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The Government requests a building permit to exhume the remains of victims of the Valley of the Fallen

2021-04-12T13:13:52.726Z


The Executive grants 665,000 euros to finance the recovery of some 60 bodies claimed by the families The Government has requested this Monday to the Madrid City Council of San Lorenzo de El Escorial the building license to begin the works of exhumation and identification of the remains of the victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, which were buried in the crypts of the Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen. The request presented by the Ministry of the Presidency, R


The Government has requested this Monday to the Madrid City Council of San Lorenzo de El Escorial the building license to begin the works of exhumation and identification of the remains of the victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, which were buried in the crypts of the Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen.

The request presented by the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory managed by Vice President Carmen Calvo is a necessary requirement to be able to enter the basilica and proceed to identify some 60 people who have been claimed by their relatives.

The initiative comes after the Council of Ministers approved on March 30 an item of more than 650,000 euros for both access tasks and the corresponding genetic analysis of the remains.

The Executive has received more than 60 requests from families who want to recover remains buried there, from Republicans but also from men linked to the national side.

As in the case of the exhumation of mass graves during the Franco regime in cemeteries ―the crypts of the valley have the category of civil cemetery―, the operation will be carried out without altering other remains, and only samples will be extracted to identify the bones of the relatives claimed.

The start of the exhumations will depend on the date on which the council communicates its authorization to the National Heritage, but the Executive assures that its intention is to carry it out as soon as possible.

National Heritage, the institution on which the Valley of the Fallen depends, has asked the council in which it is located the corresponding permission to carry out the work, as it did in the case of the exhumation of the dictator Francisco Franco, although in On that occasion, the Executive found it difficult to complete the work, since Judge José Yusty blocked the urban authorization.

The project has been carried out since last year and includes, according to the Ministry, the necessary works for accessing and securing the passage into the different levels of the crypts.

The action also includes the adoption of health and safety measures, as well as the removal or dismantling of enclosures, installations and equipment for access to the crypts and the realization of said accesses.

The Ministry ensures that it includes the adequacy of lighting and security installations and the adoption of measures that guarantee structural security for the interior inspection of each of the crypts.

The coroner Francisco Etxeberria explained to EL PAÍS that teams of between 10 and 15 people will work in the mausoleum, including forensics, archaeologists and funeral home personnel with training in thanatology.

The intervention will be carried out in parts, starting with the crypt of the Holy Sepulcher, and can last for months, without in principle it being necessary to close access to the monument.

Two of the victims who will be exhumed are the Aragonese brothers Manuel and Antonio Lapeña Altabás, from Villarroya de la Sierra (Zaragoza) and shot by Franco's troops in 1936 and buried in Calatayud, but who in 1959 were reinhumed in the Valley of the Fallen.

The Lapeña brothers have been waiting for a dignified burial for five years, when a court authorized their exhumation.

The challenges of the Executive in Historical Memory

Since the "law of historical memory" was approved in 2007, National Heritage has recognized the right to recover the remains of those close to it from more than 60 families.

The spokeswoman for the Executive, María Jesús Montero, pointed this out on the same day that the Council of Ministers approved the grant that will finance these works.

The request presented this Monday will allow to advance in Historical Memory, a pending challenge of the Government.

The transfer of Franco's remains to the Mingorrubio cemetery, in El Pardo, in October 2019, was the first step towards the redefinition of the Valley of the Fallen, conceived by the dictator to immortalize his victory in the Civil War.

On the day of the exhumation, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, described as "infamy" that should be "repaired sooner rather than later" the fact that the mausoleum housed many victims who had been buried there without the consent of their loved ones. dear.

The general budgets for 2021 foresee an item of three million euros for the search, identification and dignity of people disappeared during the Civil War and the dictatorship.

This sum is part of the four-year plan for the opening of graves that provides for the exhumation of 557 clandestine burials throughout the national territory.

Last year, the Government activated what it calls the "shock plan" to alleviate the lack of economic resources - since 2013 there were no state subsidies for these tasks - and that has allowed the launch of 114 projects to open graves with a estimated number of 3,000 victims.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-04-12

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