On this day, 20 December 1973, Spanish fascist Prime Minister who was hand-picked as Franco’s successor Luis Carrero Blanco was assassinated in Madrid.
Basque separatists ETA had spent five months digging a tunnel under a road he went down to attend mass. They then detonated a bomb as he drove over, shooting his car 20 metres into the air and over a five-storey building, earning Blanco the nickname of “Spain’s first astronaut”.
His successor was unable to hold together different factions of the government, and so this action was credited by some for helping accelerate the restoration of democracy after Franco’s death.
Pictured is a cinematic recreation of the incident
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On this day, 22 December 1988 Brazilian rubber worker activist, environmentalist and Indigenous rights advocate Chico Mendes was assassinated by a rancher.
To try to protect the Amazon rainforest, rubber workers and Mendes, a senior official in their union, asked the government to set up reserves to prevent deforestation. Rubber workers in Cachoeira set up roadblocks to keep out a rancher called Darly Alves Da Silva who bought part of a reserve. Later, Mendes launched a campaign which stopped Da Silva from logging in another area, and not only that but successfully got a warrant for Da Silva’s arrest for a murder he committed elsewhere. Mendes delivered the warrant to police but they failed to act on it.
On the evening of Thursday 22 December, Mendes was assassinated in his home by Da Silva’s son. He was the 19th rural activist to be murdered in Brazil that year.
Da Silva, his son and one of their employees were jailed for 19 years for the killing, and following a global outpouring of support, the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was set up, which alongside other reserves which were subsequently established now cover over 33 million acres.
The new far right government in Brazil is determined to escalate the destruction of the Amazon, and environmentalists and Indigenous land defenders continue to be murdered.
“At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity.” — Chico Mendes, 1944-1988 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1300475480137599/?type=3
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