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It was Nov. 3, 2017, and the target was José Manuel Villarejo Pérez, a former government spy. He was rumored to have had powerful friends and to have kept dirt on them all. He was, after all, a spy — and not just any spy, but one who had started his career in the secret police of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Villarejo was handcuffed and taken to Madrid. And what happens when that man finds himself suddenly backed into a corner?

Persons: Adrienne Hurst, Dan Farrell, Manuel Villarejo Pérez, —, Villarejo’s, Francisco Franco, Villarejo Organizations: Spotify, ETA Locations: Spain, Madrid, Spanish, Basque

☆ Far-Right Parties Are Rising to Power Around Europe. Is Spain Next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last month, after Spain’s conservative and hard-right parties crushed the left in local elections, the winners in Elche, a small southeastern town known for an ancient sculpture and shoe exports, signed an agreement with consequences for the future of Spain — and the rest of Europe. The candidate from the conservative Popular Party had a chance to govern, but he needed the hard-right Vox party, which, in return for its support during council votes, received the deputy mayor position and a new administrative body to defend the traditional family. They inked their deal under the cross of the local church. “This coalition model could be a good model for the whole of Spain,” said Pablo Ruz Villanueva, Elche’s new mayor, referring to upcoming national elections on July 23, which most polls suggest will oust the liberal prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. The new deputy mayor from Vox, Aurora Rodil Martínez, went further: “My party will do everything that’s necessary to make that happen.”If Ms. Rodil’s wish comes true, with Vox joining a coalition with more moderate conservatives, it would become the first right-wing party since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to enter the national government.

Persons: Spain —, ”, Pablo Ruz Villanueva, Elche’s, Pedro Sánchez, Aurora Rodil Martínez, Rodil’s, Francisco Franco Organizations: Popular Party, Vox, Spanish Socialist Workers ’ Party, Aurora Locations: Elche, Europe, “, Spain

☆ Spain begins exhumation of 128 Civil War victims from Franco mausoleum
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Relatives have been fighting for years to give their loved ones a burial under their own names and near their families. "Spanish democracy is finally providing answers for these victims," government spokesperson Isabel Rodriguez said on state-owned TV station 24H. The process of identifying the remains could take weeks or months, meaning the results will probably be published after the election. Spain transitioned to democracy following Franco's death in 1975. Reporting by Inti Landauro; editing by Charlie Devereux and Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Read, General Francisco Franco, Franco, Pedro Sanchez, Isabel Rodriguez, Sanchez, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, Inti Landauro, Charlie Devereux, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Socialist, People's Party, Falange, Association, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Cuelgamuros, Madrid, Spain, MADRID, Spanish

☆ Spain to begin exhumation of 128 Civil War victims from burial complex, el Pais reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Relatives of late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco carry the coffin after the exhumation at The Valle de los Caidos (The Valley of the Fallen) in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, October 24, 2019. Emilio Naranjo/Pool via REUTERSMADRID, June 11 (Reuters) - Forensic scientists will on Monday begin the exhumation of 128 victims of the Spanish Civil War from a vast burial complex near Madrid, El Pais newspaper reported. The remains of some 34,000 people, many of them victims of Franco's regime, are buried anonymously in the complex. Relatives of those whose remains lie inside have been fighting for years to give their loved ones a burial under their own names near their families. In 2016, a court approved the exhumation of the brothers, but seven years later the family is still waiting.

