A judge began gathering information on Monday about people who disappeared during Spain’s civil war and subsequent fascist dictatorship in a bid to build a reliable list of victims.
The move by Judge Baltasar Garzon could formally establish that many victims were killed illegally, allowing relatives to seek compensation from the Spanish government.
Garzon issued a ruling seeking information from church leaders, city mayors and other authorities about victims of General Francisco Franco’s forces from the time of his military uprising in July 1936.
The rebellion triggered a civil war against the left-wing democratically elected Republican government, and was followed by a 36-year dictatorship.
Franco decreed that anyone who opposed him could face execution, and many of his victims were civilians.
There is no official record of how many people died at the hands of Franco’s forces during and after the 1936 to 1939 war, whereas a full account exists of the 55,000 killed by the Republican forces.
“This is big news,” said Emilio Silva, president of an organization that leads efforts to exhume bodies of civilians killed by Franco’s forces in the war. “For years this country has been unable to talk about these things, yet there are very many people affected.”
“In the killings that Franco’s forces got involved in from July 17, 1936, to well into 1943 in many cases no records were kept,” historian Paul Preston said.
More accurate record-keeping began around that date, he said.
This is the first time Garzon, a high-profile judge involved in terrorism and war crimes cases, has focused on possible human rights violations by Franco and his henchmen in Spain.
Garzon has in the past investigated crimes committed by late Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet and Argentine former military officer Ricardo Miguel Cavallo.
Garzon asked the mayors of Cordoba, Granada, Madrid and Seville to provide information on who disappeared and the identities of those buried in unmarked graves or trenches following execution by Franco’s firing squads.
He is also seeking details from the Defense Ministry and other government archives, as well as the abbey that cares for El Valle de los Caidos, the massive mausoleum that houses Franco’s body as well as an unknown number of civil war victims.
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