Reopening old wounds in Spain and making a mockery of justice

United Nations experts are urging Spain to investigate what happened to thousands of people who went missing during the Spanish civil war and under the Nationalist Franco dictatorship. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church has beatified 522 people killed by Republicans, rubbing salt into the open wounds of impunity and denial.

Spain’s right to memory under threat

The politics of public or “collective” memory are alive and well in Spain, where a controversial dictionary of national biography has whitewashed the career of its former dictator, General Francisco Franco.