Description

In the early hours of 11 April 1993, in Montanejos (Castellón), a far-right group murdered 18-year-old Valencian Guillem Agulló i Salvador, a resident of Burjassot (Valencia), by stabbing him in the heart with a knife. He was a swimmer and had even been shortlisted to take part in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Despite his young age, he was already a well-known anti-racist and anti-fascist activist in 1990s Valencia, and was a member of the SHARP group and Maulets.

During Easter 1993, he was camping with friends when, late at night in the village square, a far-right group came looking for him and began to beat him, while preventing his friends from doing anything to help him. The attackers cornered him in an alleyway, stabbed him in the heart, and left singing Cara al Sol and making the fascist salute.

For years, his family — his parents and sisters — were subjected to harassment, threats, graffiti, and phone calls from the far right. There were also graffiti messages saying “Guillem, screw you”, even in football stadiums and near his home. The newspaper Las Provincias’ coverage of the case, which included false reports aimed at exonerating the killers, amounted to a further victimisation of the victim.

The courts did not consider the aggravating factor of hate and treated the crime as the result of “a youth brawl”. The confessed killer, Pedro Cuevas, served four years in prison. In 2007, he appeared on the electoral list of the far-right party Alianza Nacional in the municipal elections in Chiva (Valencia). The other individuals involved were acquitted. Years later, Agulló’s killer was charged in the so-called Operation Panzer, involving a terrorist cell known as the Frente Anti Sistema (FAS), which possessed an arsenal of weapons and a grenade launcher. All its members were acquitted after telephone wiretaps were ruled inadmissible as evidence.

The case of Guillem Agulló deeply shocked Valencian society and marked an “awakening” for many young people, as it showed that fascists were still killing in a democracy. Today, Agulló is regarded as a symbol of the fight against far-right terrorism in the Valencian Community.

Press

Description

On March 28, 1980, at 10:20 p.m., Jorge Caballero Sánchez and his girlfriend were leaving the Azul cinema, opposite Madrid’s Gran Vía, after watching the film A Clockwork Orange, when eight individuals approached them and began harassing them. Jorge and his girlfriend intended to take a taxi to go home when these individuals started to insult and harass Jorge, whom they labeled as an “anarchist.” Apparently, these individuals had seen the “A” insignia on Jorge, which motivated the initial aggression, although according to police sources, the victim never responded to the attacks. Given the numerical superiority of the aggressors, it seemed the most reasonable decision.

The ages of these individuals were estimated to be between fifteen and sixteen years old. Among them were Juan José Llobregat, alias “the madman,” armed with a machete; José María Vargas Villaba, alias “the man from Jerez”; and José Miguel Gómez González, alias “the mass,” a centurion leader of Fuerza Joven. Although initially, when they approached Jorge and his girlfriend, they did not appear to be armed with visible weapons, nor did they wear any political insignia, they were, in fact, armed with sticks, baseball bats, and knives. They had all gone out to Madrid’s Gran Vía in search of a victim, and that victim turned out to be Jorge.

The attackers surrounded Jorge, and quickly escalated from insults to physical violence, first hitting him in the face until he fell to the ground, and then began kicking his sides and head. When he tried to stand up, José Juan Llobregat brandished his machete and drove it into Jorge’s chest, piercing his liver and part of his right lung. Jorge agonized in the hospital for 15 days before finally succumbing to this brutal assault.

Juan José Llobregat fled abroad with the help of Fuerza Nueva’s deputy chief, Ricardo Alba, to avoid facing justice for the crime, as well as possible reprisals from anarchist or far-left organizations. However, the police arrested some of the other attackers: “the mass” and “the man from Jerez,” as well as several members of Fuerza Nueva, including Fernando Saliquet de la Torre, Felipe Queipo Zimmerman, Antonio Pagazanturdia Irache, Pascual García Porras, and the brothers Miguel Ángel and Javier Fernando Masía Linaza.

More than seven years after the events, on April 28, 1987, the Madrid Provincial Court put the accused on trial, charging them with public disorder instead of murder, as requested by the private lawyer representing Jorge Caballero’s family, María Ángeles López. The accused were only sentenced to pay fines, while the material author of the murder, Juan José Llobregat, remained a fugitive from justice. The Interpol search and arrest warrant for him remained active until 1999, according to police sources. Since then, Juan José Llobregat has been a free man, and his crime remains unpunished.

Description

Carlos González Martínez (21) was studying psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid. On 27 September 1976, one year after the executions of José Humberto Baena, José Luís Sánchez Bravo and Ramón García Sanz (members of the terrorist organisation FRAP) and Ángel Otaegui and Juan Paredes Manot (members of the terrorist organisation ETA), a number of protests were organised in Madrid by the Coordinadora Pro-Amnistía (Pro-Amnesty Coordinating Committee).

