Exhibition

«The death threats just kept the urine was bright red. I was «The first greeting was a punch «The aftereffects are that I coming, and so did the threats continuously beaten on my rib- before I even got through the have two damaged ribs and my to take my mum to the General cage, my back and my buttocks, door. Then I saw my friend Josep right thumb is almost useless. I Directorate of Security. She was with wooden sticks, truncheons Fuentes naked from the waist up. also suffer from various issues the only member of my family they and metal bars wrapped in fabric. From his face it was clear that and problems with my nervous hadn’t arrested, because my sister They inflicted some terrible blows he’d been tortured […] One day, system, although some of these who was four months pregnant on my abdomen and would snuff it was terrible. Until it all came have lessened over time. What is had been detained on the morning out their cigarettes on my chest to an end. The Civil Governor of really frightening is that all that of the 17th, and my dad on the and arms. They gave me electric turned up, Sánchez happened half a year after the evening of the same day, to make shocks. Another form of torture Terán (who later claimed he’s dictator died…» them tell them where I lived, which was the bath: they’d grab me by been a democrat his whole life) José Antonio Vidal Castaño they didn’t even know. My dad, the hair and push my head under and instead of shaking my hand, aged 51, was beaten and punched until I felt I was drowning [...] he shook the torturer’s. When I «There was the short one, the and my sister could hear it all from Once, in prison, the doctor asked saw that, I knew that it was all one with had a lot of experience the next office. That’s why they me if I had suffered torture. My over. I didn’t care whose hand with ETA [the Basque separatist threatened to bring in my mum, only response was to lift up my he shook. He said: “this lad can organisation), and then there leaving my three month old baby shirt and show him my chest and go now” and that was that. That were two young ones. The with my eighty year old grandmo- back, covered in massive bruises torture was so intense that it blond one and the brown-haired ther who was crippled and couldn’t and ripped skin. It was put in can’t be compared with what ha- one. One played good cop and look after herself; it was awful. the records that no indications ppened to me in Manresa. That the other played the bad cop. During the time they had me had been observed that might character knew all the key points And then they’d switch. The upstairs without interrogating me, denote the use of torture in police in the body. He’d stop hitting you brown-haired one still lives here handcuffed to a radiator, I could custody.» in one place and start hitting you in Manresa. And while I was wor- hear the blows, screams and moa- in another. He’d play around with José Antonio Vidal Castaño king, and I haven’t been working ning of other friends they were a sewing needle. He’d move it for four years now, I’d see him torturing in the adjacent offices. between his fingers. They used «In those positions they had me, every year. I worked at the tax I heard them threaten my friend to stick these needles into one’s beating me on the buttocks for office for four years and I’d see with hanging him outside the fingernails and toenails. They hours and hours, no trousers on him each year when he came to window. At one point, I saw him. cause unbearable pain. Luckily, and getting beaten again and do in his tax returns… and if it His jaw was dislocated and he told he never did that to me. But, again... Naked yes, except for turned out that I was to attend to THAT HAPPENED TO ME. me that on the first night he lost psychologically, that terrified me my underwear. But then they him [....] I refused to do his tax consciousness due to the torture more than putting a gun to my made me lie down on a kind return… Each time, I went to the […] That night, when they locked head. In Barcelona, the torture of camp bed, with nothing on. boss and said I couldn’t do this me in the cell, they made me take methods were much crueller. Just a lit candle under my balls: guy’s tax return because I did all my clothes off, including my They had a much worse impact ON TORTURE AND IMPUNITY “We’re going to burn your balls… not want to talk to him…» underwear (I had my period and on me. He was a guy who wore We’re going to get your wife and they wouldn’t let me use any sani- civvies. A torture specialist. He Maria Teresa Vilajeliu Roig what we’re doing to you now is tary towels), and wear some dirty, had an incredible ability to inflict nothing compared to what we’re damp overalls that were open at harm.» (1960-1978) going to do to her… And let me the front, with no buttons. To take tell you one thing — said one Joan Sala i Fainé me up to the interrogation, they of them — look, see — and he handcuffed