The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, presided today, in San Martín del Rey Aurelio (Asturias), together with the President of the Principality, Adrián Barbón, and accompanied by the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, the act of handing over 70 declarations of recognition and reparation to workers victims of the war and the Franco dictatorship.

Minister Torres has stressed that, with this tribute, a debt is paid to the workers “whose stories were silenced and hidden, even within their own homes, gripped by fear”, for years.

Among the victims who have received their Declaration are masons, nurses, barbers, day labourers or shopkeepers, but, above all, miners. In this group, Ángel Víctor Torres wanted to stop. “They shook the fierce structure of Franco’s regime, with its strikes and demonstrations, an example and inspiration for all those people and organizations that stood up to totalitarianism.”

The minister thanked the victims and their families for their sacrifice, for having contributed to building “the country we are now”, and encouraged them not to give up in the defence of freedoms, in the face of the advance of political positions “nostalgic for authoritarianism”.