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Spain begins an investigation into persons missing from the Franco era
There are about 30,000 persons gone missing and in unidentified graves since the Civil War and the Franco Era. They are now beginning an investigation, as reported here by the BBC and here by El Pais. It was 8 months ago that the Ley de Memoria was approved, and now it is starting to be applied.
It was be painful for a country to start digging (literally) into its history of a recent civil war.
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This is one of them conflicts not a lot of people really know a lot about. Of course I have heard of Franco and the civil war but thats about it. I just wonder if dragging up old wounds will set the resentment meter off the clock.
Do the spanish still harbour strong feelings about it or do they just accept it as a part of their history and leave it at that???
Whats happened to Pelinor by the way?? He has posted some really interesting stuff about the war and was talking about doing some research in to it.
All I got told at school about it was that the Germans used it as a "training" war readying themselves for the big one. Maybe the scale of the 2nd ww has made the spanish one look a bit small and not so important as far as the school history curriculum goes
The Spanish still harbour incredibly strong feelings about the Franco era, on both sides! The pro-Francoists tend to be the ones who belittle the whole Ley de Memoria by reducing it to a debate about changing street names, and on the other side are those who are passionately concerned about giving proper burials to people who were flung in mass graves half a century ago. It seems this is still very much an open wound in the mind of many Spaniards. The idea of the Ley de Memoria is that it can lay the past to rest and allow Spain to move on ... I hope it works.
Supreme Court Judge Baltasar Garzon is conducting the now criminal investigation into the thousands of people who disappeared under the Franco dictatorship, one of whom is the famous Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, whose burial place will be one of nineteen mass graves to be opened under the Judge's orders.
Garzon is no stranger to controversial cases, being perhaps better known in the UK as the Spanish chief prosecutor who went after Pinochet in another courageous case. Now Garzon is alleging that Francoists were responsible for illegal permanent detentions ... and if this is proven, would demonstrate "crimes against humanity".
The orders issued by Garzon name General Franco himself and 34 senior aides. Death certificates are being required if they are claimed to be dead, otherwise they face prosecution. The Spanish Home Office is also required to give up names for members of the fascist pro-Franco Falange movement, who could also face prosecution.
A Spanish judge has launched a criminal investigation into the fate of tens of thousands of people who vanished during the civil war and Franco dictatorship.
Judge Baltasar Garzon - Spain's top investigating judge - has also ordered several mass graves to be opened.
Re: Spain begins an investigation into persons missing from the Franco era
There is certainly a proportion of Spanish society that would agree with you about Garzón, but they would all be Francoists. It's a difficult one to answer perhaps ... is the need for justice mitigated by time, and should something that has been swept under the carpet be left there because it would cause a mess if uncovered. Perhaps everyone has their own personal answers to these. For myself, I find I get more emotional about delayed justice than many things. I don't think it's ever too late to put right a wrong ... and the wrongs we are talking about here are some of the most fundamental.
I don't make emotional judgements about many things, but in things like this, it can be a useful guide as to what I actually think. I think a decent grave, a proper burial, returning a body to its family from a pit where it was dumped as though of no more value than an infected chicken, these are some of the most basic rightings of wrongs.
Justice after all these years is hugely overdue, and if it's taken a legal personality to do it, so be it. He's just implementing the law, anyway, not acting autocratically. This is Zapatero's law. That man is another absolute hero.
Re: Spain begins an investigation into persons missing from the Franco era
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janet
There is certainly a proportion of Spanish society that would agree with you about Garzón, but they would all be Francoists.
That's a rather bold statement Janet.
Considering that parties like Franco's still exist, for example; the FE Jons, who regularly get almost no votes at all in elections.
The opening of this issue will again reopen wounds, especially as it seems to be 'politically' inspired rather than judicial.
It wouldn't have anything to do with this year being the 70th Anniversary of the defeat of the left-wing in Spain would it ?
Certainly, Zapatero would seek to garner 'kudos' from a 'witch-hunt', and certainly, the press seems to make no mention of the left-wing atrocities that also occured.
I rather suspect that the Spanish press reports about this issue will be very different to what we have seen in the 'English' press.
Re: Spain begins an investigation into persons missing from the Franco era
Quote:
Originally Posted by GH Elliott
That's a rather bold statement Janet.
Doesn't mean it's not true. The liberal wing of Spanish society heroize this man. The old school, right wing and conservative sections call him a starlet who's fixated on his own fame. These are certainly the sections of society where Francoists arise from.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GH Elliott
Considering that parties like Franco's still exist, for example; the FE Jons, who regularly get almost no votes at all in elections.
It's not PC to support Franco ... this should tell you everything you ever needed to know about majority views! You want to hear these people in the bars though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GH Elliott
The opening of this issue will again reopen wounds, especially as it seems to be 'politically' inspired rather than judicial.
Francoism is a political issue! What else is it! The solution has to be judicial though ... as it would in any democracy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GH Elliott
It wouldn't have anything to do with this year being the 70th Anniversary of the defeat of the left-wing in Spain would it ?
I don't think the socialists have anything left to prove now, do you? They've left the right wing standing in the last two elections, and unless the PP do something absolutely radical, that'll be three in a few years' time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GH Elliott
Certainly, Zapatero would seek to garner 'kudos' from a 'witch-hunt', and certainly, the press seems to make no mention of the left-wing atrocities that also occured.
Which press are you reading? I generally read El Pais and La Vanguardia, and they certainly do mention the left-wing atrocities ... and they do not see the Ley de Memoria as a Zapateran attempt to get kudos for himself but as an attempt to get justice for those who were wronged.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GH Elliott
I rather suspect that the Spanish press reports about this issue will be very different to what we have seen in the 'English' press.
Spain begins an investigation into persons missing from the Franco era 
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