Julius Purcell: Baltasar Garzón ... General Franco's Latest Victim
[Julius Purcell has written on Spain for the Financial Times, the Boston Review, the New Statesman, and Commonweal. He has lived in Barcelona since 2003.]
On Friday, May 14, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, known around the world for attempting to bring dictators to justice, was told he will now face trial for attempting to do the same in his own country. If found guilty, the 54-year-old examining magistrate could be removed from his job for up to 20 years.
The blow has been expected ever since early April, when Spain's Supreme Court accused Garzón of 'knowingly exceeding his powers' during his 2008 attempt to investigate alleged crimes against humanity carried out during the country's 40-year dictatorship under General Francisco Franco. The case is causing consternation both in Spain and abroad, mainly because it was brought by three ultra right-wing organizations. Among these were the Falange Española, the Fascist party once presided over by Franco himself -- whose military coup of 1936 sparked the bloody, three-year Spanish Civil War, and culminated in a long dictatorship that ended only with his death in 1975. Historians estimate that Franco's postwar reprisals cost the lives of 100,000 people.
Garzón's many supporters have responded to the case with dismay, moved by its outrageous symmetry: a highly respected judge brought to trial, for attempting to try crimes, on an accusation by the disciples of the regime that perpetrated those crimes in the first place.
Throughout April the judge's pending suspension and trial has spawned j'accuse editorials in the New York Times and the Guardian, among many others. Only the Wall Street Journal dissented, heavily critical of Garzón's previous attempts to extradite Chile's former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.
In Spain, meanwhile, the Garzón case has triggered some of the angriest scenes in recent years, sharply dividing public opinion, setting the political parties at loggerheads, and questioning the so-called "pact of silence" between the country's left and right on crimes committed by the dictatorship, which has been the consensus underpinning Spain's 32-year-old democracy.
So what, exactly, is Garzón alleged to have done wrong?..
Read entire article at Atlantic
On Friday, May 14, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, known around the world for attempting to bring dictators to justice, was told he will now face trial for attempting to do the same in his own country. If found guilty, the 54-year-old examining magistrate could be removed from his job for up to 20 years.
The blow has been expected ever since early April, when Spain's Supreme Court accused Garzón of 'knowingly exceeding his powers' during his 2008 attempt to investigate alleged crimes against humanity carried out during the country's 40-year dictatorship under General Francisco Franco. The case is causing consternation both in Spain and abroad, mainly because it was brought by three ultra right-wing organizations. Among these were the Falange Española, the Fascist party once presided over by Franco himself -- whose military coup of 1936 sparked the bloody, three-year Spanish Civil War, and culminated in a long dictatorship that ended only with his death in 1975. Historians estimate that Franco's postwar reprisals cost the lives of 100,000 people.
Garzón's many supporters have responded to the case with dismay, moved by its outrageous symmetry: a highly respected judge brought to trial, for attempting to try crimes, on an accusation by the disciples of the regime that perpetrated those crimes in the first place.
Throughout April the judge's pending suspension and trial has spawned j'accuse editorials in the New York Times and the Guardian, among many others. Only the Wall Street Journal dissented, heavily critical of Garzón's previous attempts to extradite Chile's former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.
In Spain, meanwhile, the Garzón case has triggered some of the angriest scenes in recent years, sharply dividing public opinion, setting the political parties at loggerheads, and questioning the so-called "pact of silence" between the country's left and right on crimes committed by the dictatorship, which has been the consensus underpinning Spain's 32-year-old democracy.
So what, exactly, is Garzón alleged to have done wrong?..