10 Now that fifty years have passed since Franco's death, both the progressive and conservative press have been keen to take stock, not so much of the man himself, but of what the fascist dictatorship meant, a regime that politically structured the country for thirty-six years. Only Portugal has had a longer right-wing dictatorship; no other country in the world (and Salazarism wasn't nearly as deadly) had a comparable iron fist, not even the military dictatorships of Venezuela or Paraguay. This, evidently, must have consequences for civil and political life, just as it does if the dictatorship is left-wing and very long, as in the USSR, China, Cuba, and Romania, among others.

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