By José Miguel Gándara Carretero- From La Marx Spain

Yolanda González Martín was murdered by fascist elements of Francoism during the period known in our country as "the transition", that is, the transition phase from the Franco dictatorship to the bourgeois democratic regime that was the result of the Moncloa Pact between the years 1975 and 1982. Yolanda was murdered on February 1, 1980 and was a member of the Socialist Party of the United States. Workers (PST) of Spain, the party that was part of the current international Trotskyism headed by Nahuel Moreno. Yolanda's death resonates to this day in our country as a symbol and emblem of the pending struggle for the trial and punishment of those responsible for the genocide perpetrated by the Franco's dictatorship in our country.

A crime of the fascists of Francoism

Yolanda was born in 1961 in the Deusto neighbourhood, in the which at that time was the industrial capital of the Basque Country, Bilbao. Their origins were humble, since he came from a family from Burgos that in full economic exodus would have emigrated to the Basque Country in search of a better life and more stable. Very soon, at the age of 16, he began his militancy in the Socialist Left faction, of Trotskyist bias, inside of the Socialist Youth of Spain.

In the middle of The democratic transition moves to the capital of Spain to study of electronics in a vocational training center in the neighborhood of Vallecas. Over time, she was elected student representative in the Coordinator of High School Students of Madrid, an organization strongly politicized and combative and that opposed the reforms head-on of the government of the Union of the Democratic Center (UCD) that governed between 1977 and 1982, moderate coalition chaired by Adolfo Suárez, the that he was loyal and helpful in affection for the Franco regime and that he would be the head of the Franco regime, of that period.

Yolanda González, to be exact, arrived in Madrid in January 1979 hand in hand with her boyfriend, Alejandro Arizcun, an economist by profession and whom I had met in a summer school organized by the PSOE in a farmhouse in the the Catalan town of Sant Martí de Llémena. In addition to the previously mentioned student militancy, as soon as he arrived in Madrid, he joined the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), disillusioned as it was with neoliberal and pactist policies of Felipe González's PSOE, a party that In addition to renouncing the class struggle and Marxism, he had consummated his eyes a betrayal making a pact during the transition with the most important forces. reactionary in a kind of ideological balancing act, reaching agreements on controversial issues such as amnesty for the crimes of the dictatorship

A few more weeks Later and together with other comrades in struggle, they created a new political formation which they called the Socialist Workers Party (PST). Parallel to his revolutionary militancy, and in order to be able to to pay for his stay in the capital, he was chaining various jobs such as domestic worker and babysitter. In this way, between student struggles and their political militancy in organizations that they represented the spearhead against the supposedly democratic order established, is how Yolanda González's first months in the capital of Spain, a city that, like the rest of the country, was trying to get away of the dark cloak of one of the most genocidal dictatorships in history contemporary, the one directed by Francisco Franco between 1939 and 1975 after a bloody civil war.

Yolanda lived in number 101 Tembleque Street, in the working-class neighbourhood of Aluche, in a flat that she shared with her boyfriend and with another colleague, also a militant of the PST, Mar Noguerol. The morning of 1 February 1980 passed with absolute normality. He went to work and was already In the afternoon he went to the party headquarters to participate in an assembly that was held in the had called in order to analyze all the data and incidents about the strike of teaching, having already completed the fifth day of the seven days of struggle Summoned.

At the end of the informative assembly, he entertained himself by walking and having a drink with one of his most dear friends, Rosa Torres. They said goodbye and he went back to his home in Aluche. In the in the vicinity of her home the members of the Group were waiting for her crouching. 41, one organization far-right paramilitary party with strong ties to the party political force Nueva, led at that time by Blas Piñar, who became Deputy for a coalition of far-right parties in 1979 called the July 18 Alliance. The Fuerza Nueva Party was a Francoist political force, which vindicated the Franco regime and proposed to defend the fascist, religious and cultural principles of Francoism.

