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<font size=2>January 31, 2012 <br>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/31/the-trial-of-judge-baltasar-garzon/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/31/the-trial-of-judge-baltasar-garzon/<br>
<br>
</a>“An Offense to All Democratic Forces in the World”<br><br>
</font><h1><b>The Trial of Judge Baltasar Garzon</b></h1><font size=2>by
VINCENT NAVARRO<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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? <b><i> <br><br>
</i></b>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<i>VINCENT NAVARRO, Professor of Public Policy, The Johns Hopkins
University. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the
Politics of Illusion, forthcoming from AK Press. <br><br>
<br><br>
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