Abstract

23 Years in Franco's Jails

Spain has been in a kind of turmoil since the end of January. This has been especially true of Madrid, Spain, Barcelona, Spain, and Bilbao, Spain. A labor-union meeting in Madrid, attended by representatives of a million construction workers, generated an atmosphere of protest that came close to subversion. This all happen in the regime of dictator Francisco Franco. Many Spanish families fought on the Republican side of the Civil War. At the end of the War, one could state without exaggeration that one-half of the nation was either in exile or in jail. The prison population of both sexes was made up of peasants, workers, merchants, intellectuals, all without previous records, who had been sentenced by military tribunals in which defense had been impossible, found guilty of rebellion or support of rebellion according to the military code without proof.