Interpol issues arrest orders for former Franco ministers

20 people wanted for crimes committed during dictatorship

Martín Villa in times gone by

MADRID -- Interpol has issued 'very urgent' preventative arrest petitions for 20 people wanted by Argentine judge María Servini de Cubría for crimes committed during the Franco regime. The request is for their extradition to Argentina, under the Universal Law principle of international legislation. The order includes two former ministers in the 1970s: José Utrera Molina and Rodolfo Martín Villa, who said on Wednesday that he wants to appear in court to defend himself. It also includes other ex-ministers as well as retired policemen, judges and others.

However, it is unlikely that they will actually be extradited, although the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court) can have them arrested until extradition proceedings are completed. More likely, though, is that they might be put under a lenient house arrest, for instance, with periodic face-showing visits to the court and their passports removed.

Rodolfo Martín Villa is probably the most prominent of the twenty involved. He was Union Relations Minister in the last days of Franco's life and the beginning of the transition period, between 1975 and 1976. Previously he had held other important posts.

Utrera Molina, who was Minister for Housing in 1973 and Minister Secretary General of Franco's political arm, the Movimiento (1974 - 75), is accused of ordering the death of Anarchist Salvador Puig Antich, the last person to be executed in Spain by garrotte (garrote vil).

Among others involved is Abelardo García Balaguer, a gynecologist, which may lead to more news about the big issue of doctors, nurses and nuns stealing babies to sell. (Let's hope so. This horrifying subject is evidently being held back somehow by interests not wanting to be revealed. Several courts around the country have decided that many of these cases can't be judged because they have 'run out' of time.)