Pamplona’s running of the bulls, gored by La Manada sexual assault

Protesters, both women and men, have taken to the streets in opposition to the nine-year prison sentence given to the “La Manada” (wolf pack) for sexual abuse and not sexual assault / rape (which carries a 23-year prison sentence) of the attack on a young lady during the festival of San Fermin - Pamplona. The running of the bulls is an annual tourist event, where the possibility of being gored is very real, but one doesn’t tend to focus on the ugly underbelly of such events.

But it is a reality, the festival themselves put out warnings about sexual assault in their festival guide. The guide, which returns a 404 error (not found) is available via the Google Cache (see below for extracts). It begs the question, is the festival of San Fermin, known as the “running of the bulls in Pamploma” safe? The answer is yes, but.

La Manada

The men, all who come from Seville, Spain, call themselves the “La Manada,” seem to have established a pattern of assailing women at Spanish festivals.

They are also facing the possibility of a trial for a similar attack which occurred in Pozoblanco. The prosecutors have in their possession a “WhatsApp” video record which shows a young Cordovan woman unconscious with four of the La Manada. Inexplicable to the foreign eye is why this case has been idling since 2016.

La Vanguardia tries to explain

The Spanish language daily, La Vanguardia writes, how the La Manada and sexual assault would seem to be automatically connected. “But the truth is that it is not about any involuntary or predetermined mechanism. Aggression is a decisive act and therefore fully imputable. It emphasizes its character of moral cowardice, as evidenced by the fact of being practiced in a group, preserving the anonymity towards the victim and using drugs to erase the conscience or diminish the resistance of the victim.”

La Vanguardia continues how Spanish law leaves a lot of gray area in the legal interpretation of rape, which does not align with the social norms of 2018. They posit that three words lay at the crux of the issue: Consent, Violence, and Intimidation.

Women rise up in protest

Thousands fill the streets in protest … with the klaxon call “No es No” and ” “no es abuso, es violación” (No is No and Not abuse, it’s rape)

The Spanish National Police are also outraged as evidence by this Tweet

#NoesNo#NoesNo #NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo#NoesNo
ESTAMOS CONTIGO
📞091

— Policía Nacional (@policia) April 26, 2018

The Guardian, reported on 29 April that protests continued for a third day throughout Spain, and rightly so. La Vanguardia, dissected the 351 pages which the judges explain their ruling of sexual abuse and not assault or rape, highlighting what they think are the ten most important data points. The following text is loosely translated from the Spanish language article using machine translation tools. Link to court sentencing documents.

1- “One of the defendants began to take him from the man and the hip, the complainant feeling uncomfortable proposed to turn left”. In this fragment of the proven facts evidence that she tried to avoid the situation with the first touching.

2- “Surrounded by five males, of very old ages and strong complexion (…) the complainant was impressed and without capacity of reaction”. The victim was embarrassed in a situation in which he was at the mercy of five strangers.

3- (When they started to undress her) “she experienced the feeling of anguish, increased when one of the defendants approached his jaw to make him fellatio (…) while another caught her hip and lowered her leggings and thong”. Another of the proven facts of the sentence is that it was the members of ‘La Manada’ who took the girl to do with her what they wanted. Image of ‘La Manada’ in San Fermín (.)

4- “Sometimes they went to the recording chamber, boasting of their actions on the whistleblower, who at no time is appreciated expression of enjoyment, but of boredom and even pain. ” That there was pain dismantles the defense of ‘The Pack’ that insisted at all times that it was a spoiled relationship.

5- “The complainant felt an overwhelm and uneasiness that caused stupor and made him adopt an attitude of submission and passivity, determining to do what the defendants told him to do, keeping most of the time his eyes closed.” This fragment seems to describe a violation as they detail that sex was practiced against their will.

6- “We do not perceive in these videos any sign that allows us to assess well-being, peace, comfort, enjoyment or enjoyment in the situation by the complainant“. In the six clips recorded by ‘The Pack’ you do not see a single gesture of the victim in which it seems to give approval.

7- “Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo after having attracted him by grabbing his hair, introduces his penis into her mouth, without showing any signs that allow us to appreciate well-being, peace, comfort, enjoyment or enjoyment in the situation”. In case there was any doubt that he was not spoiled. Manifestation against the sentence of the case of the ‘herd’ in front of the Ministry of Justice in the street Saint Bernardo in Madrid (Dani Duch)

8- “In the last two videos (the victim) is crouched, cornered against the wall by two of the processed. He expressed cries that reflect pain (…) The images show that the complainant was afraid and subjected to the will of the accused. ” With this description, the magistrates show the horror that the encounter with ‘La Manada’ entailed for the young woman.

9- “José Ángel Prenda, with his gesture shows boasting, ostentation and boasting for the performance he is doing with contempt and affront to the dignity of the complainant.” The leader, who acknowledged having had group sex on other occasions, took the abuse as a diversion.

10- “The only objective is to seek their own exclusive sensual pleasure, using the whistle blower as a mere object, with contempt for their personal dignity.” Even so, he has acquitted ‘La Manada’ of the most serious crime, that of rape.

Read about the Seville, Spain travel agency Discover Excursions whose director is being accused by over 40 women of sexual abuse and rape. The Ugly Side of Seville: Coed accuses Discover Excursions of Rape.

Extracts from the San Fermin Pamploma Guide - Pages 44 and 45

San Fermines on Equal Terms

San Fermin festival organizer’s objectives on the topic of sexual assault.

• Reinforcing the municipal commitment to eliminate sexist assaults during the festival.
• Encouraging and guaranteeing the presence of women in the spaces of the participation and organisation of the festival.
• Expressing by means of all the elements of the festival the commitment to equality between men and women, rejecting all advertising, images, and language of a sexist nature.
• Informing citizens and making them aware of sexist assault and the need to eradicate it so that women can enjoy the festival freely under equal conditions.
• Disseminating and facilitating access to the available resources in the event of assault on women.
• Increasing awareness of the origin of sexist violence, its various forms, and its consequences on the lives of women.
• Guaranteeing the safety of women in festive environments and in the remainder of the city during the festival.
• Stressing the fair distribution of the time devoted to tasks of care so that men and women can enjoy the festival under equal opportunities.
• Promoting an image of the San Fermín Festival in which the diversity of women is present, avoiding stereotypes and in keeping with the plural situation of Pamplona

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