The Balearic Government pays tribute to Emilio García-Peñuela, Antonio González, Andreu Blanch and Llorenç Martorell
The president of the Balearic Government, Francina Armengoland the Vice President and Minister of Energy Transition, Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory, Juan Pedro Yllaneshave participated this Saturday in an act, in the Wall of Memory of the Palma cemeteryreturn and tribute to four victims of repression during the Civil War: Emilio García-Peñuela, Antonio González, Andreu Blanch and Llorenç Martorell.
They have done accompanied by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, Fabián Salvioli, who these days is in Majorca knowing the policies of democratic memory promoted by the Balearic Government.
Emilio García-Peñuela and Antonio González were victims of deception in Bellver on January 4, 1937. It was believed that they were murdered and buried in Porreres, but their remains were located in Son Coletes during the second phase of excavations and exhumations from the Manacor cemetery, which took place between October and December 2021. They were in group 2 of grave number 3 of the cemetery, the same grave that housed the remains of Aurora Picornell, Belarmina González and the reds of Molinar.
Also in Son Coletes, in grave number 4, the remains of Andreu Blanch Bauçà were recovered, who was also believed to have been murdered and buried in Porreres. the three were identified last November thanks to DNA samples given by sons and daughters of the victims.
The remains of Llorenç Martorell were located in Porreres in February 2021, based on the work carried out by the Government in the municipal cemetery within the third grave plan 2020-2021. They were recovered in grave no. 11, intact under the block of niches, which had two levels and in which a total of twelve individuals were located. Llorenç Martorell was identified in December last year.
During the act of return, which the president has defined as “emotional and symbolic, but above all deeply democratic”, Francina Armengol has recalled the trajectory of these last eight years working for memory: “we approved two fantastic laws from dialogue and consensus” that allowed “to work together with memorial activities, historians and family members”, whom she has thanked for her work and He recalled that “his fight has not been in vain.” The president of the Government has assured that “we will never be ‘defeated’ because we will continue to seek, explain and demand justice” for all those victims of the Civil War and Franco’s repression.
The Vice President has stated that “This tribute is much more than a return of bodies to relatives, this act is a message so that the tremendous injustice that Andrés, Lorenzo, Emilio and Antonio suffered is clear. Four men murdered by Francoist gunmen were victims of this crime against humanity that the
executions. Four names that they wanted to erase by making them disappear in these graves and that today we remove from that oblivion ».
The families of the four victims are founding members of the Association Memòri de Mallorca and received, on October 29, 2021, on the occasion of the first act of institutional tribute to the victims of the Civil War and the Francoist repression in the Balearic Islands, the certificate of victims of Francoism from the Balearic Government.
To date, the remains of at least 241 people murdered during the Civil War and Franco’s repression have been recovered on the islands, of which 53 have already been identified and 48 have been returned to their families.
The stories of the honorees
Emilio Garcia-Peñuela Orgaz Born in Madrid in 1899. Draftsman and employee of the Bank of Spain. He was arrested on July 28, 1936 in Palma and assassinated on January 5, 1937 in Manacor.
Antonio Gonzalez Rodriguez He was born in Cáceres on May 19, 1908. He was a photographer by profession. For ten years he was a member of the Spanish army. He belonged to the CNT-FAI union and was a maritime transport delegate in Palma. He was arrested on July 19, 1936 and murdered on the night of January 5, 1937 in Manacor.
Andreu Blanch Bauçà He was born in Porreres and a shoemaker by profession. He was arrested and taken to a barracks in Palma on October 30, 1936. The next day he was gone.
Llorenç Martorell Suárez He was born in Moscari (Selva) in October 1898. He was the widower of Alberta Ciriquián Ferrer. He lived in Palma, where he had a printing shop and a furniture store. He did not belong to any political party, but he ran the printing press where the Communist Party publication Nuestra Palabra was possibly published. Imprisoned in Can Mir on October 24, 1936, on February 9, 1937 he was “released”. They shot him in the Porreres cemetery on February 1937.
The event this Saturday was also attended by the President of the Balearic Parliament, Vicenç Thomàs; the regional secretary of Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory, Jesús Jurado, and the general director of Democratic Memory, Marc Andreu Herrera, among other authorities.