Report about the murder of 8 Colombians in Spain

The most serious diplomatic incident that threatened relations between the Colombian and Spanish governments was the murder of nine Colombian citizens by popular militias in Republican-controlled zones. At the end of July, 1936 a Colombian noviciate of the Claretian religious order called Aníbal Jesús Gómez was travelling with thirteen Spanish colleagues from Ciudad Real to Madrid. When their train stopped at the first station along the route, local militias shouting ‘death to all monks’ forcibly removed the group from the carriage and took them away to be shot. Less than two weeks later, seven monks from the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God and their escort were travelling from Madrid to Barcelona so they could be repatriated. When they arrived in the Catalan city, local militia seized the eight Colombians and took them to a makeshift prison. Early the next morning, they were executed on the basis that their Colombian identification cards were fake, and their bodies were deposited at the morgue in Barcelona’s Hospital Clínico. 

News of these events reached Colombia in August and September 1936, sparking outrage in political and popular circles. Members of the opposition and general public called for the Liberal government of Alfonso López Pumarejo to break relations with Republican Spain. Conservatives analyzed the incident in the context of congressional support for the Spanish government, claiming that the latter had repaid the former by murdering its citizens. Many groups and individuals within Colombia – including members of the Spanish colony – wrote to the government to express their protest. One letter even suggested that the Ministry for Foreign Relations should take all Spaniards arriving in Colombia hostage in retaliation for the recent events.

López did not sever diplomatic ties but did send a protest to the Spanish Ministry of State calling for an investigation into the crimes. He also demanded an indemnity for the murders, and after ongoing negotiations the Spanish government paid 250,000 Colombian pesos (roughly USD$3,000,000 today) to the families of the victims in February 1938. Colombia was the only nation to receive compensation for the loss of its citizens (rather than government officials) in the Spanish Civil War even though similar instances occurred with other foreign nationals.

CE