me behind my back opened the window — can you (twisting the handcuffs around 27 September 2016 to 8 January 2017 see where the beach is? We’ll until I had bruises) and when I put a couple of bullets in your asked them to handcuff me in head right here, we’ll kill you front so that I could cover myself, and thrown you into the sea and they insulted me with obscenities, no-one will ever know that you… picked me up by the collar of the The most abhorrent insults. overall and carried me up to the What else can I say: “We’re going Brigade offices by my neck.» to go and we’re going to rape Raquel López Navarro your wife! What we’re going to do is…” Just horrendous things. «I was detained in La Jonquera Acts of savagery, yes. And at until one of the inspectors from one point I was made to lean on the Political and Social Brigade the wall like this with my hands arrived who transferred me, and my feet were a metre away handcuffed and with a knee on the floor, like that, for hours. pressing onto my kidneys, to the And they were beating you with cells on Via Laietana in Barcelona. one of those sticks. They’d say On the journey I was continuously “Talk!” and every two hours beaten and insulted. They put they’d change shift. And off they some small handcuffs on me that went again! But first came the made my wrists bleed, to the point torture. One method consisted at which they had to loosen them in laying you onto a table and as they could see I was losing a around you... All of them had lot of blood. I spent eight days at been there! And they’d been the police station, I think it was there for an hour or however from the 24th to the 31st of March, long; first one hitting you, then English subjected to interrogations and another hitting, another on your torture. For four days I couldn’t feet, your hands…» empty my bowels and could hardly Francisco Téllez Luna urinate. When I did manage to, The stage for this exhibition is the city of Barcelona. It CONTEXT E arly morning shows the practice of torture suffered at the hands of go- 1. Growth without 2. Against ‘subversion’ 4. Arrests, or captures 5. “Què volen aquesta democracy gent?” (“What can these people want?”) vernment employees during the 1960s and 1970s. A report by Amnesty International Arrests were made under the An idea of the dictatorship that in 1973 highlighted that a signi- power of a governing decree. The has been widely broadcast is ficant number of people in Spain regime’s political police answe- According to official reports During Franco’s time, public order and the regime’s de- one of a duality, distinguishing were criminalised for their beliefs red directly to the civil governor, dated 24 March 1969, following between a first stage that — both political and religious. the highest civil and political the ‘State of exception’ decree fence of the social and political order was equated with was brutally violent and full This evidence exists despite authority. This figure had com- there were a total of 735 arrests of misery, and then a second official attempts to deny it. plete authority regarding public and house arrests across the repression. The repressive violence organised by the stage that was less severe and order and was the province’s whole of the country. The majo- more bureaucratic, enabling the The fight against the activities of representative in the ‘Movimien- rity of those held were of a very government was a phenomenon that ran throughout the Spanish economic ‘miracle’ as of those the authorities classified to Nacional’ (the ‘Nationalist young age, men and women who the 1960s. The image conve- as ‘subversive’ was one of the Movement’ — Franco’s party, were either students or workers. dictatorship’s organisation, beginning during the Spanish yed is one of ‘growth without dictatorship’s fundamental and the only party). democracy’. objectives throughout the length In January 1967 the police arres- Civil War until the final stages of the regime, ongoing even of its existence. The VI Regional Brigade for ted Rafael Guijarro, a 23-year- Nevertheless, democracy Social Research in Barcelona, old student from . After during Spain’s transition to democracy. managed to win through, on the As a result of pressures from known as the Socio-Political interrogating him, the Political back of protests organised by abroad and a new opposition Brigade, had a network of and Social Brigade pretended political, community-based and arising within the country in the collaborators and informants that the young man had died cultural organisations and trade 1960s, Franco’s regime delega- embedded in neighbourhoods, after jumping out of a window The practice of torture was one of many manifestations unions. The social mobilisations ted part of its work persecuting apartment buildings, workplaces to escape. The lack of press that were driven by the public forbidden political activities and social spaces. In addition, coverage of such a