- The government delegate in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, presided over the act of tribute in which a special memory was held for one of his workers, Miguel Reyes Mateos, killed in the attacks of 22 years ago.
- The event has been organized together with the 11M Association Affected by Terrorism, which last year gave the Government Delegation the work entitled i loved you, i love you, i love you, which presided over the tribute.
“Memory is a democratic duty, a moral responsibility, a form of justice” was one of the messages of the government delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín, in the act of tribute to the victims of the 11M that was held today at the headquarters of the Delegation of the Government of Spain in Madrid.
He also expressed “the will of the Government of Spain to keep the memory alive and to place the memory of 11M in the place it deserves within the collective conscience of our region”. For Martín, this is a “duty that does not prescribe, that does not expire and that never depends on the passage of time”.
The event, which has been promoted by the Government Delegation in collaboration with the 11M Association Affected by Terrorism, aims to consolidate itself as an institutional space of memory in memory of the victims of 11M and aims, in the words of the delegate, “to reaffirm, from the responsibility of the State, a firm and permanent commitment to the victims.”
He also considered that to do so in the Government Delegation implies “a special meaning” because of the Delegation’s competence in the command of the State Security Forces in the region, and because both the National Police and the Civil Guard “played and play an extraordinary role in these situations.” Also because the same Delegation retains a memory of its own that morning, that of Miguel Reyes Mateos, 37 years old, an official of the Delegation, killed in the attacks of March 11 at the El Pozo station when he was on his way to his workplace.
Martín wanted to remember the exemplary behavior of all emergency services, health personnel, firefighters, National Police, Civil Guard, Municipal Police, psychologists, public workers and, of course, “to Madrid society that behaved not only with solidarity, but with affection, providing support, blood or whatever was necessary.”
Memory for the new generations
A memory that the delegate wants to convey to those who did not live at that time, to the younger ones; that is why he has insisted on the need to “tell the story rigorously and truthfully”, emphasizing the need to “educate in memory, in democratic values and in the frontal rejection of any form of hatred and violence. Young people should know what happened, but also understand that no cause justifies terror and that no difference can be resolved through intolerance.” In conclusion, he wanted to send a message of respect, coexistence and defense of human dignity in a free society because he insisted “no barbarism will defeat democracy and no victim will fall into oblivion as long as this society remains worthy of his memory”.
He also expressed gratitude to the 11M Association Affected by Terrorism, with which the event was held, and to its president, Marisol Pérez Urbano, “for his testimony, for his integrity and for his exemplary commitment to the memory of the victims.”
For her part, the president of the Association, Marisol Pérez Urbano, visibly excited, has insisted that, despite the 22 years that have passed, “memory is not diluted”, and has thanked the government delegate for the invitation to continue giving voice to the victims.
Painting and music
The work entitled i loved you, i love you, i love you, belonging to the collection Traces and Stitches for the Memory of the 11M Association Affected Terrorism, and which was ceded by the same for its permanent exhibition at the headquarters of the Delegation, has presided over the stage in which the cellist María Concepción Zornoza Olaya has performed during the ceremony several musical pieces.
Among the attendees: the general director of Support for the Victims of Terrorism, Montserrat Torija; the president of the Provincial Court of Madrid, Juan Pablo González Herrero; the Superior Prosecutor of Madrid, Almudena Lastra De Inés; the delegate of Defense in the Community of Madrid, José Javier Fabón Zurita; Isaura Leal Fernández, second secretary of the Congress of Deputies; the third vice-president of the Assembly of Madrid, Diego Cruz Torrijos; the spokesperson of the Madrid.