Usera Tunnel (, also ) was a scam operated by Republican security units during the Spanish Civil War. It took place in Madrid between mid-October and mid-November 1937. Its objectives were twofold; one was to capture supposed supporters of the Nationalists, who were hiding in Madrid, mostly in premises of foreign diplomatic missions; another was to enrich the scammers by robbing the victims of money and valuables. The scammers floated rumors about an underground tunnel, allegedly located in the Madrid suburb of Usera and running below the frontline to the Nationalist-held sector. Posing as corrupted Republican militiamen they lured at least 67 individuals, who were imprisoned, robbed and killed in army premises near the frontline. Three individuals charged with operating the scam were later apprehended and executed in Francoist Spain; one more died in prison. Casimiro Duran Muñoz, the officer deemed to have been the chief engineer of the project, was last seen in 1938 and his later fate is unknown.
Refugees
During the outburst of revolutionary violence in the summer of 1936 numerous individuals who feared for their life sought shelter in diplomatic premises of foreign countries; their number is currently estimated at 13,000.Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski, Azyl dyplomatyczny w poselstwie Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej w czasie hiszpańskiej wojny domowej, [in:] Przegląd Historyczny 91/4 (2000), p. 551 They included the most endangered categories, like military, religious or aristocracy, though also anyone who for one reason or another considered himself a would-be target of violence. In revolutionary chaos the legations of Turkey, Finland and Peru were stormed by the militias, some embassies – e.g. this of Argentina – narrowly managed to avoid having been ransacked.Valentina Orte, Usera: zona histórica, [in:] Tradición Viva service 29.01.2013 [accessed April 28, 2022] Once some order has been restored, Republican structures mounted schemes to get hold of the refugees – widely deemed to have been fascists, fifth-column members and right-wing criminals - in some other way. In the autumn of 1936 counter-espionage security units ran a trap in form of a fictitious embassy of Siam,Julius Ruiz, The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 9781107054547, pp. 287-288 while other units organized a false evacuation from the Finnish legacy.Sara Izquierdo Alvarez, Las checas del Madrid Republicano: un ejemplo de investigación interdisciplinar, [in:] Aportes 79 (2012), p. 89 Following a spate of articles in foreign press which agonized about atrocities in revolutionary Madrid, early next year the Republican government tried to improve its international image and started to allow evacuation of small groups from selected legations.Ciechanowski 2000, p. 568 However, in mid-1937 there were still thousands of refugees trapped in foreign missions; in October 1937 Negrín estimated their number at 20,000.Sara Núñez de Prado Clavell, Javier Rodríguez Abengózar, La quinta columna y el cuerpo diplomático en la Guerra Civil española, [in:] Pasado y Memoria 19 (2019), p. 197
Usera area
In the mid-1930s Usera was located at the south-western outskirts of Madrid. As a suburban area it did not form part of the capital, separated from the city by the Manzanares river; in administrative terms most of it belonged to the municipality of Villaverde. Usera’s backbone was a road leading from Plaza de Legazpi in Madrid towards Carabanchel. In its eastern section it was a busy street with tram track from LegazpiOrte 2013 and within an urban neighborhood, formed by perpendicular minor streets and low, at best two-storey buildings. In the western section it was barely more than a country road, running through the Basurero barren. A large new quarter, known as Colonia Salud y Ahorro and composed of residential blocks, was located some 0.5 km to the north. The remaining part was largely uninhabited or under development. In early November 1936 the Nationalist troops advanced towards the western part of Usera and seized the hamlet of Zofío.Orte 2013 Then the frontline largely stalled along what is now Avenida de Rafaela Ybarra, at the time amidst sparsely developed and half-rural area. Both armies dug in, and some – occasionally fierce - fighting was taking place for positions named "Casa Derruida", "Trinchera de la Muerte" and "Vértice Basurero" until the summer of 1937.36. Brigada Mixt a, [in:] Guerra Civil Española. Memoria Histórica service [accessed April 28, 2022]
Plot
Since January 1937 the Republican unit which manned the frontline in Usera was the 36. Mixed Brigade, a regular regiment-type unit of the loyalist army composed of 4 battalions, numbered 141 to 144;named „Nosotros” (141), „16 de Febrero” (142), „Acero” (143) and “Pablo Iglesias” (144), Orte 2013 it formed part of the 4. Infantry Division.Orte 2013 Its counter-intelligence officer was captain Casimiro Duran Muñoz, a 32-year-old PCE member who following a spell in rearguard militia was seconded to combat troops.born 1905 in Boadilla de la Sierra, he worked in a Madrid textile plant; he entered PCE some time in the mid-1930s, El carnicero de Usera y los crímenes del túnel de la muerte, [in:] GuerraEnMadrid service 16.03.2019 [accessed April 28, 2022] He was busy tracking spies, potential deserters and detractors within own ranks; according to some sources he resolved to provocation and charged few individuals, who were later executed. Some time in September 1937 he arrived at an idea of luring individuals who sought refuge in Madrid diplomatic missions into a trap, and obtained approval from the commander of the Brigade, Justo López de la Fuente.Orte 2013 Taking advantage of his network of informers and collaborators Duran floated rumors about corrupted Republican militiamen ready to escort people to an underground tunnel, reportedly running across Usera to the Nationalist-held territory. Duran also posed as a right-winger himself; since September he visited premises suspected of having been frequented by Nationalist supporters, and offered safe passage to the alleged tunnel in return for money or valuables.details in Orte 2013
