El exjefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército se suma a las alabanzas a Franco

El manifiesto de alabanza a Franco firmado inicialmente por 181 altos mandos militares en la reserva supera ya sobradamente las 600 adhesiones, las últimas de las cuales son de nombres bastante significativos, ya que se trata de exmiembros de primer orden de la cúpula militar que ahora se significan, de forma pública, como admiradores de Franco.


Según adelanta OKDiario, en las últimas horas el manifiesto ha sumado las significativas firmas del exjefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército (JEME), Luis Alejandre Sintes; el exjefe del Ejército del Aire Eduardo González-Gallarza, y el exjefe del Cuarto Militar del Rey Antonio González-Aller.


Estas firmas llegan justo después de que el ministerio de Defensa abriera una investigación en cinco de los firmantes, todavía vinculados al ejército, al mismo tiempo que el departamento de Margarita Robles subrayó "el absoluto compromiso" de todos los hombres y mujeres que integran las fuerzas armadas con la Constitución y con sus valores.


Las nuevas firmas, a pesar de tratarse de mandos en la reserva, dejan en entredicho este supuesto compromiso de los militares con los valores constitucionales, al menos con respecto a los reservistas.

info: https://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/manifiesto-militares-franco_293166_102.html

Latin America and Spain accomplices in repression and control over Catalonia's rights

Operation Hotel

Julian Assange

Assange 'split' Ecuador and Spain over Catalan independence

WikiLeaks founder met separatists and tweeted on the issue, which sources say triggered a backlash from Madrid

In November 2017, Assange hosted two supporters of the Catalan independence movement, whose push for secession from Spain had plunged the country into its worst political crisis since returning to democracy.Assange has said he supported the right to “self-determination” and argued against “repression” from Madrid.

He was visited by Oriol Soler, a Catalan businessman and publisher, and Arnau Grinyó, an expert in online communications campaigns. Their meeting, which was reported by the Spanish press, took place a little over a month after the unilateral Catalan independence referendum, and 13 days after the Spanish government responded to the unilateral declaration of independence by sacking the administration of the then Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and assuming direct control of the region.

Assange has been a vocal critic of Madrid’s handling of the Catalan crisis and described the independence movement as “the redefinition of the relationship between people and state”, and “the most disciplined Gandhian project since Gandhi”.

Julian Assange ⌛(@JulianAssange)

What is occurring in Catalonia is the redefinition of the relationship between people and state. The most disciplined Gandhian project since Gandhi. Its results will spread everywhere. pic.twitter.com/sS8XRXfota

October 14, 2017

Though Assange’s supporters deny he explicitly supported Catalan independence, his tweets and videos on the issue annoyed the Spanish government.

A Spanish diplomat told the Guardian that Spain “conveyed a message” to Ecuadorian authorities that Assange was using social media to support the secessionist movement and sending out messages “that are at odds with reality”.

“Spain and Ecuador are obviously countries that maintain a constant and fluid dialogue in which matters of interest to both parties, including this issue, are raised and discussed,” the diplomat said.

“Spain has, on a number of occasions, informed the Ecuadorian authorities of its concerns over the activities that Julian Assange has engaged in while in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.”

The source said Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, had also addressed the issue when it arose in November, saying attempts had been made “to intervene, manipulate and affect what should be the natural democratic course of events in Catalonia”.

In December, Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, reminded Assange that he should refrain from trying to intervene in Ecuadorian politics.

US intelligence agencies and Spanish authorities have separately claimed that Russia has had a hand in their domestic affairs. US agencies have accused WikiLeaks of working with Russian intelligence to try to disrupt the US election by releasing hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and Spanish officials have suggested that much of the messaging on social media about the Catalan crisis originated in Russia.

Soler and Grinyó declined to comment on their meeting with Assange. However, in a tweet written four days after visiting the embassy, Soler said the Catalan independence movement sympathised with Assange, as its leaders and activists had “suffered jail, exile, spying, censorship, injustice, fake news and financial blockades”. The visit, he added, had been transparent and legal.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/16/julian-assange-ecuador-spain-catalan-independence-meeting-separatists

Sangrante carta de un militar a Felipe: "Abdique, plañidera y cópula de adúltero"

Sangrante carta de un militar a Felipe: "Abdique, plañidera y cópula de adúltero"

Darío Porras







El día antes que se conmemore a las víctimas de los atentados en la Rambla y Cambrils, y el día antes que Felipe venga a Barcelona para estar presente, si hoy el rey ha leído el diario Público se habrá encontrado con una brutal carta dirigida a su persona. Lleva el explícito título de "Felipe VI: el arte de llorar a las víctimas y municionar a los asesinos" y la particularidad es que la firma un militar, el exteniente del Ejército de Tierra, Luis Gonzalo Segura, autor también del libro El libro negro del ejército español.



