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Spain: The GAL scandal

01 September 1996

Deputy Prime Minister Francisco Alvarez Cascos stated on 29 September that "the GAL [Anti-terrorist Liberation Groups] were a phenomenon orchestrated by [former Socialist Prime Minister] Felipe Gonzalez and people in his immediate circle, because the GAL strategy was devised and carried out with resources drawn from secret reserve funds controlled exclusively by people in his confidence". This claim contrasted with the government's decision to refuse a request from the courts to declassify CESID documents which they had demanded. The documents, which were already in the investigating judges' possession having been seized from a former secret service officer, Colonel Perote, give details of many illegal activities, involving inter alia the creation, maintenance and activities of the GAL, in which the former PSOE government is implicated. The judges' formal request to the government is aimed at establishing the legal validity of the papers. Although the government refused the request, the papers may be subpoenaed by the Supreme Court itself, in which case the government would seem to have no option but to comply. Defence minister Eduardo Serra, justifying the decision before Parliament, drew a parallel with the transition from the Franco dictatorship to the democratic system. He suggested that now, as then, it was necessary to draw a line under the events of the past in order to avoid catastrophic social divisions. Few were persuaded of the validity of his comparison between the recent change of government and the replacement of a totalitarian regime by a constitutional one. Among the papers demanded by the judges are those referring to the use of beggars as guinea-pigs, to try out the effects of various drugs which were later to be used against alleged members of ETA.