PHM-Exch> The Trial of Judge Baltasar Garzon is an Offense to All Democratic Forces in the World

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: David Sanders <sandersdav5845 at gmail.com>
From:  Leslie London <Leslie.London at uct.ac.za>
>From Counterpunch Magazine, USA

>    *
> *
>
>
> *The Trial of Judge Baltasar Garzon*
>
> *An Offense to All Democratic Forces in the World*
>
> *Vincent Navarro, Counterpunch, USA, 31 January 2012 *
>
> In 1936, a democratic government was forced to face a military coup led by
> General Franco.  The coup succeeded because it had the support of the
> majority of the Spanish armed forces which were well-equipped and supported
> by Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy.  Without that assistance, the
> coup would not have prevailed.  The purpose of the coup was to stop the
> popular reforms carried out by the democratically elected progressive
> government opposed by the Church, banking community, finance companies,
> large employers, armed forces, and the usual cast of characters that became
> the major axis of the horrible dictatorship that was established at that
> time in Spain and which lasted until 1978.
>
> To ensure its survival, the dictatorship required and maintained an
> enormous apparatus of repression carried out by the Fascist party, La
> Falange, the armed forces and the Church.  For every political
> assassination Mussolini ordered in Italy, Franco killed 10,000, according
> to Professor Malekafis, expert in European fascism.  As a result of that
> fascist repression, Spain became the European country with the largest
> number of people who disappeared due to political assassinations.  Even
> today, their families do not know where they are buried.  How can that be?
>
> To be able to answer that question, it is necessary to understand the
> enormous limitations of  Spanish democracy (1978-2011), the outcome of a
> transition from dictatorship to democracy that took place during the period
> 1976-1978 under the dominance of the ultra-right wing forces that supported
> and benefited from the fascist state.  The transition was based on a pact
> of silence, Ley de Amnistia, according to which all political forces,
> including the left wing parties, had to agree not to look at the past, that
> is, not to look for responsibility or accountability for those terrible
> crimes committed during the fascist dictatorship in Spain.  That silence
> meant the disappeared persons remained disappeared and their memory lost.
>
> But the grandchildren of the disappeared started asking what had happened
> to their grandparents and where they were buried.  They wanted to have a
> tomb they could visit and bring flowers to once a year. And they wanted to
> pay homage to their fight for freedom, the cause for which they were
> assassinated.  In this way, a popular movement began which demanded the
> Spanish state (supposedly a democratic state) find the disappeared and
> honor them.  The state, governed then by the socialist party, resisted any
> response to that demand, even though many of the disappeared were members
> and sympathizers of that party in the 30s and 40s.
>
> But responding to that pressure, Judge Baltasar Garzón, who had become
> known internationally because of his intention to judge the dictator
> Augusto Pinochet (an admirer of General Franco and trained in the Spanish
> military school), started an investigation and requested the state find the
> disappeared and pay homage to those whose bodies had not yet been found.
> Judge Garzón soon discovered the numbers were much higher than previously
> believed.  The numbers started with 30,000 and by the end of 2008 they had
> increased to 152,000.  And still the numbers continue to grow.  People
> began to lose their fear and came out publicly with the names of their
> dead, proving they had been assassinated, but not knowing where they had
> been killed and where their bodies were.  It soon became a mass phenomenon
> and the numbers grew so large that many believe the killings of the
> disappeared could be referred to as genocide.
>
> As predicted, the right wing forces and some voices within the left
> immediately mobilized, accusing Judge Garzón of not respecting the Ley de
> Amnistia that was supposed to have put to rest any possibility of judging
> these crimes.  And none other than La Falange, the fascist party, still
> legal in Spain, and other allied forces brought Judge Garzón to the Supreme
> Court to stand trial.  The Supreme Court accepted the legal arguments and
> recently started proceedings against Judge Garzón.
>
> A few days ago, January 24, this judge had to sit in front of the Supreme
> Court for daring to ask the Spanish state to find and honor the disappeared
> ones and find those responsible for their killings.  It started a process
> unique in Europe at this time where a judge defending human rights, freedom
> and democracy is put on trial for upholding the honor and dignity of
> democratic forces.  This trial is an offense to all democratic persons in
> the world and a mobilization of protest should occur worldwide against what
> is occurring in Spain at this time.
>
>    - *VINCENT NAVARRO, Professor of Public Policy, The Johns Hopkins
>    University. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the
>    Politics of Illusion<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1849351104/counterpunchmaga>,
>    forthcoming from AK Press. *
>
> *From:
> http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/31/the-trial-of-judge-baltasar-garzon/
> *
>
> --
>
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