Something thoroughly nasty is going on in Spain. Judge Baltazar Garzón is facing in the Supreme Court, a charge from three ultra-right groups that he has knowingly exceeded his powers in accusing Franco and 34 of his generals and ministers of crimes against humanity.
When Franco died in 1975, there was an unofficial pact called olvido, a deliberate collective "forgetting" in which both sides of the civil war were seen as jointly responsible for the atrocities committed during the Civil War of 1936-39. The following 36 years of fascist rule involved the forced disappearance of around 115,000 people from the Republican side, and one consequence of the olvido was that their whereabouts remained unknown.
In 1977, an amnesty was granted to both sides so that it became impossible to prosecute those who had carried out the repression. Although some thought that paved the way for a transition to democracy without recriminations, many of the institutions of the state continued largely unchanged, including the judiciary.
When the Law of Historic Memory was passed in 2007, the thousands of families of victims of the fascist repression were granted rights and practical support in tracing what happened to their relatives. Garzón became a key player in the campaign to trace the victims ordering the opening of mass graves. For the first time since Franco's death, families could try to find their missing relatives.
But Garzón has a long history of courageously opposing corruption, drug cartels, Basque separatist terrorists, and has used international law to issue an arrest warrant for the Chilean ex-dictator Pinochet. He has campaigned for the rights of those in Guantanamo. All in all, he has established a huge international reputation as an outstanding investigating magistrate. But he has ruffled a lot of very right-wing feathers, people of ultra-right views still in positions of power in Spanish society. He has faced death threats and campaigns of personal attacks for years.
Article comments
1 - Miles
Pinochet was Chilean, not Argentinian.
2 - Bob Lloyd
You're quite right of course. I was going to put something also about Garzón investigating the Argentinian dirty war but I apologise for letting that silly slip through.
Incidentally, when he did issue the arrest warrant for the Chilean general, the international legal community endorsed the legality of the move, something that Varela currently won't now accept in the Spanish Supreme Court.
3 - Bob Lloyd
Correction now made. Thanks Lisa.