Spain: Argentina proposed to judge the crimes of the Franco regime

MADRID – The judge Baltasar Garzon processing for alleged breach of trust, launched last Wednesday by the Spanish Supreme Court, not only seemed to put an insurmountable stumbling block judge”s race, but also in their investigation of crimes committed during the Civil War and the Franco regime.

However, the hardships faced by the families of the victims of that dark period in Spanish history to the eventual cessation of the cause would not last long. This afternoon, after protesting at the gates now closed and indifferent to the Spanish courts, the followers of Garzon and his crusade held the announcement of a proposal that could become their lifeline: try to unlock the stalled because nothing less than the Justice in Argentina.

According to the newspaper El Pais, Madrid, the waiters and began talks with the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and other associations of human rights defenders in order to prepare an urgent complaint of genocide and crimes against humanity “to be delivered to the federal courts on Wednesday in Buenos Aires.

judicial counteroffensive This movement is led by Argentine lawyer Carlos Slepoy, who said he based his strategy “on the same principles that Garzon judged from Spain to the dictatorships in Argentina and Chile”, ie, in universal jurisdiction.

Slepoy, who specializes in issues of universal justice and has been awarded the International Human Rights in 2008, argues that the Argentine courts have the power and authority to “halt the impunity of those who” have stalled investigations of Franco “after accusing Garzon of exceeding their authority as a magistrate and apply in a biased way the Law of Historical Memory which prompted the current socialist government.

Counsel was referring to the three associations that managed to sit right in the dock the judge most famous of Spain: the self-union Clean Hands, the band freedom and identity and, especially, of the Spanish Falange JONS, the single party that ruled the country since the beginning of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco until his death.

The active role of the Falange, which still has legal status, supporters carried Garzon said repeatedly before the National Court, where the judge would suspended from duty since April 22, with songs and banners on which was branded the “Nazis” to the plaintiffs.

However, despite the climate of frustration experienced in the last hours by the way in which prospered legal actions taken by surprise at the same Garzon, the lawyer is confident Slepoy to reverse this setback in Argentina. “We believe we have a good chance that this complaint is inadmissible, because it is based on the same principles that allowed judge the dictatorship in Argentina. Many relatives of the disappeared, tortured, shot and could come to testify before the judge,” said the lawyer.

Where to ensure their admission to the Argentine courts, the suit will seek to prosecute all the survivors of the Civil Guard, Army, Franco”s government and, of course, that could Falange have had some kind of connection with the disappearance of about 100,000 people.

Slepoy also hopes to gather the testimonies of the large number of survivors and relatives of victims of Franco still living in Argentina, who could strengthen the existing evidence in the investigation initiated by Garzon.