El artículo de opinión es de los retratos más contundentes que se recuerda que le hayan hecho al rey Felipe, y de rebote, a su padre Juan Carlos. Con un lenguaje irónico dirigiéndose a él como si fuera un súbdito rindiéndole pleitesía, aprovecha para poner negro sobre blanco todas las actitudes y vínculos vergonzantes de Felipe, especialmente en su relación con los terroristas en el Oriente Medio, autores de la masacre de unas víctimas a las que mañana el rey vendrá a conmemorar. "Resulta harto notorio que vuestra venerada magnificencia tiene una particular debilidad por la venta de armas y por los sanguinarios opresores y sátrapas, a los que incluso place de recibir, reír y embellecer su salpicada imagen". Primera declaración de intenciones de Gonzalo Segura solo empezar el texto. El exteniente le echa en cara que solo empezar su reinado, fuera a Arabia Saudí después de la muerte del rey Abdalá. O que después de "trapichear con armas por cientos o miles", recibiera al heredero a la corona, "retratándose ambos sonrientes y pajareros a principios de 2018. A carcajada unísona, para ser exactos".



Efe

"Se entiende que su excelentísima santidad sois versado de las atroces ejecuciones que acontecen en Arabia Saudí por cientos al año y miles a la década. Ejecutados cuyos delitos oscilan entre la homosexualidad, el adulterio, el ateísmo o la tan terrible disidencia. Se cree, en todo caso, con la humildad y el no escaso margen de equivocación de los siervos, que quizá a tan altísima excelencia no le incomode en alguna forma tales ejecuciones", continúa el autor de la carta, que aprovecha para repartir más arriba, hacia el rey emérito, "ese conocido como Campechano que se postró a un sanguinario dictador mientras este asesinaba, reprimía y estrangulaba a su pueblo. Todo ello por el único y expreso deseo de conseguir una corona que le permitiera vivir al margen de la legalidad, como así fue, y cometer delitos, uno tras otro, en una vida que ya hubiera querido para sí el mismísimo Al Capone".



TVE

El militar sigue haciendo recuento de las numerosas víctimas, "niños, ancianos" en el Oriente Medio, "gracias a la formación que sus pilotos recibieron en nuestra Gloriosa España disponen sus hermanos de un gran tino en aquello de arrojar bombas, devastando, amputando y segando a aquellos que lloran a sus muertos", y le recuerda al jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas la relación directa de sus acuerdos con los atentados: "Le quisiera recordar a su ilustradísima majestad, legitimada por los designios de uno de los mayores asesinos del siglo pasado y la cópula de uno de los mayores adúlteros de las últimas décadas, que son precisamente sus hermanos sentimentales los que han financiado económicamente la expansión de las ideas más radicales, lo que no pocos atentados ha originado. Incluidos los que se dispone a convertir en acto laboral, cual plañidera".



Efe

El ataque a Felipe es todavía más despiadado cuando insinúa cierto grado de satisfacción con según qué atentados: "Puede, porque ya casi nada parece imposible y algunos somos perversos por naturaleza, que brillase en su interior una cierta satisfacción cuando el pueblo catalán fue lacerado el pasado 17 de agosto por los mismos a los que financia por aquello de que las tragedias unen a las familias más encontradas". Continúa. 1 de octubre: "No conseguido este anhelo tan patriótico, muchos sospechan, no descabelladamente, que pudiera haber sentido una cierta satisfacción con el apaleo de ciudadanos acaecido el 1 de octubre, tal y como lo haría el padre que espera que el cinturón resuelva lo que su ejemplaridad (o falta de ella) no fue capaz de inspirar, dado que ni una palabra amable tuvo para los apaleados. Los cuales tienen menos consideración en su persona que los asesinos, los corruptos y los criminales".



