Chile, Spain and Latin America: The Right of Asylum at the Onset of the Second World War

Abstract

In December 1938 an alliance of the Radical, Communist and Socialist parties took office in Chile, the first Popular Front to come to power in Latin America. A few months later, in Spain, the Nationalist forces under Generalísimo Franco occupied Madrid, bringing an end to the civil war. Shortly after, a serious diplomatic conflict developed between Spain and Chile, in which most of Latin America gradually became embroiled. It concerned the fate of 17 Spanish republicans who had sought asylum in the Chilean embassy in the last days of the seige of Madrid, and culminated in July 1940 when the Nationalist government broke off relations with Chile. Initially, the issue at the heart of the episode was the right to political asylum and the established practice of Latin American diplomatic legations of offering protection to individuals seeking asylum (asilados). The causes of the conflict, however, became increasingly obscured as time went on. The principles at stake became confused by mutual Spanish– Chilean distrust, the Nationalists' ideological crusade both within Spain and outside and the Chilean government's deep hostility to the Franco regime, which it saw as a manifestation of fascism. The ideological gulf widened with the onset of the Second World War. This article concentrates primarily, although not exclusively, on the first part of the dispute, April 1939–January 1940. In this period asylum, which is our main interest, was uppermost in Spanish–Chilean diplomatic correspondence.

Diplomatic Asylum and the Assange Case

“…22 The official position of the Franco regime was that although Spain was under no obligation to recognize the right to asylum, it would act in accordance with international humanitarian practice on the matter and thus respect asylum granted to political offenders. 23 Contrary to those refugees who had found asylum on foreign warships and had been transported away from Spanish waters, however, the new Franco government did not allow the 'asilados' in Madrid a safe conduct out of the country. 24 It is for the same reason that, at the time diplomatic asylum was on the decline in most European countries, it made major advances in Latin America, where countries had gradually freed themselves from colonial rule.…”