Albares pays tribute to foreign service members who remained loyal to democracy during the Franco regime

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, paid tribute this Monday, at the Ministry’s Marqués de Salamanca headquarters, to the diplomats and all foreign service personnel who remained loyal to democracy during the Civil War and throughout the Franco dictatorship. A plaque that the Minister unveiled before relatives and historians remembers their names in a list that is open and will be updated if ongoing investigations document new cases.

In his speech, Albares stated that the plaque settles a debt: “Honouring these comrades is something that we owed to ourselves and to them, and to their families. We had to do it one by one, with their names and surnames, because this, their own identity and the values they defended, is what they wanted to eradicate from our memory”.

The plaque aims to highlight the efforts of the Spanish diplomats who worked in the Ministry of State and the network of Spanish embassies and consulates in 1936 and who remained loyal to the democratic system. Of the 275 members of the diplomatic service at the time, barely half a hundred remained loyal to the constitutional legality in force. The plaque also recognises those who were expelled throughout the dictatorship, including Julio Cerón and Vicente Girbau.

In the words of the Minister, “these diplomats were the voice of Spain in the world, a voice that spoke of progress, justice, peace, understanding and humanity in a world that was divided and torn apart by the violence of the most atrocious dictatorships. A violence and cruelty that would soon reach Spain. They carried that voice and their commitment to democracy to the countries they served in, and to the League of Nations which embodied the best ideals of humanity and which was reincarnated in our United Nations”.

Albares also thanked Ángel Viñas, a historian and academic, for his hard work, commitment and research, which led to the list of names on the plaque being drawn up. The list is open to possible additions if further research reveals more cases. The plaque has space for more names to be included if necessary. 

Viñas, who specialises in the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, and editor of the collective work titled Al servicio de la República. Diplomáticos y guerra civil (2010) (At the service of the Republic. Diplomats and Civil War), announced that the book will be republished next year, with an update that includes new information resulting from his ongoing research. 

Viñas recalled the challenge for historians to continue to unravel with new evidence what happened in a distorted past. "It was distorted by the victors and their propaganda. Also the authors and politicians who do not bother to search or allow searching in the archives or in the aptly-named ‘pits of oblivion’.

Event attendees included descendants of the honoured diplomats, such as Ainhoa Euri Careaga, granddaughter of Fernando Careaga Echevarría, who is also a diplomat and is currently stationed in Morocco. 

Clara Girbau, daughter of Vicente Girbau and current Spanish ambassador to Guatemala, although unable to attend in person, participated through a message read out by the Ambassador-At-Large for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Miriam Álvarez de la Rosa.

Fernando Morán, son of former Minister for Foreign Affairs Fernando Morán and currently ambassador to Algiers, also attended the event.

The plaque, measuring 170x70 cm, in satin-finished stainless steel with black painted bas-relief text, lists 45 names of diplomats from the period: