Spaniards pay tribute to veteran Communist leader

Hundreds of people bade goodbye to Spain's former Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo, a key player in the nation's transition to democracy, on Wednesday by filing past his coffin. Mourners of all ages marched quietly by his open casket, which was draped with a large red party flag, as he lay in state at the auditorium of the Communist-led CCOO trade confederation in the centre of Madrid. His trademark large glasses were still on his face and his arms were folded across his chest. "He played an essential role in ensuring the rights that we enjoy today and which I think they are trying to take away from us," said Alberto Gutierez, an unemployed 30-year-old. "I wanted to say goodbye to a figure I consider to be the father of our constitution. Whenever I saw him on television he sparked in me feelings of respect and affection, as if he was my grandfather." Carrillo, who led the party between 1960 and 1982, died Tuesday at his Madrid home of heart failure while taking a nap, his son said. He was one of the last of the generation of Spanish politicians who saw action in the country's 1936-39 civil war, fighting on the losing Republican side. As the party's secretary general between 1960 and 1982, Carrillo steered a course independent from the Soviet Union and defended his own notion of a western European brand of communism. His acceptance of the restoration of a constitutional monarchy and other concessions paved the way for the Communist Party's legalisation in 1977, two years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco who had banned it. Carrillo also refrained from seeking revenge for crimes committed during the civil war, helping to heal divisions caused by the conflict. "I have come to say a final goodbye to a very important figure of Spain's transition who also played a very important role in the reconciliation," said 59-year-old retiree Francisco Garcia. "He knew how to dispel the many differences that existed then and that continue to exist today." Many mourners brought red roses to leave by Carrillo's casket while delivery men continued to bring large bouquets to the auditorium. Photographers snapped photos of political figures as they arrived to view Carillos casket. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia paid their respects to Carrillo's family at his Madrid home late on Tuesday. "He was an esssential person for democracy," the 74-year-old king told reporters as the royal couple arrived at Carrillo's apartment building. When the civil war broke out in 1936 with Franco's uprising against the Republican government, Carrillo left the Socialist party and joined the Communists, rising to the top ranks. He led Republicans resisting the advance of Franco's forces on Madrid in 1936 and lived for nearly 40 years in exile, mostly in France, clandestinely helping organise the Communists in Spain from a distance. His record has always been tainted by the massacre in 1936 of thousands of Franco supporters in Paracuellos del Jarama near Madrid, while he was a public order official in a defence committee set up in the capital. Carrillo has always denied any involvement, arguing he was only a minor official at the time and blaming the massacre on "uncontrolled groups" angered at violence carried out by Franco's side. Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy praised Carrillo's "contribution to the constitutional order, a new way of living together and a common future without giving up his deep convictions" in a telegram sent to his family. Carrillo was born in Gijon on Spain's northern Atlantic coast on January 18, 1915, the son of a Socialist Party leader, and entered politics and journalism, working for the party newspaper El Socialista. His remains will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered off the coast of Gijon as was his wish.