dramatic of this violence. It was never classified as a crime, nor was and which campaigned for to the military courts. These it continuously organised police event led the singer/songwriter freedoms during those years passed to civil jurisdiction with infiltration operations within Maria del Mar Bonet to compose there ever a legal context allowing for its investigation or were in no way a risk factor or the creation of the Public Order anti-Franco-regime organisa- a song with lyrics by the writer a cause of political instability. Court in 1963. Political repres- tions, some of which gave rise Lluís Serrahima, as a homage prevention. Its frequent use by members of the police — On the contrary, they were the sion thus became civil, but only to the detention of persons and to the student. Two years later, surest way to address social insofar as it was demilitarised to groups throughout this period.To police brutality claimed another and in particular by members of the so-called ‘Regional inequalities, and to give meaning a certain degree. maintain public order, the State victim. Enrique Ruano, aged 21, to economic growth and to the instruments for social control a student from Madrid who was Police Information Brigades’, which were established as development and exercising had instilled in the police force a a member of the anti-Francoist of citizenship rights in the new 3. The ethics of fundamental piece of dictatorial Frente de Liberación Popular, the fascist regime’s political police — was systematic, democratic system. democratic changes logic: to protect themselves died in similar circumstances. from the citizenry. Thus, arrests habitual and carried out with impunity during the arrests were recast as captures, as if Democracy was never a foregone State agents were leading a hunt conclusion. And neither was it of political opponents and trade unionists. These acts were through the space of a city from brought about by the SEAT 600, which all democratic reasoning or by tourism. While economic carried out in the remit of a governing decree. had been ejected. development and structural transformations did play a part, they were not the decisive The main characters in the ensemble recounting this his- factors in the creation of wides- tory are women and men whose human rights were vio- pread freedoms. The key figures in the transitions lated for refusing to accept the condition of subjects, for towards democracy projects that would topple the dictatorship wanting and struggling to gain citizenship rights and to were the people and organisa- tions that stood up to the regime establish democratic freedoms. and tried to create alternatives. Regardless of whether they were successful or not, all of these figures helped forge the ethics of the democratic changes. The prison B ureaucracy Public order, M arked 8. Breaking the senses of the body of cruelty governing 13. Civil death and lives 14. Putting it back torn apart together 6. Interrogate «Describe what they said and did 8. Methods power and destroy to me? It’d be impossible, it can’t 11. Unjust, cruel, be described, there’s no way of In addition to the physical and «So then I gave up football and «It really got to me hearing how When it comes to describing the acts of torture under a reign but effective expressing it. I felt like I was going psychological scars left by took up athletics, at Barcelona, they tortured fellow prisoners, Torture is thought to have value methods used by the police to of intentional impunity”. Also, insane, I wanted to die, I cried out arrests, there were consequen- in the athletics section of Barça. especially in Barcelona, the as a means to an end: obtaining oppress opponents to the dicta- in sermons of parish churches to them to kill me for once and for Arrests based on suspicion ces affecting peoples’ relations- I must have been 19 or 20 when cries, the beatings… It also made information or a confession of torship, writers on the subject in some working class neigh- all, but just to get it over with.» alone and the transgression hips and legal status. Their lives I gave up football… Because the me nauseous what they said guilt. It is a method that goes have found influences ranging bourhoods, the denouncements of the maximum detention would often be torn apart. P.E. teacher at the apprenti- about my vagina, that they’d beyond being a cruel and inhu- from the Gestapo police force of grew steadily stronger. In the Maria del Pilar Alonso Rodríguez time were standard practices, ceship school of the Maquinista stick a pistol in it, that they’d mane means of interrogation, Nazi Germany to the CIA and the mid-1970s, reports from foreign 21 years old, worker-student. She especially during the series of For the working classes, non-at- Terrestre i Marítima Company kick me till they destroyed me since it is also used on people FBI (from around the end of the organisations and diplomatic was accused of being