A tweet from the Civil Guard to warn about home robberies during the Christmas holidays has sparked controversy on social networks. The publication, which was eventually removed, showed the Three Wise Men wearing a balaclava. Many users of the social network X interpreted that they were black people. Among those who criticized the publication was the former minister and now MEP for Podemos, Irene Montero, who described the message as “Institutional racism.”
The tweet was published on January 5, coinciding with Twelfth Night. The message could be read: “If three guys in costumes come into your house tonight, they may be the Three Wise Men. But what if they are Malehechor, Mangar and Va-Saltar?” The text is accompanied by a drawing of the Three Wise Men with balaclavas and the slogan “They come to your house, but not with gifts.”
“This is institutional racism. This campaign must be withdrawn and there must be institutional reparation for this criminalization of black people,” wrote former minister Irene Montero.
Controversy, already in 2014
The truth is that this same criticism was already raised in 2014, with the PP in the Government. The accusations that the campaign is racist then came from socialist deputies and the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Jorge Fernández Díaz. “Coincidentally, all of them appeared to be black, which led one to consider that the criminals clearly belonged to this race,” the socialist deputies said then.
The response from the Interior, 10 years ago, was the following: “The image (…) does not illustrate the Three Wise Men with black skin, but rather three criminals with a black balaclava who could pose as the real Three Wise Men to try rob citizens’ homes.”
This campaign has continued to be used by the Civil Guard subsequently, for example, in 2019:
The Professional Association of Corporals of the Civil Guard has attacked Montero: “Your short view of the problem of society in the face of the robberies that citizens suffer daily, as well as the fact that it seems that you defend criminals, when it was clearly seen that They were balaclavas and not black people. “Very sad that the Civil Guard withdraws a publication due to its populism, against those who monitor chalets and other homes against robberies by HOODED people.”
The writer and language academic Arturo Pérez Reverte has also charged against Montero: “Irene Montero sees black skins where there are hoods and masks. Institutional reparation, she indignantly demands. And, of course, the Civil Guard gives up and removes the tweet. But what’s really annoying are not the Three Wise Men (who are also), but the Civil Guard. We make it easy for you.”
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