The Grup d'Acció Valencianista (GAV) (Group of Valencianist Action) is a blaverist organization which was created in 1977. They define themselves as "the fighting and warlike faction of real valencianism". Nonetheless, they are generally considered as an extreme right grouppg. 321-322 - Noves Glòries a Espanya, Vicent Flor, editorial Afers 2011Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe: From Local to Transnational de Andrea Mammone, Emmanuel Godin, Brian Jenkins. . p. 121 due to their activities.. Article from Público on 10 November 2008 . Article from Levante-EMV on 18 December 2008
Along their history, they have used repeatedly violence, especially their youth wing. Because of their frequent use of both verbal and physical violence, some reports regard GAV as a far-right terrorist group.
Some of their threatening actions against education centers, and individuals, associations and democratic parties have been made with false names, such as Maulets 1707 or Colectiu Vinatea (sic).pg. 151 – Vicent Flor's Noves Glòries a Espanya, Editorial Affairs, 2011
Historical background The main Valencianism after the Spanish Civil War (the "new Valencianism", according to Joan Fuster) generally had a progressive ideology. Its main feature was a breaking-off from Francoist ideology and also against the tendencies of traditional Valencianism before the Spanish Civil War. The blaverism was born as a reaction against that. and the GAV was allegedly created in order to unify the regionalist people that defended Spain as their nation. They also tried to embody "traditional Valencianism".
The ideas of new valencianism were considered by the GAV as the "essence and symbol of the imperialist pancatalanism that aimed at the annexation of the Kingdom of Valencia into the illegal Catalan Countries". With this kind of justification, during the Spanish transition, the GAV tried to create a controversial atmosphere in order to stop the process of the approval of the Valencian Country Statute of Autonomy. According to the critics of blaverism, the GAV had been infiltrated by important men and women from the Francoist right. Some people consider it a terrorist group. In fact, the UCD representative, Emilio Attard, introduced members from the GAV into the ranks of his own party.
During the festivities of 9 October (the Valencian regional day) in 1979, a group of people linked to the GAV burned the Flag of the pre-autonomous Council of the Valencian Country, that was waving from the balcony of Valencia City Hall,http://www.antiblavers.org/galeria/displayimage.php?album=7&pos=102 The crowned strip was the only part of the three official flags that did not burn. Here we can read how the president of the GAV took it and kept it. with a fuse that was created by Rafael Orellano, who was then a UCD city councillor,"I made it easy and created the fuse" that burned the flags . Interview with Rafael Orellano in El Mundo on 9 October 2010 and who had been previously president of GAV. At the same time, some members of the Pre-Autonomous Council of the Valencian Country were assaulted. From then on, the GAV began to play an important role inside blaverism, and it claimed responsibility for violent actions, in order to try to justify their ideals.http://www.valencianisme.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=41 History of the Valencian flag with a blue strip where, among other information, the facts of 9 October 1979 are explained in detail.
Nowadays, they have a very reduced and limited presence. Nonetheless, they continue their acts of extortion and persecution.http://www.valenciafreedom.com/web/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1693 News about a GAV action. They are mainly based in the villages around Valencia and in Valencia itself.http://www.antiblavers.org/galeria/displayimage.php?album=7&pos=44 Attack on the Faculty of Law of the University of Valencia. May 2006.http://www.racocatala.cat/noticia/membres-gav-assalten-casal-jaume-sueca-durant-presentacio-dun-llibre Members of the GAV attack the Casal Jaume I of Sueca during the presentation of a book.http://www.levante-emv.com/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=3753_12_383544__Comarcas-Jovenes-irrumpen-acto-Casal-Jaume-Sueca-agreden-asistentes Young people of the GAV interrupt an act of the Casal Jaume I of Sueca and assault some of the public. As a result, three people were injured and treated in the local hospital and four people were arrested.
Violent actions
Two terrorist attacks against Manuel Sanchis i Guarner's and Joan Fuster's lives (in 1979 and 1981 respectively) with extremely powerful explosives were made by people that in some respect were linked with the GAV. Nobody claimed responsibility for these actions. Nobody was prosecuted either. Nonetheless, according to the legal process, they were vandalistic actions. The fact that GAV has never claimed responsibility for these facts, but they have claimed responsibility for one terrorist attack against Sanchis-Guarner in 1978 as a "reaction of the Valencian people against the Catalanist aggression" and as a "not bloody action" show the ideological proximity between the aggressors and this organisation.http://webs.racocatala.cat/eltalp/guarner.htm Article from 2002 where the GAV claims responsibility for several violent actions, and one of them is the terrorist attack of 1978 against Manuel Sanchis Guarner. The text was published once the crime was prescribed, and so nobody could be condemned by these facts.
Two months after these "vandalistic" acts, Sanchis-Guarner died of a heart attack. On the other hand, Joan Fuster acknowledged in a TV interview in 1992 that he had decided to abandon active social life because that terrorist attack had caused him to be depressed. Nonetheless, the GAV does not define itself as a fighting or terrorist group.
