Victor García García (Estanillo) "The Brasilian"
Victor García García. (Estanillo) “The Brasilian”.
He was born on September 20th in Muriellos (Quirós – Asturias – Spain). He died, assassinated, in 1948 in Galicia (Spain).
When he was a boy he and his family migrated to Brazil. Once an adult, he joined the Communist Party in that country becoming an activist in the fight against Getulio Vargas dictatorship.
He was shot by the police while giving a speech at a political meeting, becoming seriously wounded. During this same political act one of his fellow members, called Herculano, was killed for trying to defend and protect him. Victor was arrested and physic and mentally tortured. Among other outrages his nails were uprooted from hands and feet, and his feet soles were burnt with red-hot iron. His cruel punishment ended by being deported to Spain.
Once in his birth country he joined the Spanish Communist Party during the October Revolution in 1934. He was arrested and sent to Jail in the Modelo Prison in Oviedo and later in the Penal del Dueso in Cantabria. He was later released by amnesty.
During the Spanish Civil War he fought in the Republican side against General Franco´s Rising as Commissioned officer of the International Brigades; being, at the time, committee-man in the Communist Party Central Committee in Asturias. When the Civil War was over having the Republic been defeated, he went to France and soon was sent by the International Communist Party, to which he belonged, to take part in the underground struggle against the fascists dictatorships of General Franco in Spain and General Salazar in Portugal. His assignment was to rebuild the Communist Party totally dismantled, at the moment, in the north of Portugal and Galicia. In this context it was important for him his knowledge of the Portuguese language.
While reorganizing the Portuguese and Galician communists he participated in the formation of clandestine networks for the rescue or evacuation, through the Iberian Peninsula, of allied fighters defeated in France. He contributed to the formation of a guerrilla group of more than one thousand under the initials U.N.E. (Spanish National
Union). In the year 1942 – 1943 he finished to organize the Communist Party Regional Committee in Galicia in the Wolfram mines, becoming its General Secretary.
After the invasion of Valle de Arán in Lérida in October 1944 by a reorganized republican army formed by “maquis” which was a failure, the leadership of the Communist Party in France was taken over by Santiago Carrillo as General Secretary. He made changes in the Spanish Communist Party strategies which were criticized by “el Brasileño” as considering them wrong and frustrating for the Party and its fight. Considering his criticisms and opposition to the new strategies Carrillo sent three exiled loyal militants, to Galicia, commissioned to take from him the political power and the life. He was groundless accused of being a Trotskyist, deviationist and traitor and was unilaterally excluded from the Spanish Communist Party. In a circular of the Communist Party in Galicia it was said: “… The struggle against García and his group, his physical and political extinction is our main worry…. We guess we are very near to his liquidation….”
In the purest Stalinist tradition he was assassinated by his fellowmen in the year 1948. His corpse was found in a forest near Moalde (Pontevedra, Galicia) partially destroyed by vermin. He was buried anonymously in the cemetery at this place.
In Mars 2009 his family found his tomb. Nowadays, a marble plate with his name on it identifies his resting place.
LOS DE LA SIERRA
Emigré au Brésil, Victor García Garcia Estanillo était revenu en Espagne et y aurait participé à la révolution d’octobre 1934. Pendant la guerre civile il avait suivit les cours de l’Ecole des commissaires de Santander et avait finit la guerre avec le grade de Commissaire dans les Brigades Internationales.
En 1939 il était au Portugal où il avait été été envoyé à cause de sa nationalité brésilienne et où il allait devenir le délégué de l’Internationale Communiste pour l’Espagne et le Portugal. Il était alors en contact avec les groupes de fugitifs asturiens, en particulier avec celui de Marcelino Fernandez Villanueva Gafas et tentait de les organiser en véritables groupes de guérilla. Il réorganisait également les groupes communistes galiciens et participait aux réseaux d’évacuation par la Péninsule ibérique d’aviateurs alliés abattus en France. En 1943 Victor García était envoyé à Vigo où il participait à la structuration des comités de la J.S.U.N. et de l’Union Nationale Espagnole. En 1944 l’UNE qui recevait ses ordres de France comptait des comités à Vigo, La Corogne, Ferrol, Lugo et Orense. Victor García Estanillo Brasileño était membre du comité régional du PCE à Vigo aux cotés de Ramón Vivero Geada, Julio Nieto López et Enriqueta Otero Maria de los Dolores.
Après l’échec de l’invasion du Vall d’Aran en octobre 1944 (opération "reconquista de España") et les changements stratégiques du PCE, des militants étaient envoyés en Galice avec la mission d’éliminer les militants favorables à Jesús Monzon Reparaz qui s’opposait à l’époque à la direction communiste de l’extérieur et de convertir les organisations clandestines en groupes du PCE. Accusés de déviationisme et de trahison, Victor García Estanillo et quelques autres étaient exclus du Parti. Dans une circulaire du Parti en Galice, datée d’août 1946, il était écrit : "La lutte contre Garcia et son groupe, sa liquidation politique et physique est notre principale préoccupation...Nous pensons être en voie de le liquider rapidement...". Dans la plus pure tradition stalinienne Victor García Estanillo et sans doute Teofilo Fernández Canal furent exécutés par leurs propres compagnons en 1946 (ou 1948 ?). Son cadavre fut retrouvé en avril 1948 près de Moalde (Lalin) et enterré près de l’église de Moalde.
En mars 2009 la famille apposa une plaque en mémoire de Victor Garcia Garcia.
S. Serrano "La guerrilla antifranquista...", op. cit. // F. Aguado Sanchez "El maquis...", op. cit. // H. Heine "A Guerrilla...", op. cit. // B. Maoz Vazquez "Galicia na II Republica...", op. cit. // X. Costa Clavell "Las dos caras de Galicia...", op. cit. // S. Serrano "Maquis...", op. cit. // F. X. Redondo Abal « Botarse ao monte… », op. cit. //
Su biografía tiene continuidad en: https://cisama.blogspot.com
