Spain Apologises for Jailing Homosexual in the 1970s
THE TELEGRAPH: Spain has apologised to a man jailed for being homosexual in the 1970s under a law introduced by General Francisco Franco.

Antoni Ruiz, 50, has become the first Spaniard to receive official recognition of his suffering more than three decades after he was imprisoned for his sexual orientation.

An estimated 5,000 men served prison sentences during the dictatorship of Gen Franco when homosexuality was made illegal but Mr Ruiz was one of the few sentenced for the crime following the death of the dictator in November 1975.

In 1976, at the age of 17, Mr Ruiz, from Valencia, told family members that he was gay. At the time homosexuality was still banned and when his parents confided in a Catholic monk, he denounced their son to the authorities.

He was sentenced to three months in prison and was then banished from his home town for a further year.

Mr Ruiz, who heads an association for former prisoners, received a formal letter of apology from Spain's justice minister last week and an offer of financial compensation amounting to 4,000 euros (£3,600). >>> Fiona Govan in Madrid | Sunday, December 06, 2009

Generalísimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead – And His Statues Are Next: Socialist Government Banishes Fascist Icons Though Nostalgia for the Dictator Lives On
Photo of General Franco courtesy of Google Images
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: MADRID -- Every Nov. 20, for the past dozen years, Sinforiano Bezanilla has visited a pigeon-covered statue of Gen. Francisco Franco to pay homage to Europe's longest-serving fascist dictator.

This year, the sculpture won't be there. Acting on a law passed by Spain's Socialist government, authorities uprooted the statue of the Generalísimo in December from the city square of Santander in northern Spain and banished it to the local museum.

"The left is attempting to rewrite our country's history. They base it on a series of half-lies, half-truths and outright lies," says Mr. Bezanilla. The 44-year-old municipal worker was just 11 when Franco died. But he has read volumes on the former dictator's ideas and is nostalgic for his regime.

More than three decades after Franco died and 72 years after he seized power, Spain is on a controversial mission to expunge the many emblems of its painful past that are still on public display.

The Socialist government says the assorted icons of the Franco regime still on view -- fascist-style eagles, yokes and arrows -- have no place in modern Spain. A year ago, it passed a law to eliminate them.

But the drive -- part of a broader law aimed at redressing Franco-era injustices -- has raised hackles among conservatives who say Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is reopening wounds they say were healed after the dictator's death. >>> By Thomas Catan | Monday, March 2, 2009

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