In their magazine, SOM, the GAV justified the terrorist attack against Sanchis-Guarner in October 2002, just after the crime was prescribed, and therefore it was not possible to condemn the guilty ones.http://webs.racocatala.cat/eltalp/guarner.htm Reproduction of the article from 2002.
Among their most famous violent acts, was the boycott of a David Rosenthal speech inside the Llotja de València because of his Tirant lo Blanc's translation into English, in January 1985.http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/COMUNIDAD_VALENCIANA/traductor/Tirant/Blanc/ingles/sufre/Valencia/efectos/polemica/catalanistas/valencianistas/elpepicul/19850126elpepicul_5/Tes/ elpaís.com Some GAV supporters (among them Carles Recio, a so-called modern Valencian intellectual), delivered mice through the Llotja in order to disrupt the speech.http://www.antiblavers.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Persones#carles_recio More info about Carles Recio in "Antiblavers.org"
Juan García Sentandreu acknowledged in front of a Spanish judge that he had attacked a Catalan television car with eggs after an illegal demonstration against the Consell Valencià de Cultura (a consultative Valencian culture organisation). During this illegal demonstration, the members of this official institution were also attacked.
On 1 December 2007, GAV members delivered pamphlets around La Garrigosa high school, in Meliana. These pamphlets contained photos and personal details of some of the teachers of this high school, such as their personal addresses. They were accused of being "Catalanists". In these pamphlets, the neighbours were encouraged to "stand up against them". These actions are thus similar to making political "black lists".
In January 2008, some GAV members wrote threatening and xenophobic graffiti on the walls of the cultural association Ca Revolta and the Centre Social-Bar Terra.GAV members attack the Social center-bar Terra These places had a strong link with Valencia's progressive and nationalist environment.
In the same month. the Casal Jaume I from Acció Cultural del País Valencià (a nationalist cultural Valencian organization) in Catarroja, was attacked by unknown people with a bomb of hydrochloric acid while a meeting of the civic platform Salvem Catarroja (Let's save Catarroja) was held inside it. The victims had declared that they suspected GAV involvement. Some days before, members of this civic platform received death threats by phone, and the barrack huts that they used in order to store their materials had been attacked while they were making a demonstration against the speculation. Several objects were stolen, and other ones were broken or painted. The authors had signed in the barrack huts with the acronym "JJGAV".Tension grows in Catarroja
In February 2008, the Valencian Nationalist Bloc headquarters were attacked by a group of people who put graffiti on the door and broke the lock. The BLOC linked these people with GAV.
In November 2010 GAV sent a letter to UNESCO, in which they opposed castells becoming part of the World Heritage according to their standards. They argued that children that took part in that were in danger. They also had the aim of showing that in Valencia "there could be interferences of Catalan culture". The report was rejected.Avui, 16 November 2010, Universal Castells
Legal sentences and arrests During the campaign for the 1996 Spanish general election, three supporters of the Valencian nacionalist party Unitat del Poble Valencià (UPV) were menaced and injured by members of GAV. The current president of this organisation, Manolo Latorre, was condemned by these facts.A judge investigates the relationship between GAV and unpunished sabotages, El País, 27 December 2002:
Similarly, during the civic procession of 9 October 1997, Juan García Sentandreu, who was then president of GAV, pushed, threatened to kill and insulted Pere Palés, who was a nationalist and progressive member of the youths of the blaverist party Unió Valenciana. Sentandreu was ordered to pay two fines of 70,000 pesetas.The leader of GAV is condemned for insulting and mistreating a nationalist supporter news from El País on 10 April 1999
On 29 December 2003 some members of GAV assaulted people and broke into the Casal Jaume I (nationalist center) in the Russafa district of Valencia,http://www.e-valencia.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3943 Acció Cultural denounces the attack of the Casal Jaume I from Russafa which was made by Alejandro Esteve Caballero, José Luis Conejero Asunción and Amalia Lidia Bonheme. The three members of the GAV were condemned to prisonBlaverist violence in "Antiblavers.org" websitehttp://www.racocatala.cat/noticia/laudiencia-provincial-valencia-ratifica-condemna-preso-dos-ultres-gav The Province Audience (Spanish legal court) of Valencia confirms the condemn for the extreme right activists of the GAV because of these facts. The legal condemn stated a crime of theft with force and a fault (a crime of lesser category in Spanish Law) of damages, with the aggravating circumstance of ideological discrimination but with the mitigating factor of damages repair.The assault in the ACPV website.
Alejandro Esteve was, when the assault took place, the president of the youths of the GAV. After this sentence, the youths of the GAV were expelled from the Valencian Youth CouncilThe Valencian Youth council expels the GAV after the assault and robbery of a Casal Jaume I news in Levante-EMV on 1 April 2006 and Esteve was disqualified from holding positions in the boards of associations.The judge condemns 3 youngs of the GAV for the assault of a ACPV center news in Levante-EMV on 28 January 2006 At the same time, the GAV expelled Alejandro Esteve. After that, he founded the Plataforma Jovenil Valencianista (Valencianist Youth Platform).