Two of the members of the commando, Emilio Hellín Moro and Ignacio Abad, went up to the home located on the fourth floor of the number 101 of Tembleque Street, the rest remaining in the vicinity, in surveillance work. They knocked on the door and Yolanda opened the door for them, not without some distrust, identifying themselves as members of the police and giving him a strong push that knocked her down.

Then proceeded to a superficial search of the apartment looking for some evidence that the she could link with the terrorist group ETA and at gunpoint they forced her to accompany them to their car. During the On the way, several struggles occur and she is subjected to interrogation, insistently asking about her alleged membership of the ETA guerrilla group, but she denies it again and again. During the journey, she was forcefully mistreated. They finally arrive to a field near San Martín de Valdeiglesias, where they arrest the car and force her to get out. It is a few minutes in which, according to the testimony of Hellin himself, they exchange a few undetermined words, until, he points a P-38 Walther 9 mm Parabellum pistol at Yolanda's head, presses the trigger twice and the young woman collapses. It is then that his accomplice, Ignacio Abad, exhorts him to fire a third shot as a coup de grace, firing a third flash with the body already lying down.

A crime still unpunished that still shakes the country

The body was found the next morning by two workers who happened to be passing by, not being identified until noon on February 2. During that same day, Emilio Hellín had already taken it upon himself to vindicate the criminal act, through a telex statement sent to the EFE Agency, on behalf of the Group 41 of the Spanish Basque Battalion (BVE), a parapolice terrorist organization identified in occasions with the Anti-Communist Apostolic Alliance or also known as the like the Triple A

Needless to say the great consternation that this new crime of the extreme right provoked in all of Spanish society, in the party to which Yolanda belonged and in her most immediate environment. At the funeral, shouts of "UCD, UCD, the gun is visible!" could be heard, alluding to the complicity of the government at the time. Likewise, the socialist deputy Juan Barranco would make a few statements at least of indirect accusation towards the springs and structures of a State that had not yet freed itself from inertia repressive dictatorship in what later different leftist organizations denounced with respect to this crime against humanity.

Five days later of the murder, the national policeman Juan Carlos Rodas (formerly of the Armed Police, a repressive body of Francoism), frightened by the development of the facts and their possible consequences, decided to betray the members of Group 41 who had participated in the terrible crime. Emilio Hellín and Ignacio Abad were immediately arrested, however, Félix Pérez Ajero and José Ricardo Prieto fled, remaining in whereabouts unknown for several weeks before appearing before the judge Case Investigator. Once arrested and all those involved in the murder brought to justice, the National Court prosecuted Emilio Hellín Moro, Ignacio Abad Velázquez, José Ricardo Prieto, Félix Pérez Ajero, Juan Carlos Rodas and David Martínez Loza and sentenced them to various penalties according to their degree of involvement in the facts.

Emilio Hellín Moro was sentenced to just over 43 years in prison for murder, breaking and entering, detention illegal weapons, weapons of war storage, defence weapons, ammunition, possession of explosives, falsification of ID cards and public use of assumed names. Ignacio Abad Velázquez was sentenced to just over 28 years of sentence for murder, trespassing of abode, illegal detention and illegal possession of weapons. Félix Pérez Ajero and José Ricardo Prieto received about 6 years of sentence for trespassing, illegal detention and illegal possession of weapons (possession of illicit explosives in the case of Prieto). David Martínez Loza was sentenced to about 6 years in prison for inducement of trespassing and illegal detention. It was at the time of the commission of the crime National Chief of Security of Fuerza Nueva and, therefore, with a link direct with the then leader of this formation, Blas Piñar.

Juan Carlos Rodas was sentenced to 3 months in prison for trespassing and illegal detention. The lightness of the sentence must be to their necessary and voluntary collaboration with justice. According to his own testimony, I thought that Yolanda González would be interrogated to find out if he belonged to ETA, but not that he was kidnapped and/or to murder.

In 1987, the main defendant and perpetrator of the murder, Emilio Hellín, was given to the Escape after inexplicably receiving a permit in the prison of Zamora, where he had remained since practically the beginning of his sentence. He took advantage of the situation to flee to Paraguay where he settled leading an apparently normal life since he enjoyed of the protection of the military dictator Alfredo Stroessner, with whom Fuerza Nueva maintained unbeatable relations, and that, in fact, it is known that it gave shelter to other militants of the extreme Spanish right, as is the case of the Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey, as well as Nazis of the Carving by Josef Mengele.

