An emotional and solemn act
Exactly 50 years after the execution of Salvador Puig Antich in the Model prison in Barcelona, this same space has been the scene of the commemoration of his death. Relatives of the anti-Franco militant, reprisals of the dictatorship and members of the associations included in the Participation Council of the Democratic Memorial have remembered the momentous figure in an emotional and solemn act.
The act has become a call to future generations to “not forget the importance” of preserving democracy and of keeping a witness like that of the anti-Franco militant alive. “If we are here today, it is because the democrats won the battle, a battle for which many people like El Salvador gave the best years of their lives”, said the Minister of Justice, Gemma Ubasart.
Montse Puig Antich, one of the anti-Franco militant’s sisters, has intervened to thank all the attention on her brother’s death. “We suffered many years of silence due to the political situation and now it seems that all that silence has turned in our favor.” The event ended with a floral offering in the parcel room of the penitentiary center, right where Puig Antich was executed.
The legacy of Puig Antich
Puig Antich was a prominent member of the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL), an anarchist group that committed bank robberies to finance its actions. The anti-Franco militant was arrested in Barcelona on September 25, 1973, after being part of a robbery at a bank in Bellver de Cerdanya, in Girona. During the arrest, a policeman was killed by several gunshots and Puig Antich ended up being sentenced to death. Today he would be 75 years old.
The voices that remember Puig Antich
In the act, several voices spoke and remembered Puig Antich. Adoni González, referent of the anti-Franco struggle and who coincided with the arrest in La Model with the protagonist of this story, has recalled that Puig Antich “was not executed, but murdered” by Francoism and has charged against the judicial process that ended with his death sentence. González has defended the innocence of the activist and has emphasized that it was the same police that caused the death of one of the agents in the arrest of Puig Antich.
Meanwhile, Jesús Rodríguez Barrio, representative of the Association of Retaliations of Francoism La Comuna (Madrid) and arrested for organizing the campaign against the death penalty of Puig Antich, has denounced that the militant is a victim of Francoism who “has not yet obtained justice”. “You were generous and able to risk your life to make the world you dreamed of come true, you faced a criminal dictatorship and we hope that one day you can receive the justice you deserve”, he expressed in a message addressed to the militant.
The commemoration event was an opportunity to remember the figure of Salvador Puig Antich and to claim his innocence, as well as to draw attention to the importance of preserving democracy and human rights.