Efe

Gonzalo Segura da repaso de los últimos bombardeos del 9 de agosto, donde "aniquilar tres autobuses en los que viajaban niños que acudían a un campamento de verano, igual que nuestros hijos, con resultado de 29 niños asesinados", volviendo a recordarle a Felipe "la tan piadosa relación que mantiene con la industria armamentística, obras que, si algún día fueran juzgadas, constituirían crímenes tan repugnantes que despacharían sus regias posaderas a una prisión internacional".



Efe

La misiva acaba diciendo que "si su atareada agenda de venta de armas no le permitieron percatarse, ha convertido España en un antro de corrupción y un Parque Nacional y refugio meridional de franquistas, fascistas y ultraconservadores de diferentes familias, géneros y especies", con una petición final a "mi admirado y querido Señor: quisiera solicitarle muy humildemente que cese la venta de armas a criminales; elimine la inviolabilidad jurídica y permita que tanto su padre como usted puedan ser juzgados, abdique, sancione, repudie y permita juzgar el franquismo y ponga a disposición judicial la documentación e información con la que cuente sobre cualquier actividad delictiva en la que tanto usted como sus familiares pudieran haber conocido o participado".

Moviment facciós a Barcelona el 19 i 20 de juliol de 1936

Moviment facciós a Barcelona el 19 i 20 de juliol de 1936


Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya

Més d'un cop haureu vist mapes que reprodueixen els fets del 19 de juliol a Barcelona, amb l'exèrcit espanyol intentant fer-se amb el control de la ciutat i el moviment popular enfrontat-s'hi i vencent-lo. Avui tenim l'ocasió de veure el plànol original de 1936, editat pel Sindicat de Professions Liberals de la CNT el 1937, on es mostren aquells moviments de les tropes que recolzaven el cop d'estat que havia esclatat el dia 17 a Melilla i el Protectorat Espanyol al Marroc, i que s'estenia entre els dies 18 i 19 per tota la Península, i la rèplica de les milícies populars, que van controlar la revolta a les casernes del Bruc, Girona, Sant Andreu, Lepant, Numància, Drassanes, Docks, Comandància Militar i les places de Catalunya i Universitat.

En verd s'indiquen les casernes colpistes i els moviments que realitzen per la ciutat per tal d'ocupar-la. En vermell veiem els moviments de les milícies populars de la CNT-FAI, Guàrdies d'Assalt, Mossos d'Esquadra, Guàrdia Civil i militars lleials a la República per controlar els sedicioses, i els llocs on es van establir les barricades per contenir-los, com la barricada de la Bretxa de Sant Pau, entre el Molino i la Ronda, que va evitar la connexió dels soldats que venien de la caserna de Numància (avinguda de Roma amb Tarragona) i la de les Drassenes, que no caurien, totes dues, fins les 10h del dia 20.




Barricada de la Bretxa de Sant Pau i el Paral·lel, davant del Molino
Brangulí, fotògrafs. Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya

El moviment de tropes feixistes més importants es va produir des de la caserna del Bruc (a les 3:50h de la matinada) i la de Sant Andreu (que es rendeix el dia 20 a les 10h del matí), que va permetre la distribució d'efectius per la Diagonal i el Camí de Dalt de Sant Andreu (Concepció Arenal) - Camí d'Horta (Freser) a través del carrer de Mallorca, i el descens cap a les places de la Universitat (on es rendien a les 14:30h) i de Catalunya (que es rendeix a les 16h) pels carrer Urgell i Girona, i pel passeig de Gràcia.




El guàrdia d'assalt Mariano Vitini dispara des de una barricada de cavalls morts del carrer
de la Diputació amb Roger de Llúria. La imatge és una reconstrucció dels fets poc
després que passessin en el mateix lloc i amb els mateixos protagonistes
Agustí Centelles. Archivos del Estado. Ministerio de Cultura

Les casernes de Girona, al carrer de Lepant, i la Comandància General, del passeig de Colom, es rendien al vespre del mateix dia 19; mentre la caserna dels Docks de l'avinguda d'Icària resistia fins al migdia del dia 20, moment en què es donava per controlat el moviment sediciós a la ciutat.