connec- ‘states of exception’ Franco’s tendance at the workplace for was the national athletics coach, as a woman; seeing how low about whom everything is alre- 1950s). services coincided in highlighting ted to the Front Revolucionari regime incurred in order to fight three consecutive days was Josep Maria Rojo, who had they’d go to interrogate people… ady known, and on others who that torture was still a practice Antifeixista i Patriota (Anti-fascist political dissidence (in 1956, classed as a very serious breach broken the record for the 3000 I couldn’t sleep for over a month have no relevant information. The German method was typically very much in existence in police and Patriotic Revolutionary Front), 1958, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1969, of conduct, and according to and 5000 metres and… well, thinking about that situation.» based on extreme cruelty during stations, barracks and prisons. because her partner was one of 1970 and 1975), and also during employment law was cause for anyway, after I was arrested for Physical and psychological interrogations, with a wide range the five people sentenced to death the suspension of article 18 in dismissal. Once this happened the first time, all that came to an Trinidad Herrero Campo abuse is a way of destroying of techniques used to make priso- and executed on 26 September early 1977. These periods were the worker would be blacklisted, abrupt end...» 19 years old, employed. Political whoever is considered to be the ners talk. In contrast, the Ameri- 10. A map 1975. Eva Forest, Testimonios de long months during which the their name circulated around the militancy: accused of being a enemy: the harsher the torment, can method put greater emphasis lucha y resistencia: Yeserías 75-77. 72-hour limit did not apply, and companies, and a new job would Tomàs Chicharro Manero member of the anti-fascist Front the greater their fear of having to on psychological pressure and Donostia: Hordago, 1979, p. 109. The abuses could take place an- when the minimal safeguards be hard to find. Aged 24, metal worker. An Revolucionari Antifeixista i Patriota suffer it again. While the action is intimidation, while limiting the ywhere. While being taken to the and procedural rights became activist with the Front Obrer de (FRAP). (Eva Forest, Testimonios limited in time and space, for the amount and types of force used «They ripped my nails off. And police station, the jeeps of the irrelevant. This dictatorship For students, arrest could lead Catalunya, the Catalan Workers’ de lucha y resistencia [Testimo- sufferer the experience lives on so as not to leave marks that they left marks, I’ve still got some Armed Police and the Guardia within a dictatorship was the se- to them being banned from the Front, in 1965 he joined the nies of fighting and resistance]: much longer. could evidence the abuses. on my feet, they were like burns, Civil or the camouflaged vehicles tting for the widespread torture university district or, in the case Partit Socialista Unificat de Yeserías 75-77. Donostia: Hordago, and they were from the beatings of the Social-Political Brigade of thousands of detainees, acts of young men, could mean they Catalunya; he was also a trade 1979, p. 115) If as a result of the pain and the However, what happened with the wood. And then if your could be the setting for the first awarded with absolute impunity were forced into 18-24 months of union activist with Comissions threats the torture victim were in reality was that different fingers did this and started to indiscriminate beatings, getting by the law, the justification being military service, and denied the Obreres de Catalunya. He was «The anguish you go through in to betray someone, having done practices alternated without twist and you put your hands on straight to work. their effectiveness. chance to do the type of military detained and imprisoned in those moments is so strong that so would eat away at their digni- rhyme or reason, depending on the wall because the time comes service specially reserved for the spring of 1962 and again it’s hard to forget, even as years ty. By means of its police force which agent was in charge of when you can’t stand it any more, However, the locations where university students. For rebels arrested in 1966 and 1967. He go by. [...] There was a period the government would have the interrogations. A degree of and then ‘bam, bam, bam’. They the torture was most likely to be 12. The judges: of a young age, being sent to a went into exile in Paris in 1969. in my life when I couldn’t stand fulfilled a double objective: obtai- consensus does exist over the beat your hands. And your hands seen were the police headquar- faithful civil servants remote destination was one of Collection of worker biographies being anywhere where there ning information, and destroying fact that the Social Investigation were swollen. And your feet were ters (in Barcelona