Persons: Francisco Franco, San Lorenzo de El, Emilio Naranjo, El Pais, Purificacion Lapena, Manuel Lapena, Antonio, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, Franco, Primo de, Felix Bolanos, Graham Keeley, Jan Harvey Organizations: REUTERS, Falange, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Spanish, Valle, San Lorenzo de, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, REUTERS MADRID, Madrid , El Pais, Cuelgamuros, Madrid

☆ The Spy Who Called Me
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Nicholas Casey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The wave of scandals that would engulf Spain began with a police raid on a wooded property outside Madrid. It was Nov. 3, 2017, and the target was José Manuel Villarejo Pérez, a former government spy. He was rumored to have had powerful friends and to have kept dirt on them all. They had come searching for evidence of money laundering, but it wasn’t Villarejo’s accounting books that gave them pause that day. He was, after all, a spy — and not just any spy, but one who had started his career in the secret police of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Persons: Manuel Villarejo Pérez, —, Villarejo, “, It’s, ”, Villarejo’s, Francisco Franco Organizations: ETA Locations: Spain, Madrid, ”, Spanish, Basque

[1/4] Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appears after he casts his vote at a polling station during Regional elections, in Madrid, Spain, May 28, 2023. he said in a televised speech that took even some of his political allies by surprise. "...I believe it is necessary to respond and submit our democratic mandate to the will of the people." But it is highly unusual for a Spanish government to call a snap ballot after a poor performance in a regional vote. The PP potentially took as many as eight regional governments from the Socialists, depending on how successful the opposition party is in negotiating alliances with Vox.

☆ Spain to exhume fascist movement founder's body from Madrid mausoleum
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Charlie Devereux | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Juan MedinaMADRID, April 24 (Reuters) - Spain on Monday will dig up the body of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the fascist Falange movement that supported the Francoist regime, and remove it from a mausoleum carved into a mountainside near Madrid. Last year, the Valley of the Fallen was renamed Valley of Cuelgamuros - the original name of the site - under Spain's new Democratic Memory law. "It's another step in the resignification of the valley," Presidency Minister Felix Bolanos told reporters in Barcelona on Friday. The son of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, who governed Spain from 1923-1930, Jose Antonio was shot by firing squad in November 1936 by left-wing Republican forces in Alicante. Franco, a conservative general, and Primo de Rivera, a flamboyant playboy, had little love for each other, according to Francos's biographer Paul Preston.

☆ A corruption scandal, accusations of favoritism and Franco’s regime: Real Madrid and Barcelona in war of words over Spain’s fascist past
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Matias Grez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

More than eight weeks after the scandal emerged, FCB President Joan Laporta went out to bat for the Catalan club on Monday. General view of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu prior to the La Liga match between Real Madrid CF and Getafe CF on April 09, 2022 in Madrid, Spain. But Laporta finished by saying that Real Madrid is “a club considered the team of the regime,” a reference to the club’s reported historic ties with Franco during his fascist dictatorship. “We are talking about a club [Real] that has historically close ties to political, financial and sporting power,” Laporta said. In total, Real won 14 league titles to Barcelona’s eight under Franco, while the Blaugrana won nine Copas del Generalísimo to Real Madrid’s six.

☆ Picasso: Love Him or Hate Him?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Deborah Solomon | April | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

It is not hugely cool to profess a love for Picasso these days. This is what Picasso’s detractors — like Hannah Gadsby, the Australian comedian and Picasso basher, who will help curate a Picasso show at the Brooklyn Museum opening on June 2 — often miss. Picasso, by contrast, brought the weight of lived experience into his work, even when he was tethered to archetypal subjects. “The Mother” (1901), an early painting by Picasso, shows a view of motherhood purged of Renaissance idealization. The conventional view of the painting holds that the women are “dolled-up cocottes,” as John Richardson glibly put it in his biography of Picasso.

☆ Actress Juliette Binoche honoured at Spanish Goya film awards
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] Juliette Binoche receives the International Honorary Goya award during the Spanish Film Academy's Goya Awards ceremony in Seville, Spain, February 11, 2023. REUTERS/Marcelo del PozoSEVILLE, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The Spanish film academy's Goya Awards paid tribute on Saturday to the late Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, while French actress Juliette Binoche picked up an international honorary award. Saura, who died on Friday aged 91, had been due to receive the academy's honorary Goya Award at the annual ceremony. "As Bestas", which is Galician for "The Beasts" and is a tense thriller, won nine accolades including for best film, director, actor and music. Spanish movie star Penelope Cruz was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in "En Los Margenes", a film about housing problems.

