Antoni Batista: "Comorera, Companys' right-hand man and founder of the PSUC, was stabbed a bit by everyone"

BarcelonaJoan Comorera, born in Cervera in 1894, died ill in the Burgos prison on May 6, 1958. He had been the right-hand man of President Lluís Companys, and one of the founders of the PSUC and its first secretary until he was expelled from the party. Persecuted by the Francoists and the communists, he was finally imprisoned in June 1954. Until now it was not very clear who betrayed him. The journalist Antoni Batista (Barcelona, ​​​​1972), ombudsman of the ARA, has had access to the manuscripts of the commissioner who arrested him: Antonio Juan Creix. Everything was in order and there was first-hand police material, including the exhaustive statement in which Comorera reviews his life. Batista, as he has done in other books, carries out an exhaustive investigation to give clues about what Comorera's last years were like and his relationship with Creix. The truth of the Comorera case. A story of espionage, harassment and betrayal (Now Books).

How did your interest in Joan Comorera arise?

— I was a member of the PSUC from 1971 to 1981, and held positions of responsibility. I met many leaders and there was a lot of talk about Comorera. There were many versions of how he was expelled from the party, of those who were sorry, of why they did it and of the first attempts to rehabilitate him. Miquel Caminal dedicated his doctoral thesis to him: there are three volumes published by Empúries, where he talks about his political life, his thoughts, his ideology... The only thing that Caminal did not talk about was Comorera's arrest. In this sense, Caminal was very honest and said that only Commissioner Antonio Juan Creix knew about this subject. I wrote a book about Creix (The letter. Story of a Francoist commissioner, 2010), but I didn't have the manuscripts at the time. When Creix's children found them, I thought that I did have something to contribute about Comorera's clandestine stage, his arrest and who betrayed him. One of the threads that I have pulled and that is fascinating is that of the Basque government in exile.

Is this an unexpected thread?

Absolutely. I had heard about it, that the Basque government in exile had helped Comorera, but I didn't know how important it was. Comorera was the first target of the Francoist apparatus of repression after the execution of President Companys. He was the most important minister of the Generalitat and in the 1950s he was also persecuted by the communists. The PSUC expelled him in 1949 and he was publicly stoned at the 5th Congress of the PCE, held in September 1954. The intelligence services of the Basque government in exile, in collaboration with the English, helped him a lot while he had to go into hiding for fear of being killed.

Did the Basques help you more than the Catalan government in exile?

— The Catalans did not have a penny. Tarradellas often went to the Basque government headquarters to ask for money.

Has Comorera not been sufficiently vindicated in Catalonia?

— Politically, he has been vindicated. In April 1985, a civil funeral was held for him in the Sant Jordi Hall of the Palau, presided over by Jordi Pujol. Seventeen days before the funeral, Antonio Juan Creix had died of a heart attack. But from that moment on, it was as if the light had gone out; no one spoke of it again.

One of the most interesting contributions is the relationship between Creix and Comorera. How would you describe it?

— Creix was the most decorated agent of the Spanish police, with fourteen medals of many carats of honour, the most feared policeman by the enemies of the regime. He was a very Catholic man, with an impressive library. The most important one on communism and Marxism after that of Manuel Sacristán. He had problems of conscience with the police methods that were used at that time. After Comorera he reconsidered many things and wanted to make changes in the police methods. In this sense, Comorera helped him humanely. Crece was fascinated by Comorera. There was a before and after.

Wasn't Comorera tortured?

— They didn't touch him. In fact, they treated him very well, although he never informed on anyone.

Who was left for Comorera at that time?

— He had four friends left with names and surnames.

Why was he expelled from the PSUC?

— Comorera had made it clear that the PSUC proclaimed itself the heir of Francesc Macià and that, like him, it claimed the right to self-determination and the Catalan republic within a Spanish federal framework. In addition, there was a rather special issue, which was that the PSUC had a place in the Communist International: there was a Catalan with the right to a seat. Furthermore, Comorera had a clear social democratic vision.

Did the PCE not want rivals?

— The PCE wanted a single voice.

Was the Catalan issue bothersome?

— These were the most intense years of proletarian internationalism. Rafael Vidiella, who replaced Comorera at the head of the PSUC, proposed that the PSUC should be organically integrated into the PCE. Santiago Carrillo, who was very clever, did not go ahead because he knew that if he did so he would lose strength in Catalonia. He kept the PSUC, but it was the PCE that was steering the ship, with Comorera's social democratic and nationalist sailors thrown overboard in dishonour.

Who reported Comorera?

— There were two confidants. One of them was part of the leadership of the PCE and the other was in Comorera's closest political circle. And, on the other hand, there was a Francoist spy: Amable Díaz García, who followed the Spanish communists in Moscow. Amable was inseparable from Manuel Comorera, Joan Comorera's nephew, who at that time was quite hostile to his uncle. kill? Perhaps as it happens in theOrient Express Agatha Christie's, each one stabbed her a little.

Who was Amable Diaz Garcia?

— We don't know who he really was. The real Amable Díaz García was shot in May 1938, when he was 33 years old. The secret services did this routinely. They took advantage of the name of a missing person and attributed him to one of their agents. He was a double agent, because the Russians considered him one of their own. His trail was lost after Comorera's death.