crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
Carlos Closa *
Transitional justice in Spain
1. Historical background
Between 1936 and 1939, after a military rebellion, Spain suffered a bloody civil war in which two
bands fought viciously each other. The Fascist forces led by General Franco won the war and this gave
way to a dictatorship which lasted 40 years and whose specific contours have been disputed to the point
that some distinguished scholars (Juan J. Linz) have coined the concept of authoritarianism for referring
to it. The features of the regime such the lack of political liberties and rights; the mass repression and an
unofficial “soft” ideology /National Catholicism/ set it apart from the totalitarian model, even though the
historical evolution of the regime was progressive evolution from a quasi totalitarian to an authoritarian
and, at the end, dictatorship. Differently to other European countries, there were no occupying powers
which could lead a de-nazification process or elimination of authoritarianism. On the contrary, the USA
sponsored in 1955 the Spanish accession to the UN as part of a deal with the USSR, whilst European
democracies kept very critical with the regime (for instance, they rejected Spain as an EEC associated
state already in 1964 on the grounds of lack of democracy and disrespect for human rights). Only the
death of Franco in 1975 allowed for a successful transition to democracy.
2. Spanish model of transitional justice
The pressing objective of the Spanish transition was to achieve a peaceful conversion of the Franco
regime into a democratic system. Peace and democratization overcame any other consideration among
these, justice and transitional justice. Most actors excluded a radical rupture with the former regime
favouring instead its evolution. For this, transition required the incorporation of formerly excluded and/
or repressed and/or exiled collectives. Thus, the first measure adopted, a general amnesty law in 1977,
had the objective of inclusion and making a new start rather than restoring memory, asserting the dignity
of victims or any of the traditional goals of transitional justice. In fact, critics of the Spanish process use
the word amnesia linked to the word amnesty. Truly speaking, it was not a policy of “forgetting” but,
rather, a policy of not explicit (and public) remembering. The fear to any involution, easily made felt by
a vigilant military which had not renounced to its former political role within the authoritarian regime,
together with the fear to the return of a division of the country along the civil war cleavage, acted as
powerful deterrents for any significant attempt of transitional justice. Differently to later processes,
there was no a true and/or reconciliation commission. There were no trials for any crimes committed
by the authorities of the dictatorship. Nor there was a process of depuration and many of Franco’s
military and administrative allies and supporters retained their post and some remained in positions of
power. In this way, the burden of reconciliation was unevenly distributed: in front of the guarantees for
the persons affected to the Franco regime, its victims did not obtain any justice or even recognition.
Reconciliation was basically understood as a joint negotiation of the present.
The few efforts in the direction of justice and recognition came about in a piece mail, not integrated
approach and often in a non public or even semi clandestine form. They never occupied the centre of
the political stage. Measures referred, on the one hand, to the recognition of material entitlements for
deprived categories of persons because of their relation with the Republican side and, on the other hand,
to symbolic measures. As for the first, actuations had had a sense of equalising or equiparing situations
for enjoying certain social entitlements which were already available for those identified with the
Franco side during the Civil War and Spaniards in general. Only those identified with the Republic were
* Carlos Closa, CCHS, CSIC (Spain).
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