In memory of “Chato” Galante
Waking up one morning in May with the news that your tormentor, the one you met in person one cold day in the winter of the 70s, when you were startled by the braking of a black SEAT 124 and that sinister character emerged at high speed, you brings different sensations.
In this time of maturity I do not wish the death of anyone, not even him, for whom what I wanted was to live many years, but after being tried for his crimes and of course without the medals that Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias promised to their victims they would remove.
It has not been like that and really, as leftist militants for more than 50 years, it hurts, it hurts to the depths of your being.
I am not going to relate my personal experience with this sinister character, because I have already told it on numerous occasions and because today it is not time to personalize too much.
But I do remember my colleagues, victims of their perversity. Because Billy was not a professional police officer linked to the regime of that time, he was a pervert who enjoyed the evil he inflicted on others.
He wasn't interrogating you to get information, which I suppose most of the time he already knew, but to enjoy hurting you, torturing you, degrading you, humiliating you.
Over the years I have reflected on my hours in their hands and I have come to the conclusion that I understood those members of the BPS, of which there were probably the majority, that they were doing their duty, that they understood in a professional manner that we were their enemies that he had to put an end to. Either us or them, I guess they would say.
I could even say that I respect them. But not Billy, not Billy because remembering his eyes full of hate, bloodshot trying to break me, hurt me, I will never, ever forgive him for that.
Violence is despicable no matter who exercises it, but torture represents the maximum degradation of a human being. He who tortures is more of a scoundrel than he who murders and I am aware of the controversy of this statement.
It doesn't matter to me whether whoever does it is from the extreme right, the left, or the extreme left.
One of the things that has embarrassed me the most in my long life of political activity was being aware that my people, even my own, also practiced torture at some point.
Because at that moment I was aware that degradation has no ideology, that it is part of the human being, whether it is from the left or the right.
That conclusion at one point in my life generated deeply painful contradictions for me. Now “Billy the Child”, Juan Antonio González Pacheco, hammer of anti-Franco fighters from the University of Madrid, torturer, distinguished member of the fearsome Social Political Brigade BPS is leaving , after leaving its mark in the rooms and dungeons of the General Directorate of Security DGS of Puerta del Sol in Madrid.
How many times have I shuddered when I passed by there lately on my visits to Madrid.
He leaves without his victims, after long years of leftist governments, comforting us by doing justice.
I admit that this time I thought that yes, that Pedro and Pablo were going to be able to at least take away his immoral medals.
But no, it hasn't been like that. Cowardice? Tepidity? Lack of decision?
A new slap in the face to those of us who fight hard to bring democracy to this country. A new affront to its victims that at least leaves me hurt, frustrated and disappointed.
It is shameful that he leaves without trial and with medals.
The cruel paradoxes of life have brought us that the coronavirus has taken him, the one that just a few days ago also took away another of its tortured notables, José María “Chato” Galante.
But he showed his face, with the dignity and gallantry of the unbreakable fighter, while “Billy” does so with the flight of the coward.
I write these lines as a tribute to the dozens of people who suffered, with the memory of that cruel but romantic time, where the left was the possessor of values that we have unfortunately been losing along the way.
With the commitment to keep that flag upright until the end of my days.
Look at us Peter and Paul. Look at us and learn.
We will see……….
José Luis Úriz Iglesias (Former parliamentarian and councilor of the PSN-PSOE)
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