Spanish Judge Accused of Establishing the History of Atrocities committed by the Franco Dictatorship

by Ignacio Ramonet
Global Research, May 19, 2010
IPS – 2010-05-01
“For the dead man here abandoned, build him a tomb.” Sophocles, Antigone (442 A.D.) PARIS – ”Senseless”, “astounding” , “unheard of” … The world press, human rights associations, and the finest international jurists can’t get over it. Why is the Spanish judicial system, which has done so much in recent years to punish and prevent crimes against humanity in many parts of the world, bringing charges against Baltasar Garzon, the judge who best symbolises the contemporary paradigm of applying universal justice? The international media know well the merits of the “superjudge”: his transcendental role in the arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998; his denunciation of the atrocities committed by the military in Argentina, Guatemala, and by other Latin American dictatorships; his efforts to dismantle the GAL (Antiterrorist Liberation Groups, formed by the Spanish government to fight the ETA Basque separatists) and prosecute socialist premier Felipe Gonzalez; his opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003; and even his recent trip to Honduras to warn the coup participants that crimes against humanity are imprescriptible. Continues >>

Tags: Baltasar Garzon, Francoism, Ignacio Ramonet, Spain