A delegation from the Atocha Lawyers Foundation and CC.OO. of Madrid this Wednesday honored the five murdered labor lawyers with a minute of silence and a floral offering next to the statue ‘El Abrazo’ by the painter and sculptor Juan Genovés, in the Antón Martín square in the capital.
Coinciding with the 47th anniversary of the murder of the Atocha Lawyers, the representation of the Foundation and the union went early in the morning to the cemeteries of Carabanchel and San Isidro to remember those murdered in 1977 by a far-right commando .
Shortly after, starting at 10 a.m., a hundred people gathered again to remember the victims together with the sculptural group inspired by the painting ‘El Abrazo’, by Juan Genovés, in the Plaza de Antón Martín, about meters from the place where the murders of the labor lawyers were committed.
Among them, the Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, the spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Madrid City Council, Rita Maestre, and the spokesperson for this party in the Assembly, Manuela Bergerot, as well as the deputy spokesperson for the PSOE in the Consistory. , Enma López, and the socialist councilors Soledad Murillo and Ana Lima. Cristina Almeida has also attended.
Those gathered have observed a minute of silence in tribute to the deceased and have placed flowers next to the monument erected in memory of the lawyers shot down by a far-right commando on January 24, 1977 in a CC.OO labor office. and the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), located at number 55 Atocha Street.
Four lawyers and a union member died, while four other lawyers were seriously injured. Specifically, the lawyers Luis Javier Benavides, Enrique Valdelvira, Javier Sauquillo, Serafín Holgado and Ángel Rodríguez lost their lives and their colleagues Alejandro Ruiz-Huerta, Luis Ramos, Dolores González and Miguel Sarabia were badly injured.
During the event, the general secretary of CC.OO. from Madrid, Paloma López, has called to look to the future with the example of the Atocha Lawyers’ fight for “justice, democracy and freedom.” “Everything we have, we have thanks to them,” she stressed.
In this sense, he has warned that today the threat of “a populist extreme right, heir to Franco’s regime, is still alive and what wants is to reinstall in Spain, Europe and much of the world a new dictatorship, a loss of freedoms, fundamental values ??and equality as a central element”.
For his part, the general secretary of the PCE in Madrid, Álvaro Aguilera, has recalled the fight for a “more just, democratic and free” world of these lawyers to also pay tribute to the Palestinian people “who are suffering from Israel’s genocide.” At the same time, he has warned against the “drums of fascism” that resonate now to emphasize “the drive to bring a better world” of those murdered 47 years ago.
“Every man or woman in custody has in the Atocha Lawyers the best and purest example to fight for a more just society,” he stressed.
Finally, Alejandro Ruiz-Huerta Carbonell, president of the Atocha Lawyers Foundation, has called to honor the “full life of dedication to the workers” that these people had.
In statements to the media after finishing the event, the deputy spokesperson for the PSOE at City Hall stressed the importance of keeping the memory alive, “more than ever in these times when it is threatened by the extreme right, with the complicity of the PP.” . “That is why it is important to remember these people who died defending democracy, who died defending freedoms, and what we have missed today is the presence of someone from the PP, who at the time was in favor of democracy, and today they are not here,” he denounced.
The central event of the tribute took place at 11 a.m. in the Marcelino Camacho Auditorium, with the presentation of the Atocha Lawyers Award 2024 to the International Observatory of Lawyers at Risk in recognition of the work carried out for justice in the world since its creation in 2016.
Likewise, health professionals in Gaza will also be recognized, an award that will be collected by the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the “Network of Women in Black Against War”, for their work for peace and non-violence.
