By a Special Correspondent
– For decades, whispers circulated among Galician historians, journalists, and political veterans about a mysterious file codenamed “FU10.” Hidden deep within the bowels of what was once the Spanish Civil Guard’s intelligence apparatus, this dossier was said to contain the names, activities, and secret political leanings of hundreds of Galicians during the country’s volatile transition from Francoist dictatorship to democracy (1975–1982). galician fu10
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For victims and their families, the legacy is more tangible. In 2020, the Asociación Galega pola Recuperación da Memoria Histórica (AGARMH) identified 112 individuals named in surviving FU10 fragments who suffered professional blacklisting, internal exile, or brief detention. Only 23 were alive to see the file’s partial declassification. By a Special Correspondent – For decades, whispers
Moreover, Galicia was a Cold War frontline—the Fisterra radar station and naval bases at Ferrol made the region strategically sensitive. The regime feared that Galician cultural dissent could be exploited by communist or foreign intelligence networks. FU10 became a tool not just for repression, but for preemptive labeling. One declassified page from 1974, stamped RESERVADO , profiles a schoolteacher from Ourense: Subject: M. F. L. Age 34. Observed purchasing ‘A Nosa Terra’ (illegal publication). Known to recite Rosalía de Castro in public. Associates with three individuals previously detained for distributing ‘Propaganda Galeguista.’ Recommend denial of teaching license renewal. Another entry from 1976—two years after Franco’s death—shows that surveillance continued into the transition: Vigo. Labor conflict at Citroën. Attendees at union meeting included four names cross-referenced to FU10. Suggest continued observation. These names, when cross-checked with public records, often belonged to people who would become mayors, cultural figures, and even members of the Galician parliament after 1981. The Legacy of FU10 The FU10 file was never officially destroyed. Like much of the Francoist intelligence apparatus, it was partially inherited by the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa (CESID) and later the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI). What happened to the original cards and folders remains unclear. Some researchers believe most of FU10 was shredded in the late 1980s. Others suspect digitized copies still exist in restricted military archives. Only 23 were alive to see the file’s