Spain's Civil Guard security force is rather annoyed with the town council of Sant Esteve de les Roures because of a tweet. But don't bother trying to locate this very Catalan-sounding village on a map, because you won't find it. Sant Esteve de les Roures is the name of the (imaginary) village which appears in one of the reports that the Civil Guard sent to Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena to document the violence that, it argued, has occurred in Catalonia's independence process. One of the reports prepared by this police body gave details of violent episodes in this town that does not exist.
The dispute in Twitter started with this tweet by Pablo Iglesias, leader of the Spanish political party Podemos:
Mi aplauso para este agente que arriesgó su vida para salvar la de otros. Momentos como este hacen que todo el país se sienta orgulloso de la @guardiacivil. pic.twitter.com/X4D2nxsywW
— Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias_) 13 of April 2018
Translation: My applause for this agent who risked his life to save those of others. Moments like this make the whole country proud of the Civil Guard. - Pablo Iglesias
Left-wing leader Iglesias wrote to congratulate the Civil Guard for its action in saving a group of immigrants on the Spanish coast on a day of heavy seas. Then came a reply:
Un día les salvan i el otro les disparan hasta que mueren ahogados
— Town council of Sant Esteve de les Roures (@st_esteveroures) 13 of April 2018
— Town council of Sant Esteve de les Roures (@st_esteveroures) 13 of April 2018
From the Twitter account of the fictitious Town Council of Sant Esteve de les Roures came the response: "One day they save them, and the next they shoot at them until they drown", referring to the case in which at least 14 immigrants died while trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in 2014. Enter the Civil Guard:
¿Desde una cuenta oficial @st_esteveroures?...¿representan a sus ciudadanos hablando de falsos impactos que no aparecen en ninguna autopsia?
— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) 14 of April 2018
¿No se habrá equivocado de cuenta el CM?
From an official account, Sant Esteve de les Roures? Are you representing your local citizens speaking of false impacts which do not appear on any autopsy? Aren't you using the wrong account? - Civil Guard
So, the Civil Guard was not amused by the comment, suggesting that it was improper for the leaders of Sant Esteve de les Roures to make such claims from an "official account" and giving a counter-version of events in Ceuta which involved "false impacts".
Social media discussion then continued until this tweet was sent:
Es una cuenta de humor, no hay pueblo, ni ayuntamiento ni ciudadanos. El nombre proviene de unos informes policiales del 1 de Octubre que asseguraban que hubo violencia contra la GC en dicho pueblo, pueblo que, insisto, no existe.
— Town council of Sant Esteve de les Roures (@st_esteveroures) 14 of April 2018
It's a joke account, there is no village, town council, or citizens. The name comes from one of the police reports on 1st October which asserted that there was violence against the Civil Guard in this village, a village which, I repeat, does not exist. — Town council of Sant Esteve de les Roures
Thus Sant Esteve de les Roures explains to the Civil Guard that it is all a joke - or at least rather ironic - since the village does not exist. At that point, the police stop answering and disappear from the conversation.