Before the end of the current socialist government in late 2023, the Spanish government intends to open all mass graves dating back to the Franco dictatorship and recover all the victims buried there since the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), according to an announcement made today, Tuesday, by Minister of State for Democratic Memory Affairs Fernando Martinez Lopez.
More than 25,000 war victims’ remains are anticipated to be recovered by Lopez, who also stated that the Spanish government has kept track of a budget of €500,000 to retrieve the victims from the Wadi Killigamurus region and return their remains to their families, according to the “Europa Press” news agency.
Lopez said during his appearance today before the budget committee in the Spanish parliament that he would directly present the actions of his ministry, which is connected to the Prime Minister, noting that more than 500 mass graves had been dug up and that between Republicans and military personnel, nearly 12,000 victims’ remains had been discovered. He pointed out that 504 mass graves were identified in different regions only during the previous two years.
After General Franco left office in 1975, Spain started the process of exhuming the remains of the civil war dead. However, it did not receive enough attention until the Socialists came to power in the early 1980s, when the process of documenting and conducting scientific research to identify the identities of the victims and hand over their remains for their families started.
The renowned Spanish poet is one of the most well-known civil war casualties whose grave has not yet been located.
Spain plans to retrieve the remains of civil war victims from all mass graves.
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