Salvador Puig Antich (Barcelona, 30 May 1948) was a young anarchist and anti-fascist militant and a member of the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL), which supported the workers’ struggle and an armed revolution to attempt to topple Franco’s dictatorship. In the autumn of 1973 he was arrested over the death of a policeman in a shootout during his arrest. After being tortured and subjected to an irregular trial without legal guarantees, he was sentenced to death by a military court-martial. In spite of international pressure calling for his sentence to be commuted, he was executed by garrotte on the morning of 2 March 1974 in the parcel hall of the Model Prison in Barcelona, amid widespread popular indignation.
Lluís Llach dedicated the song I si canto trist (If I sing sad), the title of his 1974 record, to him. Joan Isaac composed and sang A Margalida (1976), a tribute to Puig Antich and his companion. In 2005 Loquillo also dedicated a song to his memory, El año que mataron a Salvador (The year they killed Salvador). Poems, historical works, plays and films (Salvador) have been written about his life and his death. Joan Miró painted “The Hope of the Condemned to Death” series. On 5 March 2016, a square was named after him in the Roquetes district of Barcelona with a viewpoint overlooking the city and a monument in his honour.
We had thought about naming the military judge in the trial in which Puig Antich was condemned to death and the members of the dictator Franco’s Council of Ministers who allowed and ratified the execution, but in the end we decided that those names should not sully this page and that it is best that they be treated with silence and contempt for their ignominy and their infamy.