A 46 years after the murder of Yolanda González: against the façades of yesterday and today
"Does 46 years ago the fascist gangs of Spain murdered our colleague Yolanda González, PST militant. Years go by and we do not forget Yolanda and we continue her fight!” (Carlos Maradona (MST-Argentina) Yolanda's militancy partner in the PST.
Even if a thousand years pass, There will always be colleagues like Maradona and others who will continue to raise their fists and say Yolanda González, gift, now and always! For Socialism and Freedom – SOL Spanish State, member of the International Socialist League (LIS) “There is no forgetting or forgiveness”, both yesterday and today, We must crush the extreme right and the fascists in the streets.
Again and again, We remind the older ones and tell the younger ones what does 46 years, on February 1st 1980 Our companion Yolanda González Martín was murdered by the Basque-Spanish Battalion when she was barely 19 years. I was a student, militant of the Socialist Workers Party - member of the international Trotskyist current promoted by Nahuel Moreno, with comrade Mario Doglio building the party in Spain as an internationalist task- and was born in Bilbao in 1961. His life was marked by early commitment: with only 16 years he was already actively participating in his study center and had become a reference for a generation that, in the middle of the end of Francoism, defended public education, democratic rights and workers' struggles in the face of a Transition agreed upon behind the people's backs, as continuity of the Franco regime.
In 1978 He moved to Madrid and continued organizing students. A year later he joined the PST, convinced of the need to build a revolutionary alternative. On the night of February 1st she was kidnapped, tortured and riddled with bullets by a fascist commando. His body was found the next day. With that crime the regime intended to sow fear, break student mobilization and stop the growth of organizations like the PST, who questioned the limits of the new monarchical-parliamentary order.
The popular reaction was very strong. A huge strike paralyzed the universities and institutes of Madrid and Bilbao demanding truth and punishment. Five days later, the perpetrators were arrested.: mercenaries linked to Fuerza Nueva. The PST also demanded the arrest of Blas Piñar, head of that far-right party, as the intellectual person responsible for the murder. Social pressure achieved exemplary sentences: Emilio Hellín received 43 years in prison, just like his accomplices, and Fuerza Nueva ended up banned and dissolved.
Nevertheless, the shadow of Franco's regime continued to be installed in the justice system and in the security forces, that is to say, in the parliamentary monarchical regime of '78. Hellín escaped twice with the help of his ultra friends, changed his identity in state records and only complied 14 effective years. The impunity became scandalous when in 2013 A journalistic investigation revealed that the murderer ran an intelligence company that trained civil guards and police, services paid for by the Ministry of the Interior itself, and that he even acted as an expert for the National Court.
Years later that same signature, Net Computer Forensics SL, reappeared on the public scene when she was hired by the defense of the former leader of the PP Cristina Cifuentes for a judicial expert opinion.. That a person convicted of far-right terrorism continued working for the State showed to what extent the ties between the old fascist structures and democratic institutions were never dismantled.. Not even the government that proclaimed itself “Progressive Coalition”! From the PSOE with Podemos, IU and others, They dared to put things in their place by punishing the murderers of the past and demolishing the structures in which they protect themselves..
Yolanda's case shows that impunity is not a fact of the past but a policy that continues to this day. Those responsible for yesterday continue to find protection in a regime inherited from Francoism, sustained to preserve the interests of capital. In the meantime, Spain is going through a deep political crisis: coalitions change, speeches happen, but the needs of the people and nationalities remain unanswered.
A 46 years after his assassination, The figure of Yolanda remains a symbol of a youth that dared to fight for a different society. Decades may pass, but the new generations will continue to know their history and raise their flags. For the murderers and those who cover them up there will be no forgetting or forgiveness anywhere in the world. Yolanda González, Until socialism always!Long live the Socialist Revolution!
