ABSTRACT
The wilful amnesia of post-transition Spain contrasts with the international doctrine in relation to the fight against impunity and the need to reconstruct the truth around grave violations of human rights. In April 2004, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, grandson of an executed Republican soldier, became Prime Minister of Spain. The period covering José María Aznar's mandate, presiding over two governments, was characterised by a complete disregard for any issues that had anything to do with the victims of the Civil War or Francoism. Amnesty International turned its attention to the Civil War and the post-war in 2005 when the ARMH asked for its support in the cause of enforced disappearances. The 1976 and 1977 Amnesty Laws extinguished criminal liabilities for those covered by the amnesty, which, in theory, should have also resulted in extinguishing their criminal records.
