Modern Scarlet Pimpernel

Press, 30 December 1976, Page 5

Modern Scarlet Pimpernel

By WILLIAM CEMRYN JONES, of the Observer Foreign News Service Madrid

Spain modern Scarlet Pimpernel, until his recent arrest, has been a mild bespectacled 60-year-old outlaw called Santiago Carrillo. Sec-retary-general of the P.C.E., the Spanish Communist Party, he has a quiet charm and dry wit that only partially conceal the fact that he is a very tough and brave freedom fighter.

Five days before the affirmative referendum on the reform law which has promised to bring a measure of democracy to Spain, Carrillo gave a press conference in the centre of Madrid. Some 70 journalists, attended this clandestine reunion, when the Spanish Communist leader explained the party’s “abstention” policy. Carrillo, who has lived in exile (mainly in Paris') since the civil war, has been refused a passport by the Spanish Government to re-; {turn to his homeland. Yet hei came back to Spain se-| |cretly, last February, made: several illegal trips across! the frontier, and carried out!

his job as the secretary-gen-eral. His discovery led to his being jailed on December 22. This press conference (aroused a storm of fury from the Right. It was like Michael Collins appearing openly in Dublin at the funeral of an I.R.A. comrade in 1920, but with perhaps one difference. In 1920, the British authorities wanted Michael Collins, dead or (alive. ! In December, 1976, the Prime Minister (Mr Suarez): almost certainly does not want Carrillo, in Spain, ati least alive. The Interior Min-: ister, (Mr Martin Villa): promptly issued a statement: that the police had orders to search and arrest this “out-: law.” He was arrested and; given the option of trial or exile. He stayed. The Right-wing extremists, the Warriors of Christ' the King, and the Adolf Hitler Commandos, have issued threats swearing to kill Carrillo. So this 60-year-old; man, who has spent most of; his life fighting an under-: ground battle for his beliefs, continued for a while to play an important, probably vital role in Spanish politics, with remarkable tranquility, in spite of the constant

threat of the midnight knock! on the door. The son of a socialist! worker. Carrillo only joined the P.C.E. in 1936 because he considered the commun-' ists were “more efficient” at; a time when Franco's forces! were threatening to destroy! the Republic. ( Then, he believed in close (co-operation between social-1 ists and communists. Today.! | his views are the same. He jis a democrat and a social-! list, one of the new style ! Eurocommunists, who do not i necessarily accept. Kremlin (dictatorship — and criticises | Mr Alvaro Cunhal, the Portuguese Communist leader. Totally opposed to violence and terrorist oper- ! ations like the kidnapping of 'Mr Antonio Oriol, President of the Spanish Council of State, he has been severely criticised by extreme Marxist elements for his moderate views, and they have not been slow to point out that Carrillo himself has been ac-l cused of brutal repression: when he was in charge of! public order in Madrid in; 1936. Carrillo held that post for only two months, when Franco's forces were besiege ing the capital. The charge

((levelled against him was that he was responsible for the execution of a number 11 of political prisoners. J Carrillo denies the ■ I charge. He admits, “A civil tiwar is a terrible thing, and ;|in our own civil war there r|was repression, and crimes {were committed on both >1 sides.” But regarding the (specific charges he states (that the Franco prisoners > were imprisoned in Madrid . :at a critical time during the J siege and it was believed bv! • the defence junta that an at(tempt might be made to lib- ; erate them by the fifth col-1 . umn. Accordingly he gave ■ orders for them to be trans- • ferred to Valencia. On the ’ road an unidentified group : stopped the convoy and as- ’ sassinated the prisoners. • There is absolutely no evi- ■ dence to suggest that Car- • rillo’s version is not correct. His wife, Carmen, and : their three sons have lived' ■(in a modest apartment in {'the Madrid working-class (suburb of Vallecas since last, iOctober. Officially they have police protection. Unoffi- ' cially they have parts friends who provide them > with real protection. — O.F.N.S. Copyright,