In Paraguay, always with the invaluable help of the dictator's repressive apparatus, Hellín prospered economically becoming a successful businessman, managing to go unnoticed for several years. However, its sweet exile ends when José Luis Morales, an acquaintance journalist of Interviú, found his whereabouts. After the fall of Stroessner, the Spanish authorities managed to get his extradition, which took place in September 1989 at the hands of Interpol. In July 1995 it was classified in the third degree of penitentiary and a year later he obtained the probation. Of the 43 years to which he was initially sentenced he only turned 14.

Yolanda González and the Socialist Workers Party (PST)

"Write Mariano Aguirre in his book The Bloody Transition that "the victims of the political violence can die twice: with their murder and with oblivion." How As we have said throughout this article, Yolanda was a member of the PST (Partido de la Paz) Socialist of the Workers). But, let's do a little history to put in context the political militancy of this comrade. The PST defined itself from the beginning as a Trotskyist Party of Action, Worker, Socialist, Anti-Bureaucratic and internationalist who was outside the Moncloa Pact, and denounced the leaders of the PSOE and the PC for having made a pact with Francoism and the monarchy.

A whole current of activists felt the need to build a principled alternative, in the face of the betrayal of the PSOE and the PC. Yolanda was part of that unwavering current that organized itself with the orthodox Trotskyism of the PST, in a battle against the betrayal of social-democratic, Stalinist and Mandelite revisionism. The PST was the expression of orthodox Trotskyism in Spain, the current headed by Nahuel Moreno that in Argentina had founded the PST as a tribute to the PST of the United States founded by Leon Trotsky and James Cannon and had constituted the basis for the development of the Fourth International.

But maintaining an unwavering attitude of struggle against fascism, distancing themselves from any pact with the Francoists, was an attitude of enormous courage on the part of the Spanish orthodox Trotskyists that could cost them their lives. The fascists of the New Right and other paramilitary groups that acted with total impunity had in their sights any left-wing activist who affected their interests, which is why Yolanda is undoubtedly a martyr of orthodox Trotskyism, of consistent Marxism that never accepted to lower the flag of the struggle against fascism and Francoism.

Yolanda's murder in Madrid in February 1980 hands of fascist gunmen gave the PST a great notoriety and public repercussion. The PST was able to gather the endorsements and certifications to present lists in the elections, with which in the legislative elections of 1982 it achieved 20,099 votes and integrated candidates from the Workers' Party into its lists Revolutionary of Spain. Since 1983 he has participated in all the elections in alone, with the following results: 5,384 votes in the 1984 regional elections; 11,540 votes in the 1986 legislative elections; 5,794 votes in the regional elections of 1988; 12,322 votes in the 1989 legislative elections and 10,270 votes in the of 1992. Five years after the death of Nahuel Moreno, the current led by him reached a crisis that was expressed in our country with the crisis of the PST thatin July 1993 was it divided and then disappeared as an important pole of Spanish revolutionary activism.

Undoubtedly, the struggle for the trial and punishment of those responsible for Yolanda's death is one of the most important democratic tasks. We are not only referring to the material authors who carried out the crimes with their own hands, we are also referring to the intellectual authors, those who were able to order, guide, and develop a policy aimed at persecuting, repressing, murdering and torturing all those who fought for the democratic rights and freedoms of the people. The struggle for Justice for Yolanda is intrinsically inseparable from the struggle for Justice for all those victims of the Franco regime both in the "bloody transition" and during the years of the dictatorship. From La Marx España we proclaim that Yolanda's struggle has not been in vain, we follow and vindicate her steps, and we call to unite together with activists, defenders of democratic freedoms, social leaders, trade unions, politicians, and relatives of victims to achieve the necessary justice against the impunity imposed by the Moncloa, on the road for the struggle for a Socialist Spain.