Word: franco
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...elusive, deceptive, difficult to trace. So it seemed last week as TIME'S staff set to work examining the situation in Spain for our story in this issue. Early in the week Madrid Bureau Chief Gavin Scott alerted TIME editors in New York that Generalissimo Francisco Franco had suffered a mild heart attack during a Cabinet meeting. By the time government officials had reluctantly acknowledged Scott's report, he was already busy trying to penetrate the secrecy that enshrouds Franco. He later joined Photographer Eddie Adams for an exclusive photo session with the Generalissimo's hand-picked...
...advancing age began taking its inexorable toll, Francisco Franco periodically pledged to his countrymen that he would rule Spain only "as long as God gives me life and a clear mind." It was apparent last week that the pledge was soon to come due, despite the determination with which the 82-year-old Generalissimo clung to the absolute power he had been wielding for nearly four decades. Severely weakened by a series of heart attacks, Western Europe's last dictator at week's end was barely hanging on to life. As the last rites of the Roman Catholic...
Spain now recognizes only one legal political organization, Franco's National Movement. The Spanish police force reportedly uses torture techniques to elicit confessions from political prisoners. An antiterrorist act provides for swift military tribunals with no appeal for those who kill policemen and makes those who criticize the administration of justice liable to prosecution. Even labor unions in Spain are run by the state and strikes are now forbidden...
Undoubtedly Spain will change with Franco's removal from office, but the trend toward reform will not be dramatic. The real holders of power, such as Premier Carlos Arias Navarro, will probably make conciliatory reforms such as granting labor unions autonomy and making strikes legal, but Arias and others will continue to attempt to ban some political parties, particularly those left of center. And Juan Carlos, characterized by his friends, according to Israel Shenker of the New York Times, as "a simple melancholy character with little character and less color, lacking in wit and drive," brings no hope for democracy...
...State Department announced a new agreement with Spain that includes $700 million in military aid and $250 million in economic assistance over the next five years in exchange for the use of four military bases. This is the first such agreement to be put before Congress for ratification since Franco took power in 1939 (there have been executive agreements with Spain since...