☆ Explainer: What happens to Peru's former president Castillo now?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Marco Aquino | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LIMA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Peru's former president Pedro Castillo was ousted from power on Wednesday in an impeachment vote after failing in his bid to stay in power by dissolving Congress. Vice President Dina Boluarte was swiftly sworn in to replace him and Castillo was arrested. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist who has expressed sympathy with Castillo in the past, made clear on Thursday that he is open to offering the former leader asylum. Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard posted on Twitter that the Mexican ambassador in Lima met with Castillo on Thursday afternoon. He said Mexican officials have begun consultations over the asylum request with Peruvian officials, pledging to offer updates later.

☆ Prado lists artworks seized during Spanish Civil War, eyes restitution
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MADRID, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Spain's Prado Museum on Tuesday published a list of 25 artworks seized during the 1936-39 civil war and under Francisco Franco's dictatorship, and announced a research project that could lead to the works being returned to their legitimate owners. Among the works are paintings by 17th century Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Younger and Spanish impressionist Joaquin Sorolla, according to the list. The findings of the research, to be led by senior professor and expert on cultural heritage and the Civil War Arturo Colorado, are expected by early 2023. More than half a million people died during the Spanish Civil War and an estimated 150,000 were killed later in repression by Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship, historians estimate. One of the capital's most famous landmarks, the Prado contains over 7,000 of the world's finest paintings and other works of art.

☆ Nouă lideri separatiști ar putea să scape de închisoare pentru tentativa lor de puci din 2017
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-22 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +1 min

Nouă lideri secesioniști catalani ar putea să scape de închisoare pentru tentativa lor de puci din 2017, când au declanșat un referendum al regiunii spaniole și au declarat unilateral separarea sa de Madrid. Asta pentru că premierul spaniol, Pedro Sanchez, a anunțat că va da marți undă verde grațierii lor. Tentativa de declarare a independenței regiunii a fost una dintre cele mai grave crize politice prin care a trecut Spania de la sfârșitul dictaturii generalului Francisco Franco, în 1975. Atunci, guvernul Cataloniei în frunte cu liderul Carles Puigdemont a organizat un referendum de autodeterminare, după care a declarat independența regiunii. A urmat o preluare a puterii regionale de către Madrid, care a început să persecute penal liderii catalani.

Persons: Pedro Sanchez, Francisco Franco, . Locations: spaniole, Madrid, Spania

☆ Marius Stan, 30 octombrie 2020
▼ + stars: | 2020-10-30 | by ( ) moldova.europalibera.org time to read: +5 min

Anticomunismul a rămas un domeniu surprinzător de puțin studiat în istoria modernă a Statelor Unite, mai ales dacă ne uităm la cât de puternică a fost influența lui. Brigada (sau batalionul, stricto sensu) a fost prima oară recrutată în iarna lui 1936/1937. Au fost, într-adevăr, numeroase victimele din rândurile Brigăzii Abraham Lincoln și o treime nu s-au mai întors în America. Tot astfel au ajuns să aleagă o tabără și Lincolnii și să-i privească pe anarhiști ca pe inamici ai Republicii. Probabil că a fost tocmai inabilitatea acestor anticomuniști (de tipul Joseph McCarthy) de a face distincții între diferitele forme de comunism cea care a dus la așa-zisul anticomunism de tip „gaură neagră”.

Persons: Anticomunismul, McCarthy, Brigada Abraham Lincoln, Francisco Franco, Abraham Lincoln, Putem, George Orwell, Truman, FBI, Joseph McCarthy Organizations: Brigada, batalionul, Partidului Comunist, Civil Spaniol, Brigada Lincoln, Internaționale, Lincoln, veterani Locations: Statelor Unite, Spania, New York, Barcelonei, America, Madrid, Teruel, spaniolă, Catalonia, Republicii, Statele Unite, Golf

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