Spain starts exhumation of civil war victims from mass grave

Spain started exhuming the remains of civil war victims on Monday from a monument that until recently housed the remains of dictator Francisco Franco.

The families of 128 victims have requested exhumations. However, the mass grave, constructed by the Franco regime to commemorate the fallen and extol the fascist regime, holds the remains of nearly 34,000 people.

Fascist leaders Francisco Franco and Primo de Rivera were exhumed from the monument in the years since the progressive coalition government assumed power in Spain.

A team of 15 specialists, including forensic experts, archaeologists, dentists, geneticists, and scientific police, are participating in the mission which some families have been waiting for decades.

The experts are entering a crypt on Monday in hopes of locating the boxes containing the bones of the victims set to be removed. Subsequently, the bones and teeth will be analyzed for identification.

"We're feeling very hopeful," said Eduardo Ranz, the families' attorney, to Spanish broadcaster TVE, adding that the process "will take weeks."

Meanwhile, Spanish government spokesperson Isabel Rodriguez praised the exhumation that has faced legal obstacles for years.

"Finally, though perhaps delayed, Spain's democracy is responding to the victims," she told TVE. "A country that upholds democracy and remembers those who made it possible cannot continue as if this didn't exist."

The exhumations are happening a little over a month before the national elections and remain highly politicized.

The coalition government, led by the Socialist Party with the far left, enacted a new historical memory law in 2022, provoking sharp criticism from right-wing factions who accuse the polarizing society of digging up the past.

In a 2022 interview with Europapress, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the Popular Party, said he would alter the remembrance law if he ended up governing.