Spain seeks justice for final victim of ailing Franco's garrotte

[IndianaGreen]

Spain seeks justice for final victim of ailing Franco's garrotte
By Graham Keeley in Barcelona
Published: 09 September 2006



His was a lonely death by garrotte, an iron collar which is slowly tightened around the victim's neck until they are strangled.

Salvador Puig Antich, an anarchist mixed up in a robbery in which a police officer was killed, became the last person to be executed under General Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

He was the scapegoat of a regime which was determined to prove its authority after the Basque separatists Eta assassinated the prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco, in an audacious attack weeks before.

But Puig Antich's death in 1974 became a symbol of rebellion for a country which had endured 35 years of "El Caudillo".

Now, more than 30 years after his death, Puig Antich's case has become a cause célèbre. His family and a team of lawyers have fought for three decades to prove he was denied justice by a kangaroo court. Spain's Supreme Court is considering reopening a case which has refused to go away, despite the best efforts of not only Franco, but subsequent military authorities.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1431088.ece

[Kolesar]

1. Note that Spain was a most enthusiastic ally supplying us with naval bases

at Rota, Spain and access to Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca in that period. Gotta be vigilant against them Commies.

[Benhurst]

2. Interesting article. And the film made about Antich looks sounds

really good.

Maybe ABC will show it without commercial interruptions and Scholastic will get out a batch of educational material on it.

No, I forgot. ABC, Disney and Scholastic are only interested in fascist dramas, not anti-fascist ones.

Lest we forget: recommended.

edited :spank: to correct a stupid typo.