Publicat per Enric H. March 5 comentaris : Enllaços a aquest missatge


Etiquetes de comentaris: Barcelona , Guerra Civil , història , mapa , plànols BCN

Flowers at the Tomb of a Fascist

Flowers at the Tomb of a Fascist

BYANTONIO MAESTRETRANSLATION BYEOGHAN GILMARTIN

The remains of Spain’s fascist dictator Francisco Franco lie in a monument built for him by Republican prisoners of war. At last, the government is trying to rectify that.


Valle de los Caídos, 'The Valley of the Fallen,' where Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is buried.





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It’s Thursday, 11 AM at the Valley of the Fallen. A gaunt middle-aged man with a yellow t-shirt and black fanny pack waits for the staff to allow visitors to approach the tomb of Francisco Franco. The rosary has just finished with the words “for Spain, its youth, and its families.” As the mass continues, the abbot evokes the martyrs of which he and his fellow Benedictian monks are the custodians. The humidity, which makes the walls sweat, gets into our bones as we wait behind the cordon for the service to end. In the vaults of the crypt below there are more than 20,000 victims of Francoism interred in the same dampness. The chants of the monks and the strong smell of incense add to the oppressive atmosphere. At last the mass finishes and we are ushered in to pay our respects to the dictator.

Spanish history can be grasped through the funeral rites of its protagonists. The great Spanish writer Federico García Lorca was left to rot in an unmarked pit in the hills outside Granada after his assassination by Falangists. Meanwhile, the man responsible for his murder, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, rests in a mausoleum fit for an Egyptian pharaoh. This is a fate quite distinct from the glory afforded other fascist dictators in Europe. Mussolini was strung up outside an Esso gas station near Milan, while the body of Adolf Hitler was burnt with that of Eva Braun in a crater that is now the sandpit of a Berlin playground. But Franco lies in an abbey built by Republican slaves and maintained by public money. And it is no accident. Spain was a fascist anomaly in postwar Europe, which built its democratic order with a strong antifascist component.
A Morbid Symbol

Work on the Valley of the Fallen began in 1940, a year after the end of the Spanish Civil War, when Franco issued two decrees stating the need to honor those who had given their lives in the “glorious national crusade.” Built deep within a mountainside in the Sierra de Guadarrama, sixty kilometers from Madrid, the massive complex houses the bodies not only of soldiers from the fascist army but thousands of republicans who were interred there without their families’ permission. Its 150-meter cross, which sits atop a mountain peak, is visible throughout a long stretch of the A Coruña motorway, one of the country’s busiest roads.

The dictator chose the site during a hike in the Sierra with General Juan Moscardó. Its proximity to El Escorial monastery, the historic resting place of Spanish kings, was no accident. Franco had hoped that work on the project would be finished by April 1, 1941, the anniversary of his victory in the civil war, but the paid labor provided by construction companies San Román, Huarte (now OHL), and Banús could not complete it in time. As a solution, the “Redemption through Labour” scheme deployed republican prisoners as slaves on the construction project. With their involvement the complex was finally finished in 1958, after a more than seventeen-year delay.

Now Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is seeking to end the basilica being used as an apologia for the Spanish genocide. His Socialist Party (PSOE) government has promised to remove both the remains of Franco and those of the 1930s Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera before the end of the summer. The idea is turn the complex into a site of historical memory and reconciliation. Since the transition to democracy in the late 1970s, the PSOE has spent more than twenty years in power without daring to pull down this symbol of the fascist triumph. The speed of their announcement has surprised many, coming less than a month after taking office, but it seems designed to take advantage of the current weakness of the right-wing Popular Party (PP) after the fall of Mariano Rajoy. Founded by seven Francoist ministers, the PP are the political heirs to the dictatorial regime and have repeatedly obstructed attempts to gain justice for victims of his regime.

For the more than 250,000 (predominantly foreign) tourists who visit the Valley of the Fallen each year, it can be difficult to understand why the remains of Hitler’s only ally to survive the Second World War rest in such a grand memorial. It would be easy to come away with the impression that someone whose grave receives daily flowers paid for with public funds must not have been so terrible. Yet to understand the degree of democratic aberration that results from the preservation of such a monument, you only have to look at the close collaboration between the Francoist dictatorship and the Nazi regime.
Transition and Continuity

On May 11, 1941, an event was held in El Escorial to pay homage to José Antonio Primo de Rivera. The Falange led a solemn ceremony in front of his grave at the Valley of the Fallen, which was attended by the entire staff of the Nazi Party in Spain, including its highest representative Hans Thomsen, and the head of the Gestapo in Spain, Paul Winzer. This close relationship lasted until the end of the Second World War and included a 1938 agreement between Heinrich Himmler and the Minister of Public Order Severiano Martínez Anido. Under its terms, captured German Jews and communists who had fought for the International Brigades would be handed over to the Gestapo for interrogation and deportation to the camps and in exchange Paul Winzer would train the Francoist secret police (known as the Political-Social Brigade) in torture techniques.

