Unanswered questions surrounding an ultra-right-wing crime in Maresme

BarcelonaExhuming a crime scene can have unforeseen consequences. When lawyer Damià del Clot and journalist Albert Calls, authors of Two and a half dead (Portico), as they entered the ARA building to conduct the interview, they received a call. They had finally located a relative of one of the victims of the murder that occurred on November 20, 1980, in a forest in Cabrera de Mar. This is not the only thread they have tried to pull since publishing the book that attempts to shed light on a crime shrouded in mystery.

The events described in the book took place in the early hours of the anniversary of Franco's death. On the night of November 19, Salvador Durán, Cristóbal García (a minor), and Antonio Rubio left home with a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle, a SAFE pistol, and a Rohn RG-SS blank-firing pistol. Durán and García were members of Fuerza Nueva, the far-right party founded by Blas Piñar López. "They went out intending to scare or harm the young people who gathered at the Mataró Libertarian Athenaeum. Since they didn't find anyone, they picked up three marginalized youths they came across, convinced them they were going to rob a house in Cabrera, and took them to the woods," explains Del Clot. The three young people who had the misfortune of encountering Durán and García were Juana Caso (25 years old), José Muñoz (16 years old), and Antonio Camacho (15 years old).

Once in the woods, they all got out of the car and walked for a while. Near the Torre Ametller hostel, Durán pulled out the weapons. He kept the semi-automatic carbine and gave the pistol to García. Durán fired three shots first, two at Muñoz and one at Camacho, who managed to escape badly wounded. After the failed attempt to catch him, on the way back to the car, Durán pulled the trigger on Juana Caso. Two bullets struck him in the back. When he fell to the ground, he fired four more. Both Caso and Muñoz died that morning. The next day, strangely, Durán sought refuge in the Civil Guard barracks in Argentona. In fact, he spent the entire day there. What role the Civil Guards played is one of the major questions the book raises.

The fact that Antonio Camacho managed to survive prevented the crime from being forgotten. "Without Camacho's testimony, there probably wouldn't have been a case because, among other things, the murder weapon was never found," Calls explains. "It's a story that had always interested me, and over the years, I had collected data and accumulated information. When I mentioned it to Davià, we decided to request the case file, citing the Official Secrets Act. We did obtain the sentence, and from there, we began to investigate the facts and interview witnesses, lawyers, journalists, historians, and the investigating judge in the case."

Where did the murder weapon end up?

It is a case still shrouded in many unknowns. Del Clot and Calls are convinced that there was intent to kill and that there was a political motive. The crimes were committed on November 20, 1980. Salvador Durán was a prominent local leader of Fuerza Nueva and its youth wing. Cristóbal García was a member of Fuerza Joven. However, neither Juana Caso, José Muñoz, nor Antonio Camacho were members of the Ateneo (a cultural and intellectual society), nor did they have any political affiliation. "This does not mean that their deaths cannot be interpreted politically. They are, because the far right defends security and order, and hates everything that, according to them, generates insecurity. The victims are outcasts who were in the wrong place at the wrong time," argues Del Clot. There is an important question regarding the role played by the Civil Guard. The ruling of the Provincial Court of Barcelona convicted Salvador Durán and Cristóbal García as perpetrators of two counts of murder and one count of illegal possession of firearms. "However, it doesn't mention the political plot or delve deeply enough into the role of the Civil Guard. Whose weapons were they and how did they reach Salvador Durán? Was the Civil Guard the one that supplied the weapons and ammunition?" the book's authors ask. Two and a half deadThe ruling states that the murder weapon, a .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle, disappeared. "Its whereabouts are unknown," the ruling says. During the judicial investigation, searches were carried out to find the weapon. "There was information that weapons were hidden at Can Vinyamata, an estate owned by Hans Beuer, a former high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth, and that far-right groups were going there for target practice, but they found nothing," says Del Clot. During the trial, Durán never admitted to the murders of Caso and Muñoz. Everything changed on February 7, 1984, when he made a new statement to the judge. He then confessed. "He provided names, places, and information that exposed police officers and Civil Guard members," say Del Clot and Calls. A few days after that statement, on February 11, searches were carried out at two addresses, one in Argentona and the other in Mataró. One of the weapons belonged to Antonio Cuadrado, a Civil Guard officer from Argentona. He possessed a pistol and a revolver, both unregistered. Cuadrado was arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearms, but the murder weapon was never found. However, the authors claim that falsified documents for the destruction of seized weapons did surface. On March 14, 1984, the newspaper The Country An article was published claiming that the judge had tapped a Civil Guard phone. In the same article, journalists explained that the courts in Mataró had received an anonymous tip alleging that the murder weapon had left the Civil Guard station where it was being held after being confiscated.

What became of Salvador Durán?

"The far right has always had a presence in the Maresme region. On March 4, 1979, for example, an ultra-right-wing demonstration was held in Arenys de Mar," Del Clot and Calls explain. "Furthermore, there's a link between the Maresme region and the 23-F coup attempt. One of the key figures in Tejero's coup, Captain General Jaime Milans del Bosch, owned a farmhouse in Sant Vicenç de Montalt," they add. After confessing to the crime, Durán was assaulted twice in Lleida prison, where he was serving a 75-year, 7-day sentence. After the second attack, he was hospitalized because he was seriously injured. "From then on, we don't know what happened to him," Calls explains.