Two marches mobilized Garzon Spain
The marches were held in 28 cities, but the epicenter was in Madrid, where the fear of clashes between the two factions had been dismissed by the authorities and the organizers.
Headed by entertainment personalities, culture and politics, supporters of the National Court judge walked through the streets of the Spanish capital with banners that read phrases like “truth, justice, reparation and solidarity with the victims.”
“More judges and Garzon,” “fascist judge?” No way “or” Spain backward, corrupt and fascist are judging the judge “were other signs that could be seen between crowd.
“No to Impunity! is the dignity of victims of Franco what is at stake,” said the filmmaker Pedro Almodovar to read a manifesto at the end of march Madrid convened under the slogan “Against the impunity of Franco, in solidarity with the victims.”
“That judicial initiatives right-wing organizations have managed to halt the investigation of the crimes of the Franco regime represents an unprecedented scandal, “complained the writer Almudena Grandes.
Poet and prisoner of Marcos Ana Franco considered” incomprehensible that a democratic state charged with a crime of malfeasance to a judge to apply in Spain the international criminal law doctrine that a few years ago allowed him to act against such crimes committed in countries like Argentina or Chile. “
” Crimes against humanity can not be pardoned and not never prescribe and 1977 amnesty law can not override the Constitution itself, “says the manifesto, after reading which observed a minute”s silence for the victims.
At the same time, several dozen people demonstrated convened by the Spanish Falange Party, which denounced Garzon on the grounds that investigated the disappearances without jurisdiction to do so.
The demonstration of Madrid joined the organized in several Spanish cities, which brought together hundreds of people in Barcelona, Sevilla, Valencia, among others.
In other cities. Outside of Spain, over a hundred people gathered in Paris and London about thirty. Also convened in Brussels, Lisbon and Dublin, and Latin America in B1000uenos Aires and Mexico City
Spanish Forum in Paris echoed the merger, as well as social network Facebook. Similar concentrations were held this afternoon in various cities in the south of France, Pau, Montpellier and Bordeaux, convened by the memory associations Republican Spain and Association Memory of the Spanish Republican Exile in France.
Garzon”s trial, which will begin soon, sowed controversy in Spain and raised a wave of support abroad, especially in Latin America, where the judge, 54, is known for its practice of to achieve universal justice and the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998.
Judge will be judged after the Spanish Supreme Court to admit the allegations of three far-right groups accuse the Judge of malfeasance, so that could be temporarily suspended in office.
The plaintiffs allege that the judge ignored the 1977 amnesty law, adopted for such crimes after the death of General Francisco Franco and the beginning of the Spanish democratic transition.
Challenge. yesterday challenged the judge Garzon case manager, Luciano Varela, saying it is “partial” in the case, so the Supreme must decide whether to change of judge. Former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez backed the judge stating that the process Garzon is “incomprehensible” and “unfair”, while the leader of the opposition, the conservative Mariano Rajoy, reported this morning, “a campaign against the brutal and undemocratic Supreme Court and the judiciary for not trying a person. “
Garzon briefly investigated in 2008 the fate of about 114,000 disappeared during the Civil War (1936-1939) and early Franco years (1939-1975), arguing that the crime of enforced disappearance and does not prescribe against the prosecution. It was the first investigation of these events in Spain.
It disappeared several victims of a complaint recently filed in court Argentina to investigate the disappearances, unable to be investigated in Spain.
In addition, Garzon is also the subject of a complaint, supported by justice, two lawyers for 200,000 euros charged for some courses sponsored by the Santander bank at the University of New York in 2005 and 2006.