The role of the Franco regime in supporting Nazism might make it difficult to understand the existence of the Valley of the Fallen but unlike in Germany, Spain has never gone through a process of historical revision or truth and reconciliation to come to terms with its past. Indeed, the location of the remains of over 114,000 republicans killed either during or in the aftermath of the civil war still remain unknown. The most important factor in securing a narrative of continued legitimacy for Spanish fascism after Franco was the role played by leading figures in the regime in the transition to democracy. In contrast to Germany or Italy, where fascist regimes were defeated, Adolfo Suárez, the first democratic prime minister of Spain, had previously been a Francoist minister.

Led and directed by the pro-fascist oligarchs, the transition of 1978 ensured that democratization took place within a framework which did not endanger their network of power and patronage. These narrow parameters were evident in the 1977 Political Reform Law which provided for the gradual concession of political freedoms while, at the same time, providing continuity for the structures of the regime. Above all, the Francoist army remained a decisive political force, with Spanish democracy developing always under the threat of its intervention. The existing judiciary was also left predominantly untouched and it took decades for the police forces to undergo anything resembling a process of democratic reform. At the same time, the Spanish right, under the leadership of Manuel Fraga, promised to ensure that the historical and cultural heritage of the dictatorship would not be betrayed.

As I approach Franco’s tomb an assemblage of fresh flowers lies on top. Those nostalgic for the days of fascism crowd around the grave, mixing with the tourists. A Japanese group visiting the abbey concentrate on the frescos in the cupula, ignoring the vigil at the grave of a dictator. But then an older man beside Franco’s marble tablet breaks the mirage, giving a military heel followed by a fascist salute. It encourages another man, who kneels and begins to pray beside the grave, then stands up and raises his hand to the sky. He remains standing for a few seconds, then bends to kiss Franco’s name carved in stone. Throughout this scene, the volunteer responsible simply repeats to the visitors that no photographs are allowed. I sit down on the ground in a corner, trying to gather my thoughts and write a few lines. The volunteer rebukes me, “Have some respect,” and tells me I can’t write here. Everything in this aberration is a metaphor for Spain.

07.18.2018

SPAIN
WAR AND IMPERIALISM
CONSERVATISM

Antonio Maestre is a Spanish journalist and documentary maker whose work appears in La Marea, El Diario and the TV station La Sexta.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Eoghan Gilmartin is a writer, translator and Jacobin contributor based in Madrid. He is also a member of Podemos.
FILED UNDER

SPAIN
WAR AND IMPERIALISM
CONSERVATISM
FASCISM
SPANISH CIVIL WAR

Enciclopedia Britanica nos cuenta Franco lavado y peinado.

Tell me how you write your History and I will tell you where you are. The hypocrite UK doing dictionaries.

Francisco Franco
RULER OF SPAIN
WRITTEN BY:
Stanley G. Payne

LAST UPDATED: Jul 18, 2018 See Article History
Alternative Titles: El Caudillo, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde


Francisco Franco, in full Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde, byname El Caudillo (“The Leader”), (born December 4, 1892, El Ferrol, Spain—died November 20, 1975, Madrid), general and leader of the Nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39); thereafter he was the head of the government of Spain until 1973 and head of state until his death in 1975.

Franco, FranciscoFrancisco Franco.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Life

Franco was born at the coastal city and naval centre of El Ferrol in Galicia (northwestern Spain). His family life was not entirely happy, for Franco’s father, an officer in the Spanish Naval Administrative Corps, was eccentric, wasteful, and somewhat dissolute. More disciplined and serious than other boys his age, Franco was close to his mother, a pious and conservative upper middle-class Roman Catholic. Like four generations and his elder brother before him, Franco was originally destined for a career as a naval officer, but reduction of admissions to the Naval Academy forced him to choose the army. In 1907, only 14 years old, he entered the Infantry Academy at Toledo, graduating three years later.

