Controversy has been raging in Menorca since last Saturday the municipal sports center of Es Castell hosted a training workshop in “police grappling”, a martial discipline based on “grabs and takedowns” aimed at personnel from the municipal and national security forces. as well as private security companies and prison service agents. The coordination of this workshop, which has been held in public facilities for the second consecutive year, has been carried out by the ertzaina of Brazilian origin Otavio de Paula, frequently hired by the Desokupa company to instruct its militants and publicly recognized for appearing on social networks together with Daniel Esteve, head of the organization dedicated to extrajudicial housing evictions. The mayor of the municipality, Josep Lluís Camps, pointed out in the days before the event that it is “a way to give a touch of quality to this type of training” and described de Paula as “a national reference.”
Sources from the Es Castell City Council have confirmed to elDiario.es that the training had almost 40 people registered, mostly members of the municipal police force, who have been able to attend the training free of charge under the agreement signed between the City Council and the instructor. According to the mayor, Paula received 600 euros of public funds to provide the training, in addition to paying for accommodation, food and travel. Several National Police agents, civil guards and military officers also registered for the activity, paying a fee of 30 euros each. According to the organizers of the event, many of them attended this seminar for the second time.
For his part, Otavio de Paula himself has confirmed to elDiario.es that the seminar consists of “techniques for gripping and reducing the opponent while avoiding hitting”, so it would be a set of techniques that he assures “are perfectly contemplated within of the current legal regulations.” The mayor, Lluís Camps, defended de Paula and stressed that it is a training based on “less aggressive blocking techniques.” However, according to the Olympic Wrestling Federation, of which de Paula is a “volunteer” – in his own words –, “grappling” is based on “grappling, strangulation and dislocation techniques of the opponent’s limbs.”
Alleged sex change in registration
The controversy aroused by the agreement signed between the City Council and this former Jiu Jitsu world champion, originally from the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul, has not remained only in the headlines and crosses on social networks. Last Friday, de Paula assured that she would report the regional representative of Unides Podem, Cristina Gómez, for questioning the alleged sex change that the ertzaina would have carried out before the Civil Registry. De Paula, 47 years old, says she feels like a woman and assures that she has completed the administrative procedure. This fact has sparked criticism among the female officers at the Irún police station where de Paula has been serving for two decades.
The complaint by the regional representative of Unides Podem, according to de Paula, was made at that same police station for “insults with publicity,” after Cristina Gómez publicly questioned him for “making fraudulent use of the Trans law and being linked to extreme organizations.” right investigated in judicial proceedings.” On the other hand, since last September 25, de Paula has been investigated by Internal Affairs to verify whether his “collaborations” with the Desokupa Club incur a violation of the regime of incompatibilities of personnel at the service of Public Administrations and that could lead to a sanctioning file.
According to what the interested party himself tells elDiario.es, the change in sex registration occurred in the month of April 2023, when Otavio Oscar Luz de Paula, born in 1977 in San Gabriel, Brazil, formally became considered a woman before the law. Spanish after stating that this is how he feels, despite the fact that in his grappling competitions he competes in the men’s category and is, in general, treated as men.
According to Paula, her sex was changed in the registry in April 2023 after stating that she feels like a woman, despite the fact that in her grappling competitions she competes in the male category and is, in general, treated as male. This fact has sparked criticism among the female agents at the Irún police station where de Paula has been serving for two decades.
“First of all, I want to clarify that I am not a Desokupa instructor, they hire me through the Valencian Federation of Olympic Wrestling and I provide them with a service, the same as I provide to the Police Academy of the Basque Country, to the Army or any agency or entity of the State Security Forces and Corps that is interested,” said the instructor. This, despite insisting that he has no links with Desokupa beyond the pedagogical ones in matters of martial arts, is shown in numerous posts on social networks together with Daniel Esteve, among other influencers and bloggers. “I am a woman because I want to and because I can,” she insisted in dialogue with elDiario.es, and indicated that she maintains contacts with LGTBI groups. “My best friend is a lesbian,” she stressed.
