Melitón Manzanas

Who was Melitón Manzanas?

Melitón Manzanas González was a high-ranking police officer in Francoist Spain, known as a torturer and the first planned victim of ETA.

Manzanas entered the police force in 1938, in Irun, where he established one of his infamous interrogation centers and collaborated with Nazi Germany — he helped the Gestapo to arrest Jewish people that were trying to escape from Occupied France. He was assigned to Donostia-San Sebastián in 1941, eventually becoming commander of the Brigada Político-Social, the francoist political police division, in San Sebastián. A Basque himself, he was a vehement opponent of Basque nationalism, which had been revived in the 1960s, and, in particular, to the then fledging terrorist organisation ETA.

In 1968, he was murdered by ETA — that was the first planned killing committed by ETA. His killers waited for him at his residence and shot him seven times.

Thirty years after his death, José María Aznar awarded Manzanas posthumously the medal of Civil Merit dedicated to the victims of terrorism. Manzanas' service under Franco's regime, the fact that he was known for having used police torture and the fact that he was not the first torturer rewarded by the Spanish Government raised some controversy about this award.