<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, paid tribute this Monday to the diplomats and all foreign service personnel who remained loyal to democracy during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.</strong></h4> During the ceremony, held at the ministerial headquarters of the Marqués de Salamanca in Madrid, the minister unveiled a plaque in front of family members and historians commemorating the diplomats' names. The list is open and will be updated if ongoing investigations document new cases. "Honoring these colleagues is something we owed to ourselves and to them, and to their families," Albares declared during the ceremony. "We had to do it one by one, with their names and surnames, because that, their very identity and the values they defended, is what they wanted to banish from our memory," he added. The plaque pays tribute to the Spanish diplomats who worked in the Ministry of State and in Spain's network of embassies and consulates in 1936 and who remained loyal to the democratic system. Of the 275 members of the diplomatic service at that time, barely 50 remained loyal to the current constitutional law. It also recognizes those who were expelled throughout the dictatorship, such as Julio Cerón and Vicente Girbau. "These diplomats were Spain's voice to the world; they were a voice that spoke of progress, justice, peace, understanding, and humanity in a world divided and torn apart by the violence of the most atrocious dictatorships, a violence and cruelty that would soon reach Spain," Albares continued. "They brought that voice and their commitment to democracy to the countries in which they served, and also to the League of Nations that embodied the best ideals of humanity and was reincarnated in our United Nations," he recalled. Albares also thanked the work of academic and historian Ángel Viñas, who helped compile the list of names on the plaque. For his part, Viñas, a specialist in the Civil War and the Franco regime and director of the collective work "Al Servicio de la República. Diplomáticos y guerra civil (2010)," announced that the book will be reissued next year, which includes an update that includes new elements derived from his ongoing research. Viñas highlighted the challenge historians face in continuing to unravel, with new evidence, what happened in a distorted past. "It was distorted by the victors and their propaganda," he denounced. So did "the authors and politicians who don't bother to search or allow searches in the archives or in the aptly named 'pits of oblivion,'" he added. Several descendants of these diplomats also spoke at the event, such as Ainoa Careaga, granddaughter of Fernando Careaga Echevarría, also a diplomat currently stationed in Morocco. Clara Girbau, daughter of Vicente Girbau and current Spanish ambassador to Guatemala, was unable to attend in person but participated through a message read by the ambassador on special mission for Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law, Miriam Álvarez de la Rosa. Also among those present was Fernando Morán, son of former Foreign Minister Fernando Morán and current ambassador to Algiers. The 170 x 70 cm satin-finished stainless steel plaque, with black bas-relief text, lists 45 names of diplomats from that era: ▪️ Adolfo Álvarez Bulla de Lozana ▪️ Plácido Álvarez Bulla de Lozana ▪️ Vicente Álvarez Bulla de Lozana ▪️ Ricardo Begoña Calderón ▪️ Fernando Careaga Echevarría ▪️ Josep Carner i Puig-Oriol ▪️ Daniel Carrera Díez ▪️ Clemente Cerdeira Fernández ▪️ Julio Cerón Ayuso ▪️ Evaristo Clemente Cabadas ▪️ Juan Climent Nolla ▪️ José de Cubas y Sagárzazu ▪️ Enrique Carlos de la Casa y García Calamarte ▪️ Antonio Díaz-Zorita Romo ▪️ Juan Antonio Fernández Arroyo ▪️ Rafael Fernández Ramos ▪️ Ramiro Fernández-Pintado Camacho ▪️ Daniel Fernández-Shaw Iturralde ▪️ Roger Fuentes Bustillo Cueto ▪️ Antonio García Lahiguera ▪️ Francisco García Lorca ▪️ Manuel García-Miranda Noguerol ▪️ Ángel Giménez Cuende ▪️ Vicente Girbau León ▪️ Agustín Gómez Trevijano ▪️ Fernando González-Arnao Norzagaray ▪️ Pedro Lecuona Ibarzábal ▪️ José Marín García ▪️ Juic Mariscal Parado ▪️ Manuel Martínez Feduchy ▪️ Mariano José Miranda del Monte ▪️ Juan Ortega Costa ▪️ José Luis Plaza Alemán ▪️ José Prieto del Río ▪️ Julio Prieto Villabrille ▪️ Andrés Rodríguez Ramón ▪️ Luis Amador Sánchez Fernández ▪️ Antonio Luis Serrano Contreras ▪️ Hilario Tejero Aguirre ▪️ Salvador Téllez Molina ▪️ Luis Tobio Fernández ▪️ Pablo Tremoya Alzaga ▪️ Rafael Ureña Sanz ▪️ Jacinto Ventosa Arauz ▪️ Emilio Zapico Zarraluqui
