{"id":430,"date":"2015-06-03T07:17:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T05:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/430-argentina-the-right-to-intervene-in-spain.html"},"modified":"2015-06-03T07:17:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T05:17:23","slug":"argentina-the-right-to-intervene-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/430-argentina-the-right-to-intervene-in-spain.html","title":{"rendered":"Spain: Seeking Justice in Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2010, the relatives of Spanish and Argentinian citizens killed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) by Francoist forces filed a complaint in Argentina<\/a> for the crimes of the Spanish dictatorship. The unprecedented decision was symbolically charged: it was announced on April 14, the anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, which Franco\u2019s coup overthrew in 1936, in the presence of Adolfo P\u00e9rez Esquivel, Argentinian human rights activist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize, and Nora Corti\u00f1as, President of Argentine relatives\u2019 association Madres de Plaza de Mayo. With the support of human rights lawyers Carlos Slepoy and Ana Messuti, both longtime residents in Spain after being exiled from their native Argentina, the plaintiffs launched what became a criminal case, \u201cCase 4591\/10 on charges of genocide and\/or crimes against humanity committed in Spain by the Franco dictatorship between July 17, 1936 and June 15, 1977\u201d. The case, commonly known as the Argentinian Complaint (querella argentina<\/em>), is being instructed by Judge Mar\u00eda Servini de Cubr\u00eda in the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No.1 in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. Without knowing it, the plaintiffs also initiated a process that would redefine the struggle for the recovery of historical memory that had emerged in Spain in 2000.<\/p>\n

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The Argentinian Complaint, the only case open in the world to prosecute Franco\u2019s crimes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The struggle of Franco\u2019s victims gained momentum throughout the 2000s, and in 2007 the so-called Historical Memory Law<\/a> was approved by the Spanish Congress. Introduced by the Socialist Party, the Law was criticized by opponents and advocates of the recovery of historical memory alike. For the former, the Law reopens old wounds that Spain chose to heal when it adopted its Amnesty Law in 1977. As for Franco\u2019s victims and their relatives, they complained that it provides only limited reparations, that it merely encourages local authorities to remove Francoist symbols from public spaces and to provide assistance with the exhumations of the graves of the Civil War and the dictatorship, and that it does not annul the sentences handed down by illegitimate Francoist tribunals. Right-wing local authorities, but also many of those governed by the left, have not implemented the Law. Besides, following their return to power in 2011, conservatives cut funds for the recovery of historical memory and closed down the unit in charge of overseeing the implementation of the 2007 Law.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, many associations and individuals wanted Franco\u2019s crimes to be judged by the courts. Several complaints had been filed throughout Spain since December 2006, and in 2008 Judge Baltasar Garz\u00f3n declared himself competent to investigate Franco\u2019s crimes<\/a>. The following year, he was accused of abusing his authority. Two more cases were subsequently opened against him and in February 2012 Garz\u00f3n was suspended for illegally wiretapping conversations in one of them, a corruption case. A few weeks later, the Spanish Supreme Court acknowledged a right to memory for Franco\u2019s victims but defined it as a purely private matter<\/a>. Garz\u00f3n\u2019s earlier suspension and the Supreme Court\u2019s decision were perceived as the definitive burial of historical memory and justice for Franco\u2019s victims in Spain. As a result, the Argentinian Complaint is the only case open in the world to prosecute Franco\u2019s crimes. The remainder of the article explains how a growing number of victims\u2019 and relatives\u2019 associations have since then joined the first plaintiffs and redefined the significance of the Argentinian Complaint.<\/p>\n

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Human rights activism across borders and the broadening of historical memory<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Franco\u2019s victims have invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity to seek justice in Argentina. This might seem paradoxical insofar as the crimes of several Latin American dictatorships were investigated in recent years in Spain, leading the government to repeal the universal jurisdiction law in 2014<\/a> after a court ordered the detention of several Chinese leaders for the repression in Tibet. Some cases however continue, under other principles such as citizenship links between Spain and victims or perpetrators in or from Latin America. While Garz\u00f3n sought to investigate the crimes committed in Spain between 1936 and 1951, the time frame of the Argentinian Complaint is much wider since it encompasses the period between July 17, 1936, the date of the right-wing Nationalist uprising that provoked the Civil War, and June 15, 1977, the date of the first democratic elections after Franco\u2019s death in 1975. Spain\u2019s Amnesty Law covers all crimes \u201cof a political nature\u201d committed prior to December 1976, but it is estimated that more than 180 individuals were killed by security forces or paramilitary groups linked to the state between 1975 and 1983<\/a>. As the number of complaints filed in Argentina kept increasing, a National Coordination Group in Support of the Argentinian Complaint (Coordinadora\u00a0Estatal de Apoyo a la Querella Argentina, CeAQUA<\/a>) was created in Spain in May 2013. It has been very active in Spain and abroad, taking its members\u2019 cause to institutions such as the Spanish Congress and the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

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\"http:\/\/es.euronews.com\/2014\/03\/05\/victimas-del-franquismo-piden-amparo-al-parlamento-europeo\/\"
Franco's victims and their relatives in the European Parliament (March 2015)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Argentinian Complaint created an opportunity for victims of repression during the second, supposedly less violent, part of the Spanish dictatorship to acquire visibility. In addition to Spaniards in exile and former prisoners, complaints have been filed by thousands of individuals who suspect that they or their biological children, who were pronounced dead at birth, are in fact some of the babies who were stolen from their parents in maternity wards over the course of various decades. Complainants also include victims of the Vitoria massacre of 1976<\/a> and their relatives, in which the police repressed a general strike, killing five workers and injuring dozens of demonstrators. The perpetrators of these crimes have never been brought to justice. One of the most notorious suspects is Rodolfo Mart\u00edn Villa, a politician who served in various cabinets under the dictatorship and was Minister of the Interior between 1976 and 1979. Judge Servini accuses him of ordering the Vitoria massacre. Protected by the Amnesty Law, Mart\u00edn Villa sat in the Madrid local assembly between 1989 and 1997, and until 2010 chaired various companies, including Spain\u2019s major electric utility company ENDESA. By requesting the extradition of these individuals, Judge Servini has put the spotlight on the plight of victims and their relatives as well as on the scope of impunity and its consequences in Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n