UPDATE - Spanish police raid Catalan government buildings

UPDATES WITH CATALAN LEADER'S REACTION; PM's COMMENT; FURTHER DETAILS

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID (AA) - Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on Wednesday was defiant after a major police operation to stop a proposed independence referendum resulted in at least 12 arrests of high-level politicians and civil servants plus dozens of raids.

“The Spanish government has crossed the red line that separated it from authoritarian regimes and it has turned into a democratic embarrassment,” Puigdemont told a news conference on Wednesday, claiming that Spain’s “aggression is outside of the law” is a “de facto suspension of Catalan autonomy”.

However, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said his government was “doing what it must; it is complying with its obligation and we will continue doing it until the end”.

The premier told a news conference that those involved in organizing the vote had repeatedly been warned of the consequences of breaking the law.

In a major operation ahead of the region’s controversial Oct.1 independence referendum, Spanish police on Wednesday raided several Catalan government buildings in Barcelona.

A senior Catalan politician -- Joseph Maria Jove, number two to Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras -- was also detained, according to Spanish daily El Mundo.

Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported that a further two high-profile politicians were also arrested.

However, Spanish police and the country’s interior ministry would not confirm the arrests to Anadolu Agency.

The premises of Catalan economy and finance ministry, the foreign affairs ministry and the presidency were all searched.

As a result of Wednesday’s raids, Spanish news agency Efe reported that police seized up to nine million voting ballots.

- Street protests

Hundreds of separatist activists have since taken to the streets, protesting the police searches throughout Catalonia.

Video from Catalan media outlet El Nacional, shows police and protestors pushing each other on Via Laietana, a central thoroughfare in Barcelona, but there have been no reports of any serious incidents.

Wednesday's operation comes less than two weeks ahead of Catalonia’s planned referendum which the Spanish government considers illegal.

The searches are a continuation of Tuesday’s operation, in which police seized a significant amount of documents (envelopes and instructional pamphlets) related to the referendum at Unipost, Catalonia’s biggest private mail-delivery company.

As police searched Unipost on Tuesday, scuffles broke out between officers and some of the approximately 200 people who gathered at the building to protest the search.

According to a recent survey by Invymark for Spanish broadcaster La Sexta, 60 percent of Catalans think the Spanish government should not prevent the referendum.

However, the poll also found that 60 percent of all Spaniards say the government should do what it can to stop the vote.

Throughout Spain, commentators and opposition politicians are blaming both the Catalan and Spanish governments for a lack of dialogue.

“We are asking the Spanish government to find a political answer to a political problem, and not to rely on the judicial system,” said Miquel Iceta, First Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Party, in a news conference on Wednesday, adding that the Catalan government is clearly breaking the law with its unilateral referendum.