The Numbers Game

The Spanish Civil War, that cruel testing ground for World War II, is now years past. The rest of the world passed on to bigger cataclysms and newer conflicts, but in Spain, the old antagonisms still color the landscape. When Generalissimo Francisco Franco's rebel troops finally triumphed, nearly 300,000 Loyalists landed behind bars as political prisoners. The number in jail has steadily declined. Some prisoners have been freed in amnesties. In 1958, to celebrate the coronation of Pope John XXIII, Franco released all prisoners with two years or less to serve. More have earned their freedom the hard way. Thousands were recruited into the ranks of the Blue Division that Franco sent to fight alongside the Nazis on the Eastern Front. Others were let out to labor on vast state projects: some 25,000 Civil War prisoners worked out the remainder of their sentences on Franco's monumental Guadarrama mountains Civil War Valhalla.

Last week some 4.000 employees of the General Prison Corps gathered in Madrid to toast Jose Maria Herreros de Tejada. retiring after long service as director of Spanish jails. Defending his stewardship against "foreign" critics, Director Herreros proudly announced that in Spain today, "prisoners charged with crimes against the security of the state--otherwise known as political prisoners--who are sentenced, tried and detained, number only 683." About 90% of these prisoners "are held for Communist-type activities," he added, "and the other 10% are fellow travelers." Except for The Netherlands, boasted Herreros, Spain has the lowest per capita number of prisoners of any nation in the Western world: only 50.44 per 100,000 population, against (as he was quick to point out) the U.S. rate of 117.42.

Western observers were understandably skeptical. For one thing, at the beginning of the year Spain officially owned up to 1,068 political prisoners in a total prison population of 15,000. Franco, perennially bidding to be recognized as the West's favorite dictator, may simply have rejuggled some of his political prisoners into criminal classifications. Hardly had Herreros sat down than word came from Barcelona of two trials for "military rebellion," Franco's euphemism for anti-Franco activity. An Israeli, a Frenchman and 13 Spaniards were given sentences of one to twelve years in jail.

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