A historical fact that is commemorated 50 years later
This week marks 50 years since the murder of Salvador Puig Antich, a young libertarian who was executed by the Franco regime after a trial full of falsehoods and irregularities. Various institutions and media, including Nation, have wanted to remember this episode of our history and have recovered the testimonies of those who knew him. I was lucky enough to talk to Agustina Cardete, who is now retired, but who, on the day he was arrested, was working as a waitress at the Funicular bar. She explained to me in detail how she experienced that fateful day.
A day like any other at the Funicular bar
It was September 25, 1973, a normal day at the Funicular bar. The door opened and two young boys sat down at a table where there was already another one who looked very restless. Agustina brought them what they asked for and went on with her work. Salvador and Garriga, who had just arrived, noticed that Santi was very nervous. They knew the situation was complicated, but they didn’t understand why he was so upset.
The police trap and the shooting
Garriga looked around and realized the truth: the bar was full of plainclothes cops, who had coerced Santi into setting a trap for them. Salvador, seeing himself without a way out, jumped out of his chair and ran towards the exit. Then, a shootout started between the youths and the officers. Terrified, Agustina took refuge in the bar’s warehouse as she watched the bullets and races move into the street.
Garriga was captured, and Salvador was thrown to the ground and the weapon in his hand was taken. But surprisingly, he escaped and took out another weapon he had hidden. The shots intensified in the next portal, number 70 of Carrer Girona. Finally, when there was silence, one of the policemen was dead and Salvador was seriously injured.
Salvador Puig Antich, a young man committed to the anti-Franco struggle
Salvador Puig Antich was 25 years old and worked in an office, although he also studied at the Maragall Institute at night. He was part of the MIL, an anti-Franco independent action group with an anarchist character. Santi had been arrested and tortured by the police and forced to reveal the time and place of a meeting he had arranged with Garriga, a meeting to which, unfortunately for him, Salvador was added.
As Nació explains, his judicial process was full of lies and irregularities and the tragic end is what we all know. The intervention of different institutions and personalities could not stop a cruel and bloody execution of the young man with a 19th century instrument. The Funicular bar is still one of the few bars from that time that still exist, Agustina no longer works there but if we enter the portal at number 70 Carrer Girona, we can still see a bullet hole in the stairs that reminds us of the day of the shooting