Help Catalonia : The Kingdom where convicted coup leaders are pardoned

a Wednesday, December 04, 2013



Let’s take a trip back to 1981. Spain’s so-called democracy is less than 3 years old, and some historical nations are recovering their autonomous governments. Catalonia’s Generalitat had been restored in 1977 and held its first post-dictatorship elections in March 1980, and its Parliament was slowly but surely claiming jurisdiction on a wide array of issues. In a civilized country, this would have been seen as a natural process towards reestablishing the democratic state of things that had been torn apart by the Fascist uprising that led to the Spanish Civil War.

In Spain, this has led to King Juan Carlos and the military designing a coup in order to scare Congress into legitimizing the regime and putting the breaks on further democratic reform. The implication is straightforward: either accept the current pseudodemocracy, with a king annointed by Franco as his heir as Head of State, or we’ll return to a military dictatorship. 

The “failed” coup is led by General Alfonso Armada, who will be annointed President upon its succesful completion. But wait! Here comes King Juan Carlos to save the day and have the rogue servicemen arrested and sentenced to as many as 30 years in jail. Case closed, all hail the King!

Or not.

The plot thickens. It turns out General Armada had been the King’s assistant for almost two decades. And it turns out Armada had quit in 1977 after disagreeing with the democratic principles of Spain’s new government, but King Juan Carlos had him named second-in-command of the Army a few weeks before the coup. 

Let’s move the clock ahead to 1988. Armada is serving the fifth year of his 30-year bid. Spain’s government is in the hands of the Socialist party, the party who had the most to lose had a Fascist uprising come to fruition. In fact, many Socialist MP’s had been prosecuted, imprisoned, tortured or had lost loved ones during Franco’s dictatorship which Armada and his cronies hoped to replicate. You would think a pardon for Armada is out of the question. It is not. 

In Spain, democracy ranks well below the supremacy of Spanish nationalist principles in the list of government priorities. As an instigator of the coup that temporarily made moderate Catalan nationalists shy away from further demands of autonomy, Armada had earned the respect of Spanish nationalists at either side of the spectrum. With reports pointing to Armada’s deteriorating health, the Spanish government had the perfect excuse to pardon the former General. These pardons are not all that unusual, and are generally granted to criminals suffering an advanced stage of terminal illness. To put it bluntly, these pardons are granted so criminals can die in the company of family and friends. 

Armada certainly died in the company of family and friends. Only it happened yesterday, 25 years after his release, which is about 25 years longer than those who are pardoned because of failing health usually live. Which makes one wonder whether General Armada received his pardon because his health was failing, or whether he received it because Spain’s democratic health failed a mere three years after being born.

Arnau Gomis

http://www.helpcatalonia.cat/2013/12/the-kingdom-where-convicted-coup.html