After learning of the complaint filed by de Paula against Cristina Gómez, the mayor of Es Castell, Lluís Camps, has also charged against the Unides Podem deputy and has demanded that she “explain her support for [Íñigo] Errejón”, to which the deputy responded ironically about the position of the popular party regarding sexist violence. “Now that it seems that the right is finally concerned about sexual violence, they might as well start by demanding the resignation of the vice president.” [Antoni] Costa for covering up a sexual offender who, when he was appointed manager of a public company, was being investigated and everyone knew about it,” the deputy said ironically. She has taken advantage of the occasion to show solidarity with the victims who have accused former deputy Íñigo Errejón of cases of sexual abuse in recent days.
For her part, the regional representative has pointed out that “these complaints have no meaning” and has emphasized that “we are already used to their threats, but they are not going to intimidate us or silence us.” From those around Podem Baleares they assure elDiario.es that, since last weekend, they have received intimidating and threatening messages that target Cristina Gómez, Lucía Muñoz Dalda [coordinadora del partido] and against the entire purple formation. “The complaint is an attempt to divert attention to the relevant issue: whether it is compatible to be a police officer in the morning and work for a company that kicks families out of their homes in a violent and extrajudicial manner in the afternoon,” they have stated from UP. . “We do not want extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi groups to be the ones who train our police forces,” Gómez emphasized.
“This is a very worrying issue for any Democrat. We cannot allow parapolice organizations to exist that are dedicated to violently expelling families from their homes, that threaten journalists and politicians and that have members in open judicial proceedings for violent attitudes that should be prohibited, much less that they offer and give training. to the police,” he added in dialogue with elDiario.es. The deputy has criticized the president of the Government, Marga Prohens, whom she accuses of having “gone from giving land to vulture funds, to subsidizing rentiers, and now she wants us to finance Desokupa with public money.”
For its part, the Balearic Government of the PP has disassociated itself from the agreement and has indicated that it is a particular initiative of the Menorcan Town Council. “We were not aware of the activity. We believe that the City Council has the freedom to train its municipal agents with whoever it considers most appropriate,” said the Minister of Public Administrations, María Antonia Estarellas.
The controversy has finally reached the Balearic Parliament, since during the session this afternoon, deputy Cristina Gómez took advantage of the treatment of the amendments on the DANA motion that affected Menorca last August, to request the exclusion of far-right groups in the pedagogical training of public officials. “We ask the Ministry of the Presidency, and the rest of the Public Administrations of the Balearic Islands, to be proactive in the training of all their security and emergency bodies in general (112, Ibanat, etc.) as well as all those bodies dependent on Town councils (local police, Palma firefighters) and Island Councils (firefighters), ensuring that all training offered is organized and/or coordinated by the Balearic School of Public Administration, or, where appropriate, approved by this body, and that “In any case, they always exclude formations of extreme-right groups or small groups, such as DESOKUPA, which often use coercive maneuvers and pressure on human rights,” the deputy declared in her speech. The deputies of PP and VOX have voted against.
Opposition criticism
After the agreement between Otavio de Paula and the Es Castell City Council was made public, the parliamentary groups Més and Esquerra Unida of the Balearic Islands have raised two questions to the Congress of Deputies Table, with the aim of clarifying what actions are being carried out. to investigate these types of relationships and contracts. While it is true that the training provided in Es Castell last Saturday marks a milestone with its own weight in the relations between public administrations and the orbit of Desokupa influencers, this has as a precedent the contract signed between the ultra organization and the Unified Union of Police, signed last August, by virtue of which more than 30,000 agents from the different regional, municipal and national police forces will be “trained” by the organization led by Daniel Esteve.
“Can the Ministry of the Interior confirm the status of the actions to prevent the signing of any agreement between police union organizations and the violent group Desokupa?” and “What action will the Ministry of the Interior take with the Government of the Balearic Islands and the competent local entities to warn of the danger posed by the Municipal Police of this autonomous community signing training agreements with a violent group like the one mentioned?” These were the two questions asked last Friday by the Congress of Deputies.
For its part, the municipal opposition insists on “categorically” rejecting the hiring of the ertzaina. “In Menorca there are very good professionals to carry out this type of training. We do not see any need to hire a company linked to the extreme right that acts on the verge of legality and that accumulates judicial cases and many public controversies,” they have emphasized from SOM Es Castell. Likewise, opposition councilors tell elDiario.es that they doubt the transparency of the hiring process promoted by the popular Camps. “We don’t know how much this hiring has cost. We believe that it has been carried out in an opaque manner, since it has not been discussed in any commission and we found out from the local press. Information has been hidden from us,” they emphasized.
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