Agents of the National Police have arrested 22 members of the environmental organization Futuro Vegetal for “forming a criminal structure” and causing damage to assets worth more than half a million euros. The arrests were made in December in a coordinated manner in Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz, Murcia, Elda (Alicante), Zaragoza, Granada, Valencia, Soria, Santander and San Sebastián. Among those detained are three people whom the Provincial Information Brigade considers to be the most responsible for the organization, who coordinated and directed the group “like a criminal organization,” as reported this Friday by the Madrid Police Headquarters. One of those three people is Bilbo Bassaterra, who responds: “This whole accusation is ridiculous from the point of view of law, because one of the requirements that the type of criminal organization has is that with these crimes we are making money, when it is not the case”.
Vegetable Future is a civil disobedience collective created two years ago whose members have achieved great impact by sticking to the majas of Goya in the Prado Museum, cutting part of the M-30 in Madrid or a stage of The return to Spain or try to tie yourself to the Congress rostrum. They are disruptive actions that attract attention because they subvert the order of things and generate discomfort.
The Police point out that the investigation began in January 2022 after several people threw paint at the facade of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food in Madrid. In fact, this ministry is one of the obsessions of the members of this group, since they demand the end of subsidies for industrial livestock farming as a key to changing the food system and thus mitigating the climate emergency.
Since then, members of Futuro Vegetal have acted in other parts of Spain, carrying out, among other acts considered criminal by the agents, new throwing of paint at buildings and artistic works in museums, blocking traffic on roads or accessing runways at different airports. The progress of the police investigations confirmed that this organization was made up of a large number of members, with a clear distribution of tasks, coordinated by leaders—known as “stimulators”—who “had management roles and received remuneration for their responsibilities.”
Always according to the police version, the repeated and sustained activity over time of this group managed, in turn, to establish relations, at an international level, with other similar groups that were already associated in their countries of origin with criminal organizations. The police investigation indicates that the organization has received more than 140,000 euros in donations, part of which were allegedly received by its leaders for coordinating criminal activity.
The agents attribute to this group 65 acts – 29 of them in Madrid – committed throughout the national geography and even abroad, among them the throwing of paint on the facades of the Congress of Deputies and other buildings, the cutting off of traffic on Madrid's ring roads, damage to artistic works of the Prado Museum and other private property, and access to the runways of the Ibiza and Madrid-Barajas airports, causing their temporary closure.
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According to investigation sources, the group was born as a split from Extinction Rebellion – in Spain, Rebellion or extinction – and adopted a more extreme approach in the fight against climate change, which includes sabotage actions. For this reason, they are considered “a radical environmental organization.” The investigations have focused on identifying the leaders, but to attribute the crime of criminal organization to them, it has been extended to the entire organization, made up of these 22 active activists and around 300 sympathizers. Two of the leaders were arrested on December 1 in the French Pyrenees, in collaboration with the French authorities.
The total cost of the damage caused is estimated at more than 500,000 euros, without quantifying the damage caused to the artistic heritage. Due to these events, the 22 arrested were placed at the disposal of the judicial authority as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, damages, damages against historical heritage, against road and air traffic safety, attack on an authority agent and public disorders. Sources from the investigation consider that with these actions the organization would be dismantled, although more protests could occur in its name.
Beet juice protests
Bilbo Bassaterra, one of the spokespersons for Futuro Vegetal, responds to the police version: “We are an organization that carries out non-violent protests so that measures are taken against the climate crisis. The alleged crimes attributed to us are very questionable. In fact, at the moment we do not have any conviction.” In his opinion, “quantifying the damage at half a million euros is absurd and disproportionate, because in most actions we use water-based tempera paint or beet juice, and both substances can be cleaned only with a hose. with water. We do it this way precisely to avoid possible crimes for damages and that the action remains an administrative sanction.”
Regarding the accusation of being one of the leaders of the movement, Bassatera points out: “We are a decentralized, horizontal movement, without hierarchy in decision-making. The actions are decided by the groups in a decentralized manner. As we explain on our website, if there are people who want to do an action in the name of Futuro Vegetal, they agree and do it. There is no one to tell you to do this or that. I find out about some actions after they occur.”
Regarding the remuneration part, Bassaterra admits that some people receive financial aid for taking care of administrative tasks, communication, social networks or speaking engagements. “We are transparent, everything is explained on the website, it is not remuneration, but a way to continue doing these actions.” And he adds: “The protests we do are similar to those that Greenpeace has been carrying out for decades. With the same criteria it could be attributed to Greenpeace or another large environmental organization. It's stupid”.
Climate activism is in the crosshairs of the authorities in several European countries. In fact, there are already militants Just Stop Oil in jail in the United Kingdom for peaceful protests, while the French Government has tried to outlaw and dissolve the movement The souls of the earth, although the court has just revoked that decision. In Germany, a trial is pending against the movement called Scientific Rebellion for a protest, in which there were Spanish scientists.
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