Modus operandi
Between October 18 and November 13, 1937, Duran and his men organized an unspecified number of transports from various diplomatic missions or other points in Madrid to Usera;the first transport took off from the Paraguay legacy, El carnicero de Usera y los crímenes del túnel de la muerte, [in:] GuerraEnMadrid service 16.03.2019 [accessed April 28, 2022] it is known that there were at least 4 drives organized in October, with at least as many in November. Initially single individuals or few people were moved; the largest shipment was the last one and it might have involved 20 people.Guillermo Fiscer, El tunel de la muerte de Usera. Una masacre silenciada , [in:] El Correo de Espana 03.09.2018 [accessed April 28, 2022] They were asked to board a truck or other vehicle, with militiamen onboard; following a ride across the city and the Manzanares river the victims were driven to a group of isolated buildings in half-developed area located between Colonia Salud and the center of Usera, at what is now the intersection of Calle Carmen Bruguera and Calle Monederos.Fiscer 2018 The victims realized they had been hoaxed only upon having been thrown into basement vaults, beaten and robbed of all possessions. Most were kept in the dungeons for a few days, some for few weeks;one victim was held 20 days, Orte 2013 during this period they were forced – by means of intimidation, beating and torture - to write letters which declared they were well and safe in the Nationalist zone, and/or to provide information on other right-wingers hiding in Madrid. Eventually all captives were killed. Bodies were mostly buried in a mass grave few hundred meters away.
Victims
On basis of exhumations carried out in 1939 the Francoist authorities established the number of victims as at least 67 (65 males and 2 females), though some 30 more dismembered or highly decomposed corpses found in the area were also tentatively attributed to the Usera scam. Most victims (36) were shot, some apparently died due to skull and bone fractures, there were also cases of suffocation. Most of the victims had their hands tied up when they died. The investigators concluded that 27 victims were aged 20–30, 17 were aged 30–40, 14 were aged 40–50, 4 were aged 50–60, 2 were below 20 and 1 was above 60. The list of individuals supposed to have died in the Usera scam contained 65 names. Among them there were 5 brothers from the Méndes y González Valdés family and 2 brothers from the aristocratic Urquijo y Landecho family. There were 11 students among the victims, followed by 10 engineers,e.g. a Carlist militant Manuel González-Quevedo 10 lawyers and 8 career officers; others were also academics, businessmen, religious or landowners. Those highest positioned ones were a member of Tribunal de Casación de Cataluña and a president of civil section of Audiencia Territorial de Madrid.El carnicero de Usera y los crímenes del túnel de la muerte, [in:] GuerraEnMadrid service 16.03.2019 [accessed April 28, 2022] The list included also two marquises and a former goalkeeper of Atletico Madrid.Pilaristas en el túnel de la muerte, [in:] RecuerdosDelPilar service 2020 [accessed April 28, 2022]
Aftermath
It is not clear why the killings ceased. In 1938 the 36. Mixed Brigade was moved to the Levantine front, where they fought until the Republican defeat.36. Brigada Mixta, [in:] SBHC service [accessed April 28, 2022] Following the end of the war families of those supposed to have crossed to Nationalist lines by means of the Usera tunnel launched search of their relatives. Already in the summer of 1939 the investigators developed the theory of a tunnel trap. Exhumations led to discovery of the mass grave and single corpses in basements of some buildings; in October 1939 forensic experts from Escuela de Medicina Legal of Universidad Central completed a 26-page report with all 67 remnants found described in detail.El túnel de la muerte de Usera. Una masacre silenciada, [in:] ThreadReaderApp service 25.05.2020 [accessed April 28, 2020] In the Francoist propaganda the scam was usually referred to as “Túnel de la muerte”. In 1941 there was a funeral mass organized in the Calatravas church for 62 victims identified, while corpses were mostly re-buried in Cementerio del Este.Heraldo de Zamora 11.11.1941 In 1944 36 positively identified corpses were again exhumed and laid to rest in a basement mausoleum within a newly built religious compound in Usera,Angel David Martín Rubio, Balbina García de Polavieja Cárdenas, Fernando Paz Cristobal, Sara Izquierdo Alvarez, Las checas en el Madrid del Frente Popular. Ubicación y conservación de restos, [in:] Jaime Ignacio Muñoz Llinás (ed.), Actas de las séptimas jornadas de Patrimonio Arqueológico en la Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid 2010, p. 163 where they remain until today.Hoja Oficial de Lunes 06.11.1944 The new list of named victims was compiled in the 1960s by Asociación Oficial de Familiares de los Martíres de Madrid y Su Provincia, which identified 67 individuals.
Perpetrators