- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN Spanish) - This Friday at the end of the Council of Ministers, the vice president of the acting Spanish Government, Carmen Calvo, announced that the Executive will proceed to exhume the remains of the dictator Francisco Franco del Valle de los Caidos before next Friday, October 25 . He did not specify a specific day and time, but said that in any case the date will be notified (and both Franco's family and the media will be announced) forty-eight hours before it is completed.
MIRA: Supreme Court of Spain dictates that the remains of exdictor Franco can be exhumed
Calvo also confirmed that the taking of images of the exhumation itself will not be allowed, out of respect for family members and the instrumental process, although a space outside the Basilica will be enabled so that, once the body is exhumed, the means can record the process of transfer to the cemetery of Mingorrubio.
On the means with which they will carry out the transfer (air means - helicopter-, land ...), Calvo said to consider all options, without specifying a specific means.
In September the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that Franco's remains could be exhumed, solving a problem that has divided opinion for decades.
Franco was buried in the mausoleum - which was partially built by political prisoners of his regime and in which a mass grave of victims of the Spanish Civil War is located - shortly after his death in 1975.
Since then it has become an attraction for tourists and supporters of the extreme right who congregate on the anniversary of Franco's death on November 20.
MIRA: Franco's exhumation in Spain raises controversy in the Vatican
The court also rejected the request made by the Franco family to bury the body of the dictator in the Cathedral of La Almudena, in the center of Madrid.
His remains, therefore, will be taken to the Mingorrubio cemetery (in El Pardo, north of Madrid) where the dictator's wife is buried.
Franco ruled Spain from the late 1930s until his death. The nationalist regime carried out thousands of executions during the Spanish Civil War and in the following years.
After World War II, he was seen by many as the last surviving fascist dictator and was ostracized by the United Nations. His regime was partially rehabilitated during the Cold War due to Franco's firm anti-communist ideology.
In 2007, the Spanish government passed the Historical Memory Law, which formally condemns the Franco regime and prohibits political events in the Valley of the Fallen. It also recognizes the victims of the civil war and the Franco State and promises help to those victims and their descendants.
Frank