I thought this was an interested development. Recently, efforts to shed some light on the fascist attrocities in Spain were suppressed thanks to an "amnesty law" that effectively prevents anyone from going too deep into Spain's "uncomfortable past." However, some Argentinian relatives of Franco's victims are campaigning to prevent the investigation process from being shut down.
Argentinian human rights groups are pressing for a judicial investigation into murders and disappearances committed during the Spanish civil war and the early years of General Franco's dictatorship.Lawyers representing Argentinian relatives of three Spaniards killed during the 1936-39 war will ask the federal courts in Buenos Aires today to open an investigation. They hope to add many more cases in the next few months.
Last week the crusading Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón was charged with abusing his authority by opening an investigation into deaths and disappearances under Franco. His supporters hope to relaunch the investigation from Buenos Aires.
Carlos Slepoy, a specialist in human rights law, said the plaintiffs were invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction, which provides that genocide and crimes against humanity "can be prosecuted by the courts of any country".
Santiago Macías, vice-president of Spain's Association for the Recuperation of Historic Memory, said: "We have many hopes for this case. It's a shame that in democracy we have to seek Argentine justice, the justice system of another country, to investigate an issue that in our supposedly strong democracy we haven't been able to do."
Spanish justice had been "the first to throw down the glove" in investigating human rights crimes committed during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship, Macias said. Garzón charged various Argentinian military figures with repression.
Now Garzón is accused of abuse of power in Spain by ignoring a 1977 amnesty law against investigating wartime atrocities. The law was passed to help Spaniards put decades of conflict behind them. Garzón, who said as many as 114,000 people were "disappeared" or buried in common graves, had to abandon his investigation after a few months and transferred the task of investigating mass graves and missing people to local courts.
That might allow the Spanish government to decline to co-operate with Argentina and assert that Madrid has preferential jurisdiction, the Spanish Human Rights Association said. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, one condition for a country to investigate crimes allegedly committed in another is that no inquiry should be under way in the latter, said Piluca Hernández, the association's chief lawyer.
Nonetheless, the Argentinian move will serve as a "tool for pressure and a way to embarrass the Spanish justice system, which after all these years has failed to carry out a thorough and serious investigation," Hernández said in Madrid.
Spain's justice ministry declined to comment on the Argentinian lawsuit.
The three cases being presented today are the deaths of Spaniards Severino Rivas, Elías García Holgado and Luis García Holgado during the civil war. The plaintiffs are Darío Rivas, son of the first victim, and Inés García Holgado, the granddaughter and niece of the others.
The plaintiffs want the courts in Buenos Aires to expand the case to include any murders and disappearances committed by Franco's forces between 17 July 1936, the day before the general's military turned against Spain's Republican government, and 15 June 1977, when Spain held its first democratic elections after the dictator's death in 1975.
Maximo Castex, one of the lawyers involved, said that by alleging genocide and, in some cases, crimes against humanity, many other cases involving Argentinians whose relatives were killed in Spain were likely to be added. He predicted that Spanish citizens would travel to Argentina seeking to add their names as plaintiffs.
The federal court in Buenos Aires will assign a judge, who will seek the opinion of an Argentinian prosecutor and then decide whether to take the case. It would be the first time an Argentinian federal judge has invoked universal jurisdiction for crimes committed outside the country. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/14/spain-civil-war-argentina-inquiry]
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The "amnesty law" dates back to the era of the transition in the late 70s. Recently things have got a lot more open with the "law of historic memory", which also has its limitations. The action against Garzón was initiated by a couple of right wing groups, including the Falange Española, in an attempt to turn the clock back.
Statement from the CGT Comisión de Memoria Libertaria (in Spanish)