Franco volunteered for active duty in the colonial campaigns in Spanish Morocco that had begun in 1909 and was transferred there in 1912 at age 19. The following year he was promoted to first lieutenant in an elite regiment of native Moroccan cavalry. At a time in which many Spanish officers were characterized by sloppiness and lack of professionalism, young Franco quickly showed his ability to command troops effectively and soon won a reputation for complete professional dedication. He devoted great care to the preparation of his unit’s actions and paid more attention than was common to the troops’ well-being. Reputed to be scrupulously honest, introverted, and a man of comparatively few intimatefriends, he was known to shun all frivolous amusements. In 1915 he became the youngest captain in the Spanish army. The following year he was seriously wounded by a bullet in the abdomen and returned to Spain to recover. In 1920 he was chosen to be second in command of the newly organized Spanish Foreign Legion, succeeding to full command in 1923. That year he also married Carmen Polo, with whom he had a daughter. During crucial campaigns against the Moroccan rebels, the legion played a decisive role in bringing the revolt to an end. Franco became a national hero, and in 1926, at age 33, he was promoted to brigadier general. At the beginning of 1928, he was named director of the newly organized General Military Academy in Saragossa.

After the fall of the monarchy in 1931, the leaders of the new Spanish Republic undertook a major and much-needed military reform, and Franco’s career was temporarily halted. The General Military Academy was dissolved, and Franco was placed on the inactive list. Though he was an avowed monarchist and held the honour of being a gentleman of the king’s chamber, Franco accepted both the new regime and his temporary demotion with perfect discipline. When conservative forces gained control of the republic in 1933, Franco was restored to active command; in 1934 he was promoted to major general. In October 1934, during a bloody uprising of Asturian miners who opposed the admission of three conservative members to the government, Franco was called in to quell the revolt. His success in this operation brought him new prominence. In May 1935 he was appointed chief of the Spanish army’s general staff, and he began tightening discipline and strengthening military institutions, although he left many of the earlier reforms in place.

Following a number of scandals that weakened the Radicals, one of the parties of the governing coalition, parliament was dissolved, and new elections were announced for February 1936. By this time the Spanish political parties had split into two factions: the rightist National Bloc and the leftist Popular Front. The left proved victorious in the elections, but the new government was unable to prevent the accelerating dissolution of Spain’s social and economic structure. Although Franco had never been a member of a political party, the growing anarchy impelled him to appeal to the government to declare a state of emergency. His appeal was refused, and he was removed from the general staff and sent to an obscure command in the Canary Islands. For some time he refused to commit himself to a military conspiracy against the government, but, as the political system disintegrated, he finally decided to join the rebels.

Franco’s Military Rebellion

At dawn on July 18, 1936, Franco’s manifesto acclaiming the military rebellion was broadcast from the Canary Islands, and the same morning the rising began on the mainland. The following day he flew to Morocco and within 24 hours was firmly in control of the protectorate and the Spanish army garrisoning it. After landing in Spain, Franco and his army marched toward Madrid, which was held by the government. When the Nationalist advance came to a halt on the outskirts of the city, the military leaders, in preparation of what they believed was the final assault that would deliver Madrid and the country into their hands, decided to choose a commander in chief, or generalissimo, who would also head the rebel Nationalist government in opposition to the republic. Because of his military ability and prestige, a political record unmarred by sectarian politics and conspiracies, and his proven ability to gain military assistance from Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy, Franco was the obvious choice. In part because he was not a typical Spanish “political general,” Franco became head of state of the new Nationalist regime on October 1, 1936. The rebel government did not, however, gain complete control of the country for more than three years.

Franco presided over a government that was basically a military dictatorship, but he realized that it needed a regular civil structure to broaden its support; this was to be derived mainly from the antileftist middle classes. On April 19, 1937, he fused the Falange (the Spanish fascist party) with the Carlists and created the rebel regime’s official political movement. While expanding the Falange into a more pluralistic group, Franco made it clear that it was the government that used the party and not the other way around. Thus, his regime became an institutionalized authoritarian system, differing in this respect from the fascist party-states of the German and Italian models.

As commander in chief during the Civil War, Franco was a careful and systematic leader. He made no rash moves and suffered only a few temporary defeats as his forces advanced slowly but steadily; the only major criticism directed at him during the campaign was that his strategy was frequently unimaginative. Nevertheless, because of the relatively superior military quality of his army and the continuation of heavy German and Italian assistance, Franco won a complete and unconditional victory on April 1, 1939.

