On this day, 23 January 1977, bricklayer and student Arturo Ruiz was murdered by fascists in Madrid as he demonstrated in support of political prisoners jailed by the Franco regime. The demonstration was declared illegal by the new “democratic” government which sent in police to attack the crowd. As protesters dispersed, a waiting group of right-wing extremists shot him in the back, killing him. The police let the murderers escape, and instead charged the demonstrators who were yelling in outrage. A group of young people placed bricks and a makeshift wooden cross at the site of his death but riot police again intervened, removing the bricks, smashing the cross and scrubbing the blood from the ground with their boots. The next day demonstrations against the killing took place across Spain, in which one young woman was also killed by police.
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