Josep Suñol i Garriga is the martyred president of FC Barcelona, the club for which he became president in August 1935. He was shot without trial by Franco's army on August 6, 1936 in the Sierra de Guadarrama, when he had traveled to visit the Republican troops shortly after the uprising, his remains are still missing. The unknown was close to ending because the club had obtained permission to carry out a survey in the place where it is believed that the leader and politician may be buried. However, the Ministry of Defense prohibited the work team from entering the residence when there were only a few days left before the excavations began, as published by El Debate and confirmed by La Vanguardia.
Defense's response has outraged those responsible for the search project. "I'm climbing the walls," Luis Ignacio Avial, who is the promoter of the cause before the "blockade," explains to this newspaper.
The working group, which has the full support of President Laporta and the club, without financial compensation, has indications of knowing the place where Suñol's grave would be. 86 years after the events, the experts consider that they have been able to decipher the exact point within the compound of the military residence for the elderly in Guadarrama in which the remains of the victim would be found buried.
The key is in a photograph of a soldier from the national side, taken as early as 1938, in which you can see a mound of earth that would fit in with a covered grave. "Because of the location, behind the road pawn box, and because it was the only place protected from the Republicans' fire," discovers Luis Ignacio Avial, who is the head of the project.
Following the provisions of the Historical Memory Law, those in charge requested permission from the Community of Madrid to carry out the survey. On September 8, the attempt to recover the remains of the president, who was also an ERC deputy, was authorized under the direction of archaeologist Victoria Martínez Calvo.
According to Law 52/2007, the authority that must authorize or deny requests is the property management of each autonomous community. And the Ayuso government did not put obstacles.
With the green light, the person in charge went to the center to arrange and finalize the details. As soon as they verified that all the papers were in order, they only asked to have confirmation of the people who would be present, the machinery that would be used and how long the work would last. "I explained to them that we would be three people, that we would enter in the morning and leave in the afternoon," reveals Avial. There was no complaint. But as the chosen day approached, the Ministry of Defense intervened to bar the researchers from entering.
The document, dated September 19, 2022, rules out the arrival of the group's technicians at the old hospital, so the search for the remains of the former president of Barcelona is totally paralyzed despite having the relevant permission from the Community of Madrid. Defense has chosen to make its hierarchy prevail, despite the fact that the person in charge of the Guadarrama military residence for the elderly had not put any problem in the first contact.
The argument used by the Ministry is that neither Mr. Avial, who in his day participated in the discovery of the tomb of Miguel de Cervantes, nor FC Barcelona have the right because they are not relatives. "They have been wrong. There are precedents such as the Lorca case that prove it. Barça and Esquerra can be considered in-laws. But it is also that Suñol's son, the collector Josep Suñol, before he died in 2019, left in writing , signed by his executor, who asked us that he wanted to know where his father was buried. We even asked him for his DNA sample and he agreed instantly," recalls Avial, who is still waiting for a response to his allegations.
Since May 2015, the Camp Nou lobby area has been called Llotja President Josep Suñol, as a tribute to this leader and politician. In 2025 it will be a century since Suñol became a member of the Blaugrana entity.