the most the most common punishments, from the CCOO de Catalunya’s was even the slightest hint of the self-esteem of the victim. Brigade were more refined in swollen. And it was like that for famous was at Via Laietana no. with the military outposts in the historical archive. violence. Not even the cinema At the same time, if that person their methods than the Guardia Just as in other dictatorial regi- hours! All night, pretty much. 43) or the barracks of the Guar- Sahara Desert the worst of all. — I’d have to get up and run out was active in an anti-Franco Civil, who were cruder. But this mes, the repression of political Your head against the wall, your dia Civil. Once locked in the cells, of the showing. It was a fear organisation, they would then be is not to say that one was less dissidents during Franco’s years body back a little to support your- the arrested individuals were «When I went to do my military and a panic born of what I went left isolated from both the group severe than the other. in power worked like a well-oiled self, and the handcuffs behind led one by one to another room service, I had to suffer the through with that person who and relationships with fellow machine, with a great number you. And have it! Have it! Have it! larger than the cells, where for repercussions and the stigma of lost control.» members. of parts and complex internal That’s what torture was.» long hours the agents would try that time[…) They denied me any 9. No protection mechanisms, but always with out all sorts of different methods opportunity for personal develo- Joan Sala i Fainé the one sole purpose set by the Francisco Téllez Luna to extract the information they pment. The only place available 25 years old, malworker. Arrested regime. 30 years old. Construction worker. During the initial years under sought. was in guard duties. I spent in October 1975 and again in 1976. Militant for PSUC (socialist party, Franco, torture was a systematic eight months without going back Political militancy: The Partit In general, the ‘Forces of Public Partit Socialista Unificat de Cata- practice used by the government Beating and tortures were alter- home. It was a case of systema- Socialista Unificat de Catalunya Order’ carried out their tortures lunya) and for CCOO de Catalunya employees in charge of public nated with spells during which tic persecution. Our Captain was (PSUC) socialist party and the with complete impunity. This (trade unionist organisation, Co- order. Some people arrested the prisoners were left alone in well aware of my background. Comisiones Obreras trade union was due to the absence of real missions Obreres de Catalunya). during the 1960s and 1970s say this space, standing and unable In that situation, you end up (http://www.memoria.cat/ judicial control empowered Year of arrest: 1975. Collection of now that they were not tortured, to lean on anything, or handcu- psychologically damaged.» presos) with the ‘operational autonomy’ worker biographies from the CCOO or that it was not so severe. ffed in the most uncomfortable that was enjoyed by the police de Catalunya’s historical archive. The growing momentum of the positions imaginable. Otherwise Rufí Cerdán Heredia «On 1 June 1976, José Antonio forces. Police torture practised opposition movements and the they would be taken back down Aged 18, metal worker. Detained Vidal was transferred to Model during the summary stage of the «They told me they would go to public outcry over human rights to the cells to await the next ses- in October 1975. Political prison in Barcelona, where he procedure was enabled by both find my parents. They knew my breaches perhaps served to curb sion of beatings and coercion. activism: the Christian workers’ was kept until 12 or 13 July 1976. the government mandate that father had been in the POUM the abuses in certain situations. organisation Hermandad Obrera Inside the prison the moral tortu- justified it and the reticence of (pro-Marxist party, Partit Obrer de Acción Católica and the trade re continued. He was subjected the judiciary when faced with d’Unificació Marxista), and that Nevertheless, the fact that they union organisation Comissions to a psychiatric test that classi- breaches of human rights. he had volunteered in the war in continued to happen is proven Obreres. (http://www.memoria. fied him as a dangerous subject defence of the (Second Spanish) by the denouncing of acts of cat/presos) in the ‘spiral of violence’.» Republic. They knew my whole torture performed during the life story […] Sometimes the miners’ strike in Asturias, which J. Alberto Gómez Roda, psychological torture was worse led to one of the first public “La tortura en España bajo el than when they were hitting me.» demonstrations in 1963. This franquismo. Testimonio de was followed up with a document torturas durante la dictadura y Maria Teresa Vilajeliu Roig signed by 1,500 intellectuals la transición a la democracia”, in 