Monument to the Detention Centers of the Franco regime was unveiled in Pamplona

The Vice President also attended José Maria Aierdi; Pamplona City Council vice mayor Maria Echavarriand the President of the Federation of Municipalities and Councils, Juan Carlos Castillo. They also joined prisoner relatives and memory associationsInvesting different money in Memorial land collected in pits where many prisoners were killed: Paternain, Argaitz quarry, Valcardera, Otxoportillo, Aldunate-Loiti, Larraga, Tejería de Monreal, Ibero, Bottle Cemetery, El Perdón and Goldaraz.

spotted in Pamplona 17 fixed fieldsclassified four categories: police stations and barracks, prison universe, impromptu detention centers and concentration universe. While it is not currently possible to accurately estimate the total number of people in captivity, estimates are at least 15,000 and one maximum 20,000 people: More than 7,300 prisoners in the State Penitentiary, more than 6,000 in San Cristóbal Castle, and more than 6,800 in different concentration camps. In 1939 alone, there were about 12,000 people in captivity in Pamplona, ​​with a population of around 50,000.

The sheer size of this oppressive method and the multiple fields in which it was developed in different ways motivated the Navarro Institute of Memory to propose the creation of the Monument, in which it calls for a competition among young artists in 2020, and this is the selection of proposals. hypogeumoffered by sculptor Alberto Odériz.

The monument stands on a Space ceded by Pamplona City Council, Close to five of the most emblematic bondage centers in the city: the temporary detention centers of the Carlist War Board in the Escolapios school and the Falange in the Salesianos school; concentration camps at Plaza de Toros and Convento de la Merced; and the municipal deposit or Perrera. From here you can also see the San Cristóbal Castle prison on Mount Ezkaba.

In his speech, the consultant stated that it is necessary to carry this form of violence that our country has been subjected to, this violence that has become invisible with a cloak in captivity, prisons, concentration camps and irregular detention centers. silence and concealment over an overwhelming reality”.

Regarding the new monument, Ollo said, “It was necessary to seek out the truth based on historical research and disseminate it in our society, but it was also necessary that this fact have a public expression, a recognizable space representing these 17 centers.” , a horizontal space “away from the great monumentality of the victors”.

“Today we bring back the memory of those who were brutally murdered after passing through these terrible detention centres, remembering the terror that lived behind their walls,” Ollo said of the Monument, a space designed to “live and be occupied.” to host meetings, talks, meetings and events, and above all “for the permanent and updating of the memory of an unjust violence that should never have happened.”

Blanca Oria, granddaughter of Torres del Río farmer Florentino Rubio Martínez, who was arrested, imprisoned and released from prison for assassination in Beriain in 1937, also gave a speech at the event. we can also stop, learn, and not forget the ‘men and women’ they want to delete from the lists of the dead.

Unai Hualde stressed that the Parliament of Navarra has been unanimously committed to historical memory for many years, saying that “where there was barbarism there is memory today,” said: “It is an inevitable imperative to continue to remember, to encourage actions and to promote the opening of monuments.”

The Government of Navarra declared the Monument as follows: Historical Memory Space at its meeting on Oct. This recognition means registration in the relevant Registry and means both the singular recognition and application of the protection regime established in Ley Foral of December 26, 2018, of the Historical Places of Memory of Navarra, as well as the declaration of public or public interest. social interest for all purposes.