In January 1958, the Law of Summary Procedures in Courts-Martial was enacted, "foreign to the legal procedures of a State governed by the rule of law", which established a Special Military Court for Extremist Activities, whose investigating judge was Colonel Enrique Eymar, former president of the Tribunal for the Suppression of Freemasonry and Communism.[2]
The Allies' declarations condemning the Franco regime boosted morale among the Republican opposition. In October 1944, clandestine contacts between socialists, anarchists, and republicans led to the creation of the first unitary opposition body within the country, the National Alliance of Democratic Forces. Neither the communists nor the Negrinist socialists were members of the Alliance, and the Alliance expressed its willingness to negotiate with the monarchist forces to restore democracy without making the restoration of the Republic a condition.[3]
Likewise, in 1944, Maqui activity intensified, the most notable event of which was the attempted invasion of the Aran Valley in October 1944 by a contingent of some 6,000 communist guerrillas, which was a resounding failure as they were defeated by the Army and the Civil Guard.[4]
To combat such guerrilla activity, the regime began tightening its control over popular movements, and in April 1947, Franco promulgated the Decree-Law on the Suppression of Banditry and Terrorism. The preamble of the Decree-Law stated that it intended to use "special measures of repression" to combat "the most serious types of crime in any post-war situation, a consequence of the relaxation of moral ties and the exaltation of impulses of cruelty and aggressiveness in criminal and maladjusted people." The articles established the cases in which the death penalty would be applied to "criminals"—or "bandits"—which included not only killing someone, but also brandishing "a weapon of war" or detaining "travelers in unpopulated areas."[1][5]
The Decree-Law was intended to provide legal cover for the "dirty war" actions of the Civil Guard and the Army to crush the anti-Franco guerrillas; the guerrillas were not considered combatants, but "bandits", in an attempt to depoliticize their struggle. Its promulgation marked the beginning of the so-called "three years of terror", when Franco's forces resorted to torture and extrajudicial executions of guerrillas, sometimes utilizing "ley de fugas"— intentionally provoking escape and using that as an excuse for execution. Their families and alleged "collaborators" in the mountains and rural areas were also subjected to torture and ill-treatment.[6]
Both the guerrillas, Army, and Civil Guard resorted to reprisals, often affecting a "terrified civilian population". "A captured guerrilla had little chance of surviving," but neither did "a village mayor, or a notorious Francoist captured in a guerrilla raid."[7]
↑Gil Pecharromán 2008, p.98-99"Entre los peores actos de esta guerra soterrada se encuentra la matanza del Pozu Funeres, cerca de Langreo, donde en marzo de 1948 veintidós mineros socialistas, capturados por una brigadilla de falangistas y guardias civiles, fueron torturados y arrojados al fondo de la mina, donde sus captores les liquidaron con cartuchos de dinamita"
Lorenzo Rubio, César (2020). "La máquina represiva: la tortura en el franquismo". In Pedro Oliver Olmo (ed.). La tortura en la España contemporánea. Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata. pp.131–198. ISBN978-84-1352-077-3.
