the camp under the slogan "down with borders," and the mobile phone number of a specific individual has been used to channel donations intended for the migrants who arrived in Ceuta. The use of that number, attributed to someone outside the movement, has been one of the most discussed points.

The organizers' integrity, under suspicion

The second blow to the narrative has come from the angle of exemplarity. A former left-wing city councillor appears linked to the housing camp in Oviedo while, according to published reports, his company operates in the tourist rental business. The paradox — campaigning for housing while profiting from tourist rentals — has been the most repeated argument for questioning the credibility of those leading the movement.

The conversation has also turned to the institutional response. Some argue that the Government Delegation (the central government's representative office in the region) should have acted on its own and evicted the camp, while others point out that any police intervention in a space with less media visibility would have been resolved within hours. The comparison with other evictions has served to underline the sense of unequal treatment.

The episode nobody wants to remember

In the background of the debate, a precedent has resurfaced that the organizers would rather not have to mention: the sensual assault reported in a tent during a previous camp, a case that was already used back then to warn of the risks of sleeping outdoors in an encampment with no access control. The fact that protocols against sensual assaults are now being drafted is read, in that light, as a belated confirmation of those warnings.

The most repeated irony these days has to do with the media silence. Several voices have noted that the same pundits who would have spent hours on an incident occurring in a different ideological context have found hardly any material here. It is the old debate about the double standard in news coverage, applied to a square that has been generating uncomfortable headlines for days.

What remains of the movement

The provisional balance is that of a camp that has gone from campaigning for housing to managing thefts, sensual assault protocols and suspicions about the destination of the money raised. The original cause — access to housing — is still there, but the wrapping has deteriorated. With these ingredients, the camp is likely to lose support among those who sympathized with the substance of the issue but did not share its methods. Still, it is wise not to jump ahead: square movements have a capacity to endure wear and tear that is rarely measured accurately from the outside.