the entrance of the rebels: Colonel Cantero, commandant Alonso, captain Almendro, Lieutenant Vega and a number of NCOs and soldiers. At the same time, dozens of civilians have been shot around the bull ring. Also on August 18, François Mauriac published an article about the events in Badajoz in Le Figaro. The Portuguese journalist Mário Neves, who had witnessed the massacre at first hand, had his report to Diário de Lisboa censored by the government of António de Oliveira Salazar, who was an ally of the Spanish Nationalists. Neves returned to Portugal, was horrified by what he had witnessed and swore that he would never return to Badajoz. He finally returned there in 1982 to retrace his steps in the places in which the events had happened for a television documentary. Mass executions The method of execution used was firing squad or machine-gunning of those who had defended the city or who were suspected to sympathise with the Republic. They were taken by Legionarios, Moroccan Regulares, officers of the Guardia Civil or local members of the fascist Falange Party although there are accounts stating that the Moroccans did not take part in the repression after the battle. Afterwards, the bodies were burned at the walls of San Juan Cemetery. According to the testimony of survivors, the executions were carried out in groups, and the bodies were then taken by truck to the old cemetery, where the bodies were burned and then deposited in mass graves. One employee of the city council, interviewed by Francisco Pilo Ortiz, recalled: The Guardia Civil came looking for us at three in the morning of the August 15, "because there was work to be done".... One of them said he would get the truck from the yard and that we had to go to the bull ring.... At half past three we arrived. Inside the ring, on the left there were many dead laid out in a line, and they told us to load them into the truck and take them to the cemetery.... [when they returned from the cemetery] There were more dead bodies, but not all together, a pile here, another over there. Then I realised that they were taking them out in batches and shooting them. That day, we made at least seven trips [from the bull ring to the cemetery] There were also firing squads in other areas of the city.