The Civil War had been largely a sanguinary struggle of attrition, marked by atrocities on both sides. The tens of thousands of executions carried out by the Nationalist regime, which continued during the first years after the war ended, earned Franco more reproach than any other single aspect of his rule.

Franco’s Dictatorship

Although Franco had visions of restoring Spanish grandeur after the Civil War, in reality he was the leader of an exhausted country still divided internally and impoverished by a long and costly war. The stability of his government was made more precarious by the outbreak of World War II only five months later. Despite his sympathy for the Axis powers’ “New Order,” Franco at first declared Spanish neutrality in the conflict. His policy changed after the fall of France in June 1940, when he approached the German leader Hitler; Franco indicated his willingness to bring Spain into the war on Germany’s side in exchange for extensive German military and economic assistance and the cession to Spain of most of France’s territorial holdings in northwest Africa. Hitler was unable or unwilling to meet this price, and, after meeting with Franco at Hendaye, France, in October 1940, Hitler remarked that he would “as soon have three or four teeth pulled out” as go through another bargaining session like that again. Franco’s government thenceforth remained relatively sympathetic to the Axis powers while carefully avoiding any direct diplomatic and military commitment to them. Spain’s return to a state of complete neutrality in 1943 came too late to gain favourable treatment from the ascendant Allies. Nevertheless, Franco’s wartime diplomacy, marked as it was by cold realism and careful timing, had kept his regime from being destroyed along with the Axis powers.

The most difficult period of Franco’s regime began in the aftermath of World War II, when his government was ostracized by the newly formed United Nations. He was labeled by hostile foreign opinion the “last surviving fascist dictator” and for a time appeared to be the most hated of Western heads of state; within his country, however, as many people supported him as opposed him. The period of ostracism finally came to an end with the worsening of relations between the Soviet world and the West at the height of the Cold War. Franco could now be viewed as one of the world’s leading anticommunist statesmen, and relations with other countries began to be regularized in 1948. His international rehabilitation was advanced further in 1953, when Spain signed a 10-year military assistance pact with the United States, which was later renewed in more limited form.

Franco’s domestic policies became somewhat more liberal during the 1950s and ’60s, and the continuity of his regime, together with its capacity for creative evolution, won him at least a limited degree of respect from some of his critics. Franco said that he did not find the burden of government particularly heavy, and, in fact, his rule was marked by absolute self-confidence and relative indifference to criticism. He demonstrated marked political ability in gauging the psychology of the diverse elements, ranging from moderate liberals to extreme reactionaries, whose support was necessary for his regime’s survival. He maintained a careful balance among them and largely left the execution of policy to his appointees, thereby placing himself as arbiter above the storm of ordinary political conflict. To a considerable degree, the opprobrium for unsuccessful or unpopular aspects of policy tended to fall on individual ministers rather than on Franco. The Falange state party, downgraded in the early 1940s, in later years became known merely as the “Movement” and lost much of its original quasi-fascist identity.

Francisco Franco, 1954.AP

Unlike most rulers of rightist authoritarian regimes, Franco provided for the continuity of his government after his death through an official referendum in 1947 that made the Spanish state a monarchy and ratified Franco’s powers as a sort of regent for life. In 1967 he opened direct elections for a small minority of deputies to the parliament and in 1969 officially designated the then 32-year-old prince Juan Carlos, the eldest son of the nominal pretender to the Spanish throne, as his official successor upon his death. Franco resigned his position of premier in 1973 but retained his functions as head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and head of the “Movement.”

Franco was never a popular ruler and rarely tried to mobilize mass support. But after 1947 there was little direct or organized opposition to his rule. With the liberalization of his government and relaxation of some police powers, together with the country’s marked economic development during the 1960s, Franco’s image changed from that of the rigorous generalissimo to a more benign civilian elder statesman. Franco’s health declined markedly in the late 1960s, yet he professed to believe that he had left Spain’s affairs “tied and well-tied” and that after his death Prince Juan Carlos would maintain at least the basic structure of his regime. But after Franco’s death in 1975 following a long illness, Juan Carlos moved to dismantle the authoritarian institutions of Franco’s system and encouraged the revival of political parties. Spain had made great economic progress during the last two decades of Franco’s rule, and within three years of his death the country had become a democratic constitutional monarchy, with a prosperous economy and democratic institutions similar to those of the rest of western Europe.Stanley G. Payne

Abandonados ...

