Amnesty files lawsuit in Mexico over rights abuses, ‘crimes against humanity’ during Spanish Civil War

Amnesty Inernational, FIDH and CMDPDH present evidence to Mexican attorney general's office. Photo: AI via Público
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• Lawsuit on behalf of family of Spanish railway worker disappeared in 1936 •

Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have filed a lawsuit in Mexico demanding information on the presumed murder by pro-Franco police at the onset of Spain’s Civil War of Félix Llorente Gutiérrez, then a 27-year old railway worker and union member in Medina del Campo, Valladolid.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Llorente Gutiérrez’s relatives living in Mexico, calls on the Mexican attorney general’s office to begin an immediate and thorough investigation into his disappearance and presumed murder in August 1936, as well as thousands of other “crimes against humanity” committed by pro-Franco forces during Spain’s bloody three year civil war.

The lawsuit marks the second time in recent years that families faced with a virtual wall of silence in Spain around extrajudicial murders and rights abuses committed by forces loyal to Gen. Francisco Franco during the Civil War have turned to Latin American courts to pursue the cases.

► Read the Full Story in Spanish at Público …

► Read the Full Story in English at El País …

► Read the Amnesty International press release in Spanish here …

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