Luís Espinal Camps

Luís Espinal Camps (2 February 1932 – 21 March 1980), also known by the nickname Lucho He aspired to be a priest even as a child. Espinal was educated at the minor seminary of San Jose in Roquetes, Baix Ebre between 1944 and 1949. There, he lived alongside the families of miners during the dictatorship of Luis García Meza. Becoming a human-rights activist, he co-founded the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights. He gained Bolivian citizenship in 1970.

In the headquarters of the newspaper Presencia Espinal joined a December 1977 hunger strike led by Domitila Chúngara, He was kidnapped by the paramilitaries on 21 March and was tortured. Other say that the reason was that he informed against efforts to censor a public exhibition of Jorge Sanjinés's film El coraje del pueblo, a documentary that denounced the massacre of 67.

Legacy Espinal's funeral on March 24 was reportedly attended by over 7,000 people in a manifestation against the regime. Bolivian writer Alfonso Gumucio Dagron wrote a biography of Espinal in 1985. The 2007 documentary Lucho: Gastar la vida por los demais, directed by Nelson Martínez, explored the life of Espinal.

In 1985, the song "A Luis Espinal" appeared on their debut album El Huerto by the Bolivian group Rumisonko, based in Washington, DC.

In July 2015, Pope Francis visited the site where Espinal was killed. The Pope said the Jesuit "preached the Gospel, the Gospel that bothered them, and because of this they got rid of him". Vatican representative Frederico Lombardi said that the object stands for open dialogue and his commitment to freedom. However, Espinal's friend, Xavier Albó, said it symbolised that the Church should be in dialogue with Marxism, peasants and miners.

Filmography

Films Bartolomeo Colleoni (1966) – assistant director, assistant editor Noche iluminada (1966) – writer Pistolas para la paz (1969) – director, writer Sangre en el Chaco (1974) – writer Chuquiago (1977) – writer Qué hacemos (1977) – writer El embrujo de mi tierra (1978) – writer La Guerra del Pacífico (1979) – writer

Television En carne viva (1970–1971) segments: La Cárcel La prostitución La droga La violencia Inmigración Hijos sin nombre Educación sexual Madre soltera Alcoholismo Sacerdotes obreros Delincuencia juvenil Inferioridad femenina