The Diplomat in Spain

A newspaper front page of that time.

The Diplomat. Madrid

The 27 September 1975 saw the last executions by firing squad in Spain. The Franco regime authorised capital punishment on that day for five terrorists for violent crimes, three from the Revolutionary Anti-Fascist and Patriotic Front (FRAP) and two from ETA, in an attempt to demonstrate firmness within the country but the executions led to protests abroad culminating in the withdrawal of a significant number of accredited diplomats from Madrid. 

It was to be the last time Spain would be isolated from international politics. Since then, several countries have temporarily withdrawn their ambassadors in protest —Morocco on several occasions during the Aznar governments and, more recently, Venezuela-, but always acting singly.

During the 1975 military trials, the Swedish Prime Minister had won the hearts of the Spanish opposition by taking to the streets of Stockholm with a money box asking for help for the families of the condemned. In the hours leading up to the executions, Pope Paul VI pleaded with Franco to show clemency but it was in vain and, when the firing squads did their work on the morning of 27 September, the Mexican government Luis Echeverría formally requested Spain’s expulsion from the UN.

In parallel, a dozen or so Western countries withdrew their ambassadors from Madrid, four from the Eastern Bloc recalled their commercial attaches and in several European capitals there were incidents outside Spanish embassies and consulates. The most violent of them occurred in Lisbon, only a few months after the fall of the Marcelo Caetano dictatorship as a result of the Revolución de los Claveles. A mob of entered the Spanish mission and set fire to a large number of the objects and pieces of furniture they found there. Many works of art were lost in the flames, or disappeared in the looting, although only a short time ago, one of them resurfaced in Madrid.

The response of the Franco regime was to call for a demonstration of support in the Plaza de Oriente, at which an enfeebled Franco appeared in public for what as to be the last time. In his speech, he stated that, “all that has happened  in Spain and in Europe is the result of a left wing-Masonic conspiracy, acting in concert with the terrorist-communist subversion in a society, that if it honours us, debases them”.