I don't blame Gens. Framco or Pinochet for anything they did. Indeed, I consider them both to be heroes...Franco can only be regarded as a hero by comparing him with the alternative - a Communist government. Franco, evaluated by himself, was a cold-hearted butcher,and a follower of Mussolini and Hitler
Franco despised Hitler, although he was not above accepting the Führer's help against the communists. During World War II, Franco's neutral Spain served as a conduit for thousands of French Jews fleeing the deportation, and Franco steadfastly refused to allow Hitler access to Spanish resources and facilities throughout the war. As for his brutal repression of the remaining communists in Spain after the civil war: if you'd been in his shoes, you'd have done exactly the same thing.
Franco was no Fascist, at least not by the definition of Fascism established by il Duce; he was far too good a Catholic to have subscribed to the state-worshipping philosophy of the atheist Mussolini.