Franco-era torture suspect’s pension boost
Notorious former police officer receives extra money thanks to medals for services to Spain
THE Spanish government has revealed that a notorious alleged torturer under Francisco Franco enjoys an extra-large pension thanks to medals awarded for services to the country.
An Interior Ministry report on Antonio González Pacheco, a former police officer who liked to play with his gun during interrogations and gained the nickname of “Billy El Niño” (Billy the Kid), shows that he received four decorations between 1972 and 1982, the last coming seven years after the death of Franco. The fact that the 72-year-old Mr González Pacheco, who served in Franco’s notorious socio-political police brigade, possesses these medals means that his state pension as a retired officer is boosted by 50 per cent.
Spain’s socialist government commissioned an internal investigation in response to a request by the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory to strip the alleged torturer of a medal he was awarded in 1977.
A petition demanding that the former policeman be stripped of his medals has been signed by 250,000 people.
Last month, Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the Left-wing party, Podemos, cried in Congress as he read out an account of an act of alleged torture by Mr González Pacheco against a woman.
Mr Iglesias criticised the then-government of Mariano Rajoy, the former conservative prime minister, for not agreeing to strip the former policeman of the 1977 decoration.
In 2013, a court in Argentina issued an international arrest warrant for Mr González Pacheco and Jesús Muñecas Aguilar, a former civil guard, in connection with cases of alleged murder, torture and illegal detention as part of an investigation into crimes committed by former officials serving under Franco.
María Servini de Cubría, the Buenos Aires judge, opened the investigation based on the principle of universal justice after a group of individuals took their complaints abroad when Spanish courts cited the country’s post-franco amnesty law as a barrier against possible prosecution.
Spain’s high court refused to extradite the two men, who were called to testify in 2014. The Spanish judges concluded that the offences had elapsed as they were allegedly committed more than 30 years previously.
Fernando Grande-marlaska, Spain’s interior minister, said yesterday that he is examining the procedures for withdrawing the medals from Mr González Pacheco.
A doctor who is the first person to be put on trial in connection with a historic stolen babies scandal has denied any knowledge of a child-trafficking network centred around the Madrid clinic where he was the director.
Dr Eduardo Vela, an 85-year-old gynaecologist, told a court in Madrid that he could not remember the exact nature of his duties at the San Ramon clinic, which he ran for 20 years up to 1982. But he denied the accusations of having given Inés Madrigal to her adoptive parents as a newborn baby girl in 1969, using falsified birth papers that stated she was their biological daughter.
“I didn’t give any baby to anyone,” the gynaecologist said when asked if he had met Inés Pérez, Ms Madrigal’s adoptive mother, whose testimony was crucial in bringing the case to trial. Before her death in 2016, Ms Pérez said Dr Vela had given her a baby girl as “a gift” after showing her how to feign pregnancy by putting cushions under her clothes.