The march has reached the last roundabout before the border, where several vans of the National Police have prevented the participants from continuing to advance. In front of the police cordon, the protesters staged a sit-in that caused traffic to be cut off in the area for about 20 minutes.
During the protest, slogans such as "Ceuta is not for sale" and messages against the presence of migrants in the city were heard, according to information published by El País.
The device included five police vans and three military vehicles, along with agents of the National Police and members of the Armed Forces.
The march departed from the Royal Walls
The mobilization began at the Royal Walls and aimed to reach the area of El Tarajal.
The planned route also included Juan XXIII, one of the places where migrants took refuge during the first days following the massive entry, to show support for the neighbors of the area.
Afterwards, part of the participants intended to move towards Loma Colmenar.
In that neighborhood is the temporary reception facility set up by the Ministry of Migrations in the old parking lot of the Embolsamiento, around which people continue to gather waiting to access the device.
The Police ultimately prevented the march from continuing towards the center.
The protesters turned back and later returned to the center of Ceuta.
Loma Colmenar is once again at the center of the protests
Loma Colmenar has become one of the main focal points of neighborhood mobilizations in recent weeks.
Neighbors of the neighborhood have been protesting for days against the location of the temporary reception facility in the Embolsamiento esplanade and demanding more police presence and measures that guarantee coexistence.
More than 300 migrants were already staying around the reception center last weekend, which had reached its maximum capacity, according to EFE.
The intention of some participants in the protest this Saturday was to head precisely towards that area after reaching El Tarajal.
The police presence ended up preventing the route.
A protest that was not planned this morning
The mobilization adds a significant element to a day that had begun with the expectation that there would be no new protests during the weekend.
Neighborhood sources had explained this same Saturday to EFE that, in principle, there were no organized mobilizations after several consecutive days of gatherings. The protests that arose during the crisis have largely been organized through WhatsApp groups and social networks, which allows new calls to appear with little notice.
A nighttime demonstration planned for this Saturday had also been canceled after its organizers claimed to have learned of the possible arrival of ultra groups.
The organizers justified the suspension precisely in their intention to prevent people who could encourage violence from joining the protests.
Finally, despite that cancellation, hundreds of people took to the streets again in the afternoon and reached El Tarajal.
The protesters are already looking to Sunday
The protest ended without the participants managing to reach Loma Colmenar.
Before returning to the center of Ceuta, some of those gathered began to talk about the next call.
According to El País, the protesters indicated that this Sunday they want to accompany and encourage a route of boats arriving from Andalusia, which will be joined by others from the autonomous city itself.
The initiative connects with the so-called "Armada de la Solidaridad," a civic movement that emerged in Andalusia that has organized the arrival of boats to Ceuta as a show of support for the city's population.
This opens the possibility that the mobilizations will continue this Sunday despite the initial suspension of the protests planned for the weekend.
New tension after several days of incidents
The mobilization this Saturday comes after the days of greatest social tension since the crisis began.
In recent days, protests have been recorded in different parts of Ceuta, attempts to approach migrant settlements, fires of belongings, and police actions to separate groups of neighbors and migrant people.
On August 27, protesters entered areas of improvised settlements on Benítez beach, and damage and fires occurred. The police had to intervene to restore order.
Tension has also occurred in the opposite direction.
During the early hours of this Saturday, four Moroccan citizens were arrested after a stoning against a military patrol in which a sergeant was slightly injured. The episode occurred just two days after another attack against military personnel in Benzú that left several injured and twelve detained.
These are incidents led by specific groups and do not allow attributing collective behaviors either to the group of protesters or to the group of migrants remaining in Ceuta.
September 2 remains the big date
The protest this Saturday does not replace the mobilization planned for the next September 2.
That date, coinciding with Ceuta Day, continues to be the big event that neighborhood associations and civic organizations of the autonomous city are preparing.
Outside of Ceuta, hundreds of gatherings are also being prepared in Spanish municipalities following the call made by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.
The succession of protests this week had led some Ceuta organizers to try to cool down the mobilizations until the 2nd to avoid new episodes of violence or being associated with ultra groups.