26 years old, worker. Arrested in December 1968 and another Pasajes: Revista de pensamiento in the Guardia Civil barracks in public event during the spring of contemporáneo, 2005, No. 17, Manresa, October 1975. Political 1976. Early in the 1970s, Justicia pp. 65-66. militancy: Plataformes Anticapita- Democrática — an illegal orga- listes (social and political working nisation comprised of judges organisation). Source: http:// and prosecutors who favoured www.memoria.cat/presos. democracy — decried “police Links Impunity TEST IMONIES 15. Committed lawyers 18. Memory wipes portraits of the leaders of the Nowadays this reading centre «They put me into a private car «I refused to sign the statement «And I remember, at the police «I spent the first three days stan- regime and crucifixes. Service appears before us as a rewrite and four of them got in with me. and they beat me all over, even headquarters, that I was obses- ding, with my hands handcuffed People who had been arrested One of the main claims coming certificates and trophies. All on the stone and flesh of the As soon as we pulled off, they in the top of my mouth. And sed by one thing: there was not behind me, and unable to lean could not see a lawyer until it from the opposition to Franco’s dirty and gloomy and truly awful! city. It reminds us that collective punched me a couple of times they’d beat you up until you to be one single arrest because against anything. Without slee- was time to make their state- regime was for a political am- Will we ever get rid of this! [...] memory goes beyond the ver- and started insulting me and lost consciousness, then they’d of us. And that’s how it was. Of ping. On the third night they let ment before the judge on duty. nesty. Finally, the Spanish par- I felt pain. All kinds of feelings sions of the past constructed by hitting me and asking me ques- throw a bucket of water over you course, that’s how it was in a way me sit down for a moment until Family and friends had very little liament passed the Amnesty Law came out from deep inside me, the state or by any given group. tions about the person they said and take you down to the cells that was morally wrong, in my I was just about falling asleep information about what was on 15 October 1977. However, in memories of thousands of mo- And it evokes the complex pa- was my partner. When we got to [...] they know where it hurts point of view, because at some and then they’d ask me things to happening, and they could go for its final drafting, amnesty was in- ments we shared, I think about thways of our remembrances. the General Security Directorate and they know which parts can point they started beating me see if I contradicted myself. I got days without finding anything cluded for “crimes and offences you all the time. I’m sending you they took me straight up to an endure it more and give them and I really suffered… this bit so many blows on the stomach out. Lawyers would endeavour that may have been committed a kiss, Mari, we all send you a office where I spent three whole less problems because of course back here… for many months I and liver, the lower abdomen, to find out about their situation by the authorities, civil servants kiss.» Letter from Toña García 20. Impunity: a bitter pill days under constant interroga- some people have taken them was unable to sleep. They gave my back and the back of my and to get them released without and public order agents moti- to Maria Salvo, 29-9-1978. Maria for democracy? tion […] The torture consisted to court, to the actual Francoist me bruises of every colour, until neck from small truncheons and charge, or at the very least, try vated or brought about by the Salvo collection, Ricard Vinyes in terrible blows to the feet and courts and being reported like I was black and blue from the kicks in the testicles one after to avoid pre-trial detention. As investigation and persecution” of Archives. buttocks, but that was just at the that was like a hole in the head truncheon…, on my backside. the other without giving me any The common practice of torture soon as they got out, the typical political dissidence. beginning, when they made me for them, having to sit there and Punches in the stomach and time to get my breath back. They employed throughout Franco’s question was: “Did they treat you kneel down and bow my head, put on that show in court [...] I punches in the head. They beat wanted me to beat up another time in power today no longer okay?” There was therefore an accep- 19. Rewriting but later they hit me everywhere. once chucked a typewriter in an me and beat me and I still re- detainee, a friend of mine, and exists. The Spanish Constitution tance of the possibility that the on urban space They made me do the “duck”, interrogation, I threw a typewri- member with horror what I went because I refused, they beat him of 1978 forbids inhumane or government had committed in other words, walk along while