Spain: One More Step

Dictator Francisco Franco insists that Spain's current wave of unrest is a minor matter largely trumped up by the foreign press. Giving the lie to his own pronouncement, Franco's Cabinet last week decided that things were at least serious enough to suspend the article of the Spanish bill of rights that permits citizens to move freely around their own country.

What scared Franco was two bombings that shattered a Madrid bank front last week and made a mighty bang outside an administration building of the Roman Catholic Church. Police moved in on suspected members of an anti-Franco underground, arresting dozens. Then, at the Madrid airport, Franco's agents grabbed two prominent Spaniards as they returned from a widely publicized conference of opposition leaders in Munich. Economist Dr. Jesus Prados Arrarte is expected to do a three-month stretch in the isolated Canary Islands; Monarchist Joaquin de Satrustegui will doubtless receive similar punishment. For those still out of jail, Franco's new residence decree would be equally effective.