Yolanda was born in 1961 in Bilbao, Basque Country. At the beginning of the transition, when she was only 16 years old, she was one of the activists who mobilized in defense of public education and working class struggles. In 1978 she moved to Madrid and in 1979 she joined the Socialist Workers Party (PST). On the night of February 1, 1980, Yolanda was kidnapped, tortured and riddled with bullets by the ultra-right-wing Basque-Spanish Battalion, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hellín, a fascist with institutional complicity
In response to the brutal murder, a student strike paralyzed classes in Madrid and Bilbao, demanding the investigation and punishment of those responsible. Five days later, Emilio Hellín was arrested for being the perpetrator of the crime. The PST also demanded the arrest of Blas Piñar, general secretary of Fuerza Nueva (FN) as the intellectual author. Subsequently, FN was banned and Hellín was sentenced to 43 years in prison. However, he was imprisoned for only 14 years since he escaped and changed his identity to Luis Enrique Hellíng. Such impunity can only be achieved with the help of fascists located in the security forces and government institutions.
Powerful and unscrupulous clients
In recent decades, Hellin’s companies had among other clients the former leader of the PP and delegate of the Government of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes, who falsified the minutes of her master’s degree. And the former president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs (JxCAT), who paid for the preparation of an expert report in her defense against accusations of corruption. These facts express the contempt with which the bourgeois politicians take the cause for the punishment of the murderers of Yolanda, who since 2002 is officially recognized as a victim of “terrorism” and not of “State terrorism”.
Yolanda, Gustau, Arturo and unpunished crimes
Together with Yolanda’s case, it is worth remembering the murders of Gustau Muñoz and Arturo Ruíz, which remain unpunished. Gustau, a 16-year-old left-wing militant, was assassinated on September 11, 1978, during the police repression of the Diada in Barcelona.
His relatives, comrades and friends claim against the impunity of Martin Villa and promote the “Querella Argentina” demanding justice. Arturo, student and left-wing militant, was assassinated by the para-police group “Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey”, on January 23, 1977, during a pro-amnesty demonstration held in Madrid. In this case, it is the “Colectivo por los Olvidados de la Transición” (Collective for the Forgotten of the Transition) that is actively demanding justice.
The dictatorship was fierce, the transition was not exemplary
During Franco’s dictatorship first and the transition period afterwards, there were crimes that remain unpunished. According to data provided by historian Gonzalo Wilhelmi, between 1975 and 1982, there were 233 victims of state political violence, 156 of whom were victims of members of the security forces and 77 of the extreme right in along with the state apparatus. The transition was not an example to follow, but the consecration of the reactionary monarchic-parliamentary regime of ’78. It was molded and legitimized by Francoism, the bourgeois leaders and their accomplices, as a guarantor of capitalist exploitation and impunity yesterday and today.
Yolanda Until socialism, now and forever!
We vindicate the memory of Yolanda as an example of a young woman, student and militant of the PST, an organization that was part of the international Trotskyist current promoted by Nahuel Moreno. We salute the tributes carried out by the “Asamblea Yolanda González”, her relatives, friends, neighborhood, antifascist, political, trade union and human rights collectives. And we value the initiatives that, over time, keep the memory of Yolanda alive, such as the documentary “Yolanda in the country of the students”, directed by Isabel Rodriguez and the book “Don’t forget me” written by journalist Carlos Fonseca.
We need a great movement for the punishment of the murderers.
From different perspectives, the PSOE, the PP, Vox and the parties of the regime, intend to “turn the page” of the crimes against impunity.
It is necessary to set up a great popular movement that is actively organized to settle the democratic debt that exists with the victims of repression, to guarantee democratic rights in the present and to prevent obscurantism from taking over the future. For this reason, we call for the broadest unity of action in mobilization, to confront the supporters of the regime of ’78 and crush the right and the ultra-right in every place where it rears its head.