ter at them, like the one I have through. There were the two up in front of me.» degrading treatment, and the 16. Solidarities crimes in its fight against the crouching and when I fell over here, a normal office typewri- Creix brothers. First Vicente and The house with the metal grille Criminal Code has classified Juan Carlos Sabater Andreu opposition, but these crimes they’d kick me really hard. When ter, one of those old ones, an then Juan. And there were other gate and the front garden at torture as a crime. In no way at would not be judged. No member I was on the floor they’d hold Underwood, that was on one of policemen. One of them actually The so-called ‘Comissions de Carrer Blai no. 34, Barcelona, all does this mean that since that «He also states that, while on of the Social Research Briga- me by my hair from the nape of those trolleys, well I lashed out lived in the same building as my Solidaritat’ (solidarity com- was once occupied by the time no one has been tortured or police premises, he was subject de was removed from service my neck and lift me into the air. at the typewriter and it and the parents. Each time they pushed missions) that arose first in district delegation of FET-JONS abused by government emplo- to repeated physical abuse following the instalment of de- That was terrible because you trolley crashed to the floor and me into the room, he knew that Barcelona in 1968 and later in (the political organisation yees or agents. […] He was indeed subject to mocracy except for one: Antonio feel like you’re going insane: I then, of course, the guy went they were beating me because other towns and cities were key behind Franco’s government, repeated physical abuse while in Juan Creix, head of the 6th Re- weigh well over sixty-five kilos, crazy…» each time he came back in he to understanding the scope of encompassing the ‘Movimiento The Amnesty Law itself does not custody and when he talks about gional Social-Political Investiga- so you can just imagine… In the had the gall to ask me: “have the police brutality and the scale Nacional’), and was used as a prevent the opening of cases for torture he is referring to the fact tion Brigade in Barcelona since following days, my hair fell out Ángel Rozas Serrano they hit you? It’s because they of the crimes; likewise when it centre for detentions and torture torture, illegal arrests, judicial that he was beaten in practically 1963; after serving in the Basque in clumps […] While all this was get nervous, these people get came to giving help to those after the ended sentences without safeguards, every part of his body and he re- Country and Andalusia he was happening, I could hear how they «Yes. Those are the detainees nervous.» who had suffered it and to their in 1939. summary executions or forced members how they sat him down dismissed for administrative were torturing other people in that they then transferred over families, and building support disappearances during the dicta- Maria Rosa Borràs on a stool, leaving him with his reasons towards the end of 1974. the adjacent rooms, how they to Public Order. They gave that for the political amnesty as one Prior to the first democratic torship. Instead it is — with some head covered, unable to reach The police, the Guardia Civil, the were killing them, just like they guy Fariñas a beating until his of the claims with the strongest municipal elections in 1978, the exceptions — the magistrates’ «In the second half of the sixties, the floor and with his hands and prison staff and the judiciary all were killing me. That’s what they testicles were black, I remember groundings socially. local Poble Sec neighbourhood restrictive interpretations of they didn’t beat up students feet tied. He was subjected to remained exactly as they were, said: “we’re going to kill you and because I saw it with my own association organised a celebra- the law that block the route to the way they beat me up. But threats about what they’d do with all of their members con- no-one will ever find out and we eyes, you know, so I can speak The mobilisation in defence of tion there coinciding with Bar- justice for these deeds. However, if I compare it with what the then and about his future, and tinuing in their roles in the new can do whatever we like to you”. from experience. But the guy human rights and its effects on celona’s city festival (La Mercè), a fundamental aspect is that workers got in those years, I got he was clearly told that when he constitutional framework. They hit me with a truncheon held out. He held out really well, public opinion encouraged a staking their claim for the site the democratic state has never very little. They didn’t snuff out left the police station, he’d end and sometimes with a stick too, not a peep out of him. So much stance against the police abuses. to be used in a social capacity. questioned the moral discordan- cigarettes on my skin, like they up in prison for