From the BBC:
“Primo de Rivera: Spain exhumes fascist Falange leader”
(José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1934)
The remains of Spanish fascist leader José Antonio Primo de
Rivera have been exhumed from a mausoleum and moved to a less-prominent
cemetery in Madrid. The move is part of an effort by the government to tackle
the legacy of the country's civil war and dictatorship. Primo de Rivera was
executed at the start of the 1936-1939 conflict, over his links to rebels who
had carried out a coup against the elected government. His modern-day
supporters clashed with police outside the cemetery. "The exhumation of
Primo de Rivera is good news for democracy," tweeted Ione Belarra,
minister of social rights in Spain's leftist coalition government. "The
fascists have to be taken out of mausoleums and off the streets," she
added.
Primo de Rivera's body was buried in four other sites, before
being moved in 1959 to the Valley of Cuelgamuros (previously the Valley of the
Fallen), a huge mausoleum in the mountains north of Madrid. The structure was
built by the dictator Gen Francisco Franco, who was also buried there after his
death in 1975. Both men were interred near the main altar of the monument's
basilica. After a legal battle, Franco was exhumed in 2019 by the
then-Socialist government. The exhumation of Primo de Rivera follows last
year's approval of the government's Democratic Memory Law, which seeks to
remove Francoist symbols from public spaces and ensure that figures linked to
the regime are not