An estimated 100,000 people who disappeared during the 1936-39 Civil War are still unaccounted for, including Spain’s best known 20th-century poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. Garzon opened the investigation at the request of victims’ relatives in October 2008. Most of the disappeared were supporters of the Republican government against which Franco led a military uprising in 1936. Thousands of Franco supporters who were also killed have long since been tallied and commemorated. Garzon passed the case on to regional courts amid claims that the crimes were covered by a 30-year statute of limitations and a 1977 amnesty law passed during Spain’s tense transition to democracy. His trial stems from a lawsuit brought by the small rightist Manos Limpias union and the far-right Falange party, which was a mainstay of Franco’s dictatorship but is now marginalized. Full article.