Carlos González was one of around 150 people who attended one of the rallies, on Calle Barquillo in Madrid. However, the demonstration was broken up by members of the armed police (known popularly as the ‘Greys’), backed by a group of far-right Guerrillas of Christ the King, who led a violent charge on the protesters. One of the far-right attackers pulled out a pistol and fired four shots, two of which hit Carlos —who was less than a metre away— in the lower back. He was injured in one kidney, the intestines, a lung and the pleura and died the following day.

No investigation was carried out and no one was arrested for the murder of Carlos Gonzalez, nor was anyone brought to trial. In 2006, 30 years after the attack, the Supreme Court acknowledged Carlos as a victim of terrorism. However, his right to compensation from the state, as claimed by his mother, Margarita Martínez Corredor, was not recognised.

Description

Vicente Cuervo Calvo was murdered by an unknown individual from the extreme right in the Vallecas district of Madrid, on the morning of 10 February 1980. A rally had been called in the vicinity of the Paris Cinema by the FNT, a trade union with links to Fuerza Nueva (FN), the far right-wing party led by Blas Piñar. It came just a few days after the brutal killing of young Yolanda Gómez, also at the hands of far-right activists.

In protest at the rally, a number of local people and left-wing organisations had called for demonstrations to be held. To prevent trouble, the Civil Government of Madrid declared the FNT rally illegal. Nonetheless, a number of FNT sympathisers turned out despite the ban.

Vicente Cuervo was a lively young man with ideological ties to anarchism. He worked at the Telefunken factory on Calle Antonio López and was a member of the CNT union. On the morning of 10 February 1980, he joined the protests against the FNT rally with his partner and some friends. The police launched a ferocious charge on them with sticks and chains, causing the demonstrators to run down Calle Carlos Martín Álvarez towards Portazgo to escape the violence. Vicente and his fellow demonstrators dispersed.

During the course of these incidents, Vicente Cuervo was killed by a middle-aged man with a gun in an alley opposite the Bar Dones. Some local people also witnessed the incident, but no suspects were identified. Vicente’s partner, Paz, hid between two cars. When she went to get Vicente, she found him lying on the ground, bleeding from a bullet wound. The case was closed just three months later, and no one was ever brought to justice for his murder. Moreover, pressure was brought to bear on Vicente’s family not to continue with the judicial process; they received anonymous threats over the phone, and even calls from the then civil governor of Madrid, Juan José Rosón, offering Vicente’s siblings employment.

#TalDiaComoHoy de 1980 un terrorista de extrema derecha asesinó en el barrio de #Vallecas #Madrid al activista y anarquista Vicente Cuervo Calvo de un disparo. Unos días antes habían asesinado brutalmente a Yolanda González.

Otra historia de terror, olvido e #Impunidad

HILO ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/8M74iavPGt

— Consuelo Ordóñez (@ConsuorF) February 10, 2023

Testimony

Description

At 10:25 a.m. on 30 October 1978, a bomb exploded in the offices of the newspaper El País, injuring three people, two seriously (one of whom died two days later) and the third less severely. An extreme right-wing terrorist group sent a package to the newspaper’s headquarters on Calle Miguel Yuste in Madrid, where the newspaper’s editorial office is still located.

Janitors Andrés Fraguas, 19, and Carlos Barranco, 18, and the head of general services, Juan Antonio Sampedro, 34, had been working on the fourth floor of the building (used at the time for administrative work) for half an hour, sorting the incoming mail for distribution within the office. At one point, Barranco was working alone on the task and it was he who removed the package out of the Post Office bag.

The package, measuring about 10 by 15 centimetres and 4–5 centimetres in thickness, bore the IBM company logo.. It was addressed to Julián García Candau, editor-in-chief of the morning edition. Janitor Carlos Barranco removed the red strings and the yellow wrapper to reveal a wooden box inside. On one side, through a small hole, he could see wires. He left the package on the table and told Juan Antonio Sampedro of his suspicions.

Sampedro, who was accustomed to false alarms and threats, began to open the box. He was standing. Next to him, seated, was Andrés Fraguas. Carlos Barranco, half seriously and half jokingly, said that just in case he was going to get under the table, as he had on other similar occasions. He was crouching down when the bomb went off. The powerful explosion severed Sampedro’s left hand and part of his right hand and ruptured his intestinal tract. Fraguas received very severe injuries to the lungs. Barranco suffered injuries to both eyes. Sampedro and Barranco survived the attack, but not Andrés Fraguas, who died two days later.

