An old claim, blocked again by Article 155
In Spain the remains of over 114,000 people are missing
For many years families of Civil War victims have claimed the right to know where their dead are buried. In Spain the remains of over 114,000 people are missing. It is the country with the second highest number of missing persons, only topped by Cambodia. In 42 years of democracy the number of exhumations and identifications has been laughable because the Spanish State has always looked the other way.
Between 2009 and 2010 the policies on historical memory received a strong boost in Catalonia, but then cutbacks came and the budgets were reduced dramatically. When Raül Romeva took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations, and Transparency he assured that the exhumation of mass graves would be one of his priorities, and announced a budget of 800,000 euros for 2017 and 2018.
At this time, the census of missing persons includes 5,297 registered cases, and the DNA identification program launched in September 2016 has collected 1,023 samples. During 2017, 129 graves have been located and the remains of 101 individuals have been recovered. A grave in the cemetery of Figuerola d’Orcau, where 17 of Franco’s soldiers were buried, has been exhumed, as has another grave in Rams, Vilanova de Meià, with three republican soldiers. Two graves in Prats de Lluçanes have been exhumed, with republican soldiers and firemen, and the body of an international brigadist —probably a Czech or Croat-- has been unearthed in Cassà de la Selva.
But Romeva’s ambitious plan has been stopped halfway through. There were 40 actions planned. Whether or not they can be carried out will depend on the political future. For the moment, the application of Article 155 has brought everything to a standstill.
