Survivors of a mass canola oil poisoning four decades ago occupied the Prado museum in Madrid for a few hours and threatened to kill themselves if the government did not respond to their demands.
The Cadena SER news outlet published a photo showing five protesters, including one in a wheelchair, in front of the Diego Velázquez painting Las Meninas.
Police detained two of the demonstrators and the others left the museum at about midday on Tuesday, the association We Are Still Alive, which defends victims of a case that affected thousands of people in 1981, told Reuters.
They were protesting against the “humiliation” and “abandonment” from the government, the association tweeted.
“Six hours after the start of our presence here, we will start ingesting the pills,” the protesters said on Tuesday morning on the association’s Twitter account.
The statement demanded intervention from the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to help victims of one of the world’s biggest food poisoning scandals.
Thousands of people developed lung diseases that were later related to the consumption of processed rapeseed cooking oil. Thousands of others had debilitating syndromes for life.
The substance was originally for industrial use but was adulterated and sold illegally as olive oil, mostly in street markets, starting in Madrid then spreading to other areas.
About 100,000 individuals were exposed and clinical disease occurred in 20,000 people, 10,000 of whom were hospitalised, according to the ScienceDirect website. More than 300 victims died, it said.
The protesters said they chose to demonstrate at the museum because culture had helped victims to cope. “We are sick. Physically, we are 20 years older than our IDs say,” one woman said outside.