The next day, El País came out as usual. On the cover page was a letter signed by employees at the paper entitled ‘The Highest Price’. The piece reflected the spirit of Spain’s transition to democracy, pitting the courage of those who defended the freedoms regained after years of dictatorship against the terrorists who sought to nourish fear and prevent the consolidation of democracy. On another page, Francisco Umbral wrote: “Death at home, death in the newspaper, leaves me hollow inside, as death always leaves one”.

The National Court found Pedro Bel-Fernández, Rafael Gómez-Álvarez and Ramiro Rodríguez-Borlado guilty of committing the attack on El País and sentenced them to 30 years in prison. The same individuals were also convicted of perpetrating some of the bloodiest crimes committed by the far right, for which they received further sentences of 81, 103 and 80 years, respectively, although under the old Penal Code, the maximum term they could serve was 30 years.

Description

On 13 September 1979, Justo Elizarán Sarasola left his home in the town of Biarritz (France) to go to work. At around 8.15 am, he was seated in his car, about to start the engine, when a French-registered car stopped beside him, and an individual got out of and opened fire with a machine-gun. Elizarán was hit in the lung and spinal column. He was taken to hospital, but died some weeks later, on 5 October, as a result of his wounds. Four French citizens were sentenced to prison for the attack, responsibility for which was claimed by two far-right groups: Spanish National Action (Acción Nacional Española, ANE) and the Spanish Armed Groups (Grupos Armados Españoles, GAE).

Justo Elizaran, alias Periko, had been living in the French Basque Country for five years with his wife and two children, who subsequently became members of ETA. He worked as a draughtsman in the workshop of Julián Madariaga, one of the founders of ETA, in Biarritz and was believed by police to be one of the heads of ETA militar’s “Information Units”.

Press

Description

On the evening of 9 July, 1976, “Sardine Day”, a large group of local people from Santurce began a demonstration in favour of an amnesty from the church of Virgen del Mar. Around nine o’clock, the Guardia Civil intervened, arriving with a number jeeps and plain-clothes officers to break up the crowd and make arrests.

Three of them, dressed in the traditional costume of arrantzales (Basque fisherman), on finding themselves surrounded, began firing on the crowd. María Norma Menchaca Gonzalo was hit by the gunfire. She was taken to the San Juan de Dios clinic but was dead on arrival. Another two people were wounded. According to local people, those responsible were known in the town as members of the Warriors of Christ the King (Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey).

María Norma Menchaca had only gone with some friends to the centre of the town to celebrate the fiestas organised by the town council and the local hotel and catering industry.

Press

Description

On 9 May 1976, the annual Stations of the Cross celebration was held at Mount Montejurra in Navarre to honour the memory of the requetés, the Carlist volunteers killed in battle. At the time, there were strong internal divisions between the (socialist) followers of Carlos Hugo de Borbón Parma and (far right) supporters of Sixto de Borbón. Some days before, the Sixtinos, armed and dressed in military garb, had taken over a guest house at the foot of the mountain and positioned a machine gun a short distance from the summit. During the initial altercations, retired army officer José Luis Marín García-Verde, dressed in a long raincoat and beret, took out a pistol and shot the Carlist supporter Aniano Jiménez Santos in the abdomen. Shortly afterwards, there was another exchange of pistol fire and the followers of Sixto de Borbón fired a burst of machine-gun fire. Ricardo García Pellejero was killed by the shots and at least twelve other people were wounded.

Aniano Jiménez (40) was a member of the Catholic Action Workers’ Brotherhood (Hermandad Obrera de Acción Católica, HOAC). After being shot in the abdomen by Marín García-Green, he was taken to the Navarra Hospital, where he died three days later.

Description

On 9 May 1976, the annual Stations of the Cross celebration was held at Mount Montejurra in Navarre to honour the memory of the requetés, the Carlist volunteers killed in battle. At the time, there were strong internal divisions between the (socialist) followers of Carlos Hugo de Borbón Parma and (far right) supporters of Sixto de Borbón. Some days before, the Sixtinos, armed and dressed in military garb, had taken over a guest house at the foot of the mountain and positioned a machine gun a short distance from the summit. During the initial altercations, retired army officer José Luis Marín García-Verde, dressed in a long raincoat and beret, took out a pistol and shot the Carlist supporter Aniano Jiménez Santos in the abdomen. Shortly afterwards, there was another exchange of pistol fire and the followers of Sixto de Borbón fired a burst of machine-gun fire. Ricardo García Pellejero was killed by the shots and at least twelve other people were injured.

Ricardo García Pellejero was a young worker from the town of Estella, Navarre. He was hit by the gunshots and died instantly.