Roger Mateos I Huétor-Tájar (Granada), (EFE).- The remains of the anti-Franco militant Cipriano Martos, who died in 1973 and was subjected to interrogation with torture in the Civil Guard barracks in Reus (Tarragona), already rest next to those of his parents, in the cemetery of Huétor-Tájar (Granada), his land of origin.
Fifty years after his death, then silenced by the Franco regime, this Saturday the family has recovered the remains exhumed by the Generalitat of Catalonia, which has been in charge of transferring them to Huétor-Tájar.
A funeral procession of more than 200 people has accompanied the coffin with the bones, covered with a red and a republican flag, from the municipality’s House of Culture to the cemetery, where Cipriano’s five brothers – Antonio, Juan José, Manuel , Carmen and Paqui- have deposited the remains in the grave where their parents lie.
“It is perhaps the most exciting moment of our lives. My parents suffered the rest of their days for not having even been able to say goodbye to Cipriano. No one notified us of his arrest, no one called us to tell us that they had to send him to the hospital for torture. They wanted to cover up the case. Now, finally, my brother rests with his parents, ”Antonio Martos explained to EFE.
A tattered, blood-stained white shirt
The Generalitat began exhumation work last autumn in a grave in the Reus cemetery and, in January, announced the discovery of a body compatible with the physical description of the victim.
Genetic tests confirmed that the remains corresponded to Cipriano Martos. A militant of the PCE (Marxist-Leninist) and the FRAP, originally from Andalusia, who emigrated to Catalonia at the end of the sixties. And he joined the anti-Franco struggle, until he was arrested and tortured in the summer of 1973 in Reus, where he died after ingesting sulfuric acid during an interrogation.
Along with the bones of Cipriano Martos, archaeologists unearthed the shirt he was wearing when he was secretly thrown into the Reus pit. A white tergal garment, which the Generalitat has also handed over to the family and which bears the mark of the victim’s suffering: it is torn, tattered, and the fabric still has horrifying blood stains.
Tribute to Cipriano Martos
Before the burial, the House of Culture of Huétor-Tájar has hosted a tribute ceremony to Cipriano Martos. In which the mayor of the municipality, Fernando Delgado, the Minister of Justice, Rights and Memory of the Generalitat, Gemma Ubasart, participated. In addition to the journalist Roger Mateos, author of the book “Caso Cipriano Martos”, which reconstructs the circumstances of his death.
The minister, who has traveled to the municipality of Granada accompanied by its general director of Democratic Memory, Alfons Aragoneses, has valued the contribution of the thousands of Andalusian emigrants who became the “backbone of Catalan anti-Francoism.”
The event, led by the singer and researcher Juan Pinilla and which was also attended by the CUP representative in Parliament, Xavier Pellicer, began with a few words from the mayor. That he has emphasized that today a chapter of “reparation” is closed.
Members of the refounded PCE (ml) have also attended the homage acts. And they have expressed their gratitude to those who have made it possible to give him a “dignified burial.” “Today is a historic day in the recovery of the memory of the anti-fascist struggle”, they have highlighted.
From Granada to Sabadell, in full dictatorship
Martos was born in 1942 within the municipality of Loja, adjacent to Huétor-Tájar. Within a family of poor peasants, and he emigrated in 1969 to Sabadell (Barcelona). Where he became politicized and joined the PCE (ml) and the FRAP.
Already in hiding, the party assigned him to a cell in Reus. Where in August 1973 he was arrested by the Civil Guard, who interrogated him for more than two days. Until the ingestion of sulfuric acid forced him to be admitted to the Hospital de Sant Joan. Where he died for 21 days, without his family knowing where he was.
At the initiative of his brother Antonio, the case was included in 2014 in the macro-complaint for crimes of the Franco regime before the Argentine justice system. And, currently, he is still open to his instruction. EFE