life. He says now «23-9-1978 Saturday. some kind of a blunt handle from so, that he became a hero in our This was one of the chief ways in Toña García described her day ce between those who commi- did to my sister-in-law [Maria that as a result of the beating It’s been a hectic day [...] There’s some device or other. “We’re eyes.» which the government’s exces- at the celebration in a letter to tted the torture and those who Rosa Borràs], […], six or seven to which he was subjected, his a fiesta on in the area overloo- going to shove it up your cunt”. sive use of force was eventually her sister-in-law Maria Salvo; suffered at their hands. In fact, it years before, but they did say abdomen was full of bruises for king the sea and we went to have It was all so awful, there are no Ángel Abad Silvestre at their own expense, costing the both of them had spent long has settled upon a doctrine that they’d kill me, that they’d cut a month.» a look, we thought we’d have words for it.» regime politically. years in prison. The festivities puts servants and associates me up into pieces and feed me dinner there. I say ‘we thought’ «They did the cigarette round Francesc Xavier Garrigatuví carried a painful reminder of her of the dictatorship on an equal to the fishes… things that were because we had sandwich made Maria del Pilar Alonso Rodríguez on me. They’d put you in the past as a woman tortured by the footing with its opponents. The not funny but that if you think by the Poble Sec Neighbour- middle of a group of them and 17. From one storm police. Artists Pilar Villuendas result is a unique Spanish model about it rationally, were difficult hood Association, and a slice of start pushing you from one to to another and Josep Ramon Gómez — of impunity, which has been to believe.» pastry. Crammed like sardi- another and they could give you locals from the neighbourhood ratified by the Law of historic nes because it was incredibly cigarette burns. They also gave Joaquim Boix Lluch and committed members of the memory, passed by the Spanish After being taken to the police crowded. The neighbourhood me the foot torture. They’d make opposition to Franco — designed parliament in 2007. station and making a statement got the keys to the premises of you kneel down with bare feet «on the 14th of the month he was a poster to promote the activi- to the on-duty judge, entering the ‘Movimiento’ [the Franco and then they’d use wet towels taken to the said police station; ties. These two documents are The unpunishable acts of the the prison was a certain relief regime’s National Movement], to hit your toes, so as not to he was immediately assaulted testaments to the events. past now present us with an for most detainees. As of that although not the use of it, and leave a mark. By the end of it, my and dealt a few blows. Some ethical void. If torture was a moment, the interrogations, the neighbours’ association or- toes were so swollen I couldn’t handcuffs were placed around That reclaiming of the space was structural reality built into the the torture, the mistreatment ganised a lovely party and loads put shoes on. They’d be asking his ankles and he was forced to solidified in 1991 when a new dictatorship, does that mean and the uncertainty about what of people came. They showed you things but you couldn’t say do what is commonly known as civic centre for the neighbour- that its ongoing impunity is a might happen were over. us the inside and I was appalled. anything.» “the stork” for around twenty-fi- hood opened in a building built bitter pill that must be swallowed It was horrible! The basement ve minutes; he was then moved on the same site. It went on to for our democracy? If this is The transfer to the prison meant full of bullet holes and all set up Maria Teresa Feliu to the cells and was called up at become a public library, named so, what are the political values a chance to rest, and for things for physical and psychological 2 am. He was handcuffed again after Francesc Boix, a Republi- upheld by this democracy? From so simple yet so essential for torture. What awful things had and forced to remain standing can communist who survived the an ethical and responsible point maintaining one’s self-esteem as this place witnessed? They could with no support until 8.30 in the Mauthausen concentration and of view, it makes sense that we washing oneself after days. Above do whatever they wanted with morning.» extermination camp, and who should not allow what was intole- all they were returned to their people there, because however was responsible for preser- rable in our past to end up being A.P.B. fellow detainees after a period much they screamed, no-one ving photographs of the Nazi forgotten or tolerated again in of isolation, and could renew would hear them. Then there barbarity. the present. contact with the world outside were the offices with Falangist through lawyers and family. arrows, flags and emblems, big