Spanish rapper flees incarceration for rapping

This 2012 Spanish rap music video is called La TuerKa Rap – Valtónyc (NO AL BORBÓ). In this song, rapper Valtónyc is not very flattering about Juan Carlos, then king, now ex-king, of Spain. The rapper mentions the king killing elephants and other, corruption etc. scandals. Scandals which led to forced resignation of Juan Carlos as honorary chairman of the WWF conservation organisation, and then also as king.

Ex-King Juan Carlos is not the only well-known person in Spain in a corruption scandal. So is Prime Minister Rajoy and his right-wing minority Partido Popular government. Some media like the New York Times expect that the Rajoy government may fall soon because of its corruption scandals.

To distract attention from its scandals the Rajoy government starts repression reminiscent of the Franco dictatorship. Repression in Catalonia for voting in a referendum. And repression for lèse majesté. Reminiscent of the military dictatorship in Thailand, where so-called insults of the king, or of a king who died 400 years ago, or of the king’s dog, are pretexts for harshly imprisoning critical voices.

Now, back to Spanish rapper Valtónyc, born in Mallorca.

https://twitter.com/valtonyc/status/999272324468826113

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

“Tomorrow is the day, tomorrow they will come to get me to lock me up. But I’m not going to make it easy, disobedience is allowed, an obligation even in this fascist state.” These are the last words of the Spanish rapper Valtónyc in public before he fled on Wednesday.

Since the tweet [see above] nothing has been heard from the 24-year-old artist, who was supposed to have started serving his prison sentence of 3.5 years yesterday. The Spanish police have issued an international arrest warrant against him.

Valtónyc, who is actually called Josep Miquel Arenas Beltran, was convicted in February for lèse majesté …

Valtónyc claimed it was a case of freedom of speech, but the judge did not go along with that. …

Valtónyc receives a lot of support on social media. His last tweet has been shared almost 40,000 times and the hashtag #FreeValtonyc is frequently used on Twitter.

Spain’s new laws turn peaceful protesters into terrorists. Ignasi Bernat and David Whyte report that Spanish central government has introduced new police powers to crack down on radical movements in Catalonia.