Journalist and writer Carlos Hernández dies at age 56

BarcelonaJournalist and writer Carlos Hernández de Miguel has died at the age of 56 from an illness, as announced by Eldiario.es. Hernández, a graduate in information sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), began his career in television at Antena 3 and was a war correspondent in countries such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Iraq. In recent years, he dedicated himself mainly to researching Spain's most recent past and fought for the recognition of the victims of the dictatorship. Among other books, he wrote Los últimos españoles de Mauthausen and Los campos de concentración de Franco. He was the co-author of the graphic novel Deportado 4443. His latest work is the novel ¡Créeme! No es una novela. Es vuestro futuro (Soldesol, 2024).

In Los últimos españoles de Mauthausen, Hernández demonstrated that Franco and his brother-in-law, Ramón Serrano Suñer, were directly responsible for the murder of thousands of Spaniards, some of them children, at the hands of Hitler. The journalist and writer explained that it all began with the story of his great-uncle, Antonio Hernández, who had been in Mauthausen. In addition to the book, he revived his great-uncle's story on Twitter, at @deportado4443. For its part, Los campos de concentración de Franco is an exhaustive investigation: it documents the history of nearly 300 Francoist camps that came to hold half a million people at the end of the Civil War. The book had a great impact because it revealed one of the little-known chapters of recent Spanish history. The journalist was very generous and also helped many students who wanted to research some of the concentration camps he mentioned in the book.

In 2004, he was awarded the Víctor de la Serna Prize, given annually by the Madrid Press Association (APM) to the best journalist. He also won the Ortega y Gasset Prize from the newspaper El País, which that year was exceptionally awarded to outstanding Spanish journalists in the Iraq War for their reporting work.

While in Baghdad, Spanish cameraman and reporter José Couso was killed in a US military attack on the Palestine Hotel, where he was staying. From that moment on, along with other journalists like Olga Rodríguez, Hernández became involved in the Couso family's fight for justice for José and for those responsible for his death to be prosecuted. Just today, a relative of the murdered journalist expressed sorrow over Hernández's death on social media.

In 2003, shortly after returning from Iraq, Hernández was laid off along with 215 other journalists as part of a workforce reduction plan (ERE) implemented by Antena 3. The following year, in 2004, he left his position as head of political news at the weekly magazine La Clave to become press officer for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He held that position until July 2008, during the first government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A few years later, in 2011, he returned to the PSOE as communications director for the regional and local elections of May 22.