Claims of Franco victims cover-up

Officials in Madrid have been accused of lying about the cremation of 3,000 civilians, executed under the brutal regime of Francisco Franco, after heavy rains exposed a mass grave.

Recent storms swept away soil in an area of the La Almudena public cemetery, exposing the bones of people executed on the orders of Francoist military courts in the five years after Spain’s civil war ended in 1939.

The finding contradicts a claim by the municipal funeral company which said the ossuary containing the remains of those killed during the military dictator’s post-war repression had been found and the bones cremated in the 1990s.

“It was a genuine surprise, because it had been thought that the ossuary was empty,” Madrid human rights and historical memory department head Mauricio Valiente said.

A survey will be carried out to determine the dimensions of the grave and confirm that the dead are victims of fascist firing squads, he said.

Leading Spanish forensic anthropologist Francisco Etxeberria said: “A determining factor will be the discovery of skulls with bullet wounds, indicating that they were shot at close range.”

Among the 3,000 bodies known to have been buried in the cemetery are the “Thirteen Roses”, 13 young women who were executed in 1939 accused of anti-Franco activism.