Sea por las razones que sean, es muy deprimente apenas reconocer a colegas entre las firmas de los profesionales del arte y la cultura sobre la cuestión de los presos políticos. 

Esto se traduce en que claramente "el adoctrinamiento" cómplice con el Franquismo y con el fascismo por defecto, mira para otro lado casi como en lo que Hannah Arendt tan bien expresa en su teoría de la banalidad del mal. 

Una gran pena!

Por otro lado, la ausencia de su solidaridad explica en sí misma el porqué y el cómo hemos llegado hasta aquí, en estos meses de tanta angustia y tristeza, tan aislados e incomprendidos en términos 
socio-politicos. 
E.Planas Julio 2018 

"Decenas de intelectuales y personalidades del mundo de la cultura han publicado este miércoles una carta colectiva en que denuncian la "incomprensible" prisión preventiva en la que se encuentran los líderes independentistas. Entre los firmantes, destacan los nombres de músicos como Nacho Vegas o Ismael Serrano, la escritora Elvira Lindo o el actor Alberto San Juan.

En el escrito, los intelectuales la consideran una pena "desproporcionada" y destacan que no han cometido ningún tipo de actos violentos por los que estar condenados. Además, añaden que existen "razones humanitarias" para pedir su liberación y lamentan el daño personal que están sufriendo las familias de los presos. 

Según afirman, estos encarcelamientos también han causado mucho daño a la imagen de España en Europa y a nivel mundial, ya que lo consideran un importante "retroceso en derechos y libertades". Por eso, en la carta, los firmantes hacen un llamamiento al grueso de la sociedad española para que "muestre su rechazo" a un encarcelamiento que consideran totalmente injustificado.

La carta ha sido firmada por las siguientes personalidades: 

Santiago Alba Rico (escritor)

Miguel del Arco (dramaturgo)

Montxo Armendáriz (cineasta)

Bernardo Atxaga (escritor)

Constantino Bértolo (editor)

Harkaitz Cano (escritor)

Alfons Cervera (escritor)

Fernando Clemot (escritor)

José Corbacho (cineasta)

Roberto Enríquez / Bob Pop (escritor)

Mauro Entrialgo (dibujante)

Rafael Escudero Alday (profesor de Filosofía del Derecho)

Cristina Fallarás (escritora)

Carlos Fernández Liria (filósofo)

Manel Fontdevila (dibujante)

Javier Gallego “Crudo” (periodista)

David García Aristegui (escritor e informático)

Belén Gopegui (escritora)

Yayo Herrero (activista ecologista)

Kepa Junkera (músico)

Carlos Lema (profesor de Filosofía del Derecho)

Anjel Lertxundi (escritor)

Elvira Lindo (escritora)

Lourdes Lucía (editora)

Aitor Merino (cineasta)

Elvira Navarro (escritora)

Rubén Ochandiano (actor)

Carolina del Olmo (escritora)

Puy Oria (productora)

José Ovejero (escritor)

Marc Parrot (músico)

Olga Rodríguez (periodista)

Xosé Manuel Pereiro (periodista)

Javier Pérez Royo (catedrático de Derecho Constitucional)

Edurne Portela (escritora)

Javier Rebollo (cineasta)

César Rendueles (escritor)

Silvina Ribotta (profesora de Filosofía del Derecho)

Jorge Riechmann (escritor)

Manuel Rivas (escritor)

Azucena Rodríguez (cineasta)

María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (profesora de Filosofía del Derecho)

Isaac Rosa (escritor)

Miguel Ángel Ruiz-Larrea (arquitecto)

Alberto San Juan (actor)

Amparo Sánchez (música)

Gervasio Sánchez (fotógrafo)

Marta Sanz (escritora)

Ismael Serrano (músico)

Silvia Sesé (editora)

Suso de Toro (escritor)

Antonio de la Torre (actor)

Joaquín Urías (profesor de Derecho Constitucional)

Kirmen Uribe (escritor)

Nacho Vegas (músico)

Bernardo Vergara (dibujante)

Thais Villas (periodista)

Iban Zaldua (escritor)

Carlos Zanón (escritor)