Francoist Spain
Capital punishment in Francoist Spain was restored fully on decree in 1938. From 1940 to 1975, 165 judicial executions are reported to have been carried out, although precise numbers from the years following the Spanish Civil War are vague. By one estimate, at least 1 706 executions by firing squad were reported only in Barcelona until 1952.[4] Among the most relevant executed from this period there is Lluís Companys, President of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
As Franco's regime was consolidated, use of capital punishment became scarcer; between 1950 and 1959, 58 Spaniards (including 2 women) were executed by garrotte and 9 by firing squad. In the 1960s, the total number of executions dropped to 6; 2 in 1960, 2 in 1963 and 2 in 1966 (less than in neighbouring France, although several of the convictions were considered political). Due to criticism, a 6-year moratorium followed, broken when Pedro Martínez Exposito was shot in 1972 for homicide and robbery. The next executions, of Salvador Puig Antich and Heinz Chez in 1974, were allegedly held on the same day to deliberately confuse public sentiments and equalise the execution of a political opponent - both were convicted of killing Guardia Civil members - with that of a common murderer.[5] The last five death sentences were carried out simultaneously in Madrid, Barcelona and Burgos on 27 September 1975, prompting Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme - amongst other harsh condemnations - to denounce the regime as "devilish murderers" the following day.[6]
The imposition of the death penalty for terrorism followed its own logic during Franco's dictatorship. Sometimes it was not swiftly carried out, such as in the case of Andrés Ruiz Márquez (Coronel Montenegro),[7] a member of a Spanish National Liberation Front (FELN) commando who had set up a string of small bombs in Madrid. He was arrested by the Spanish police in 1964 and condemned to death but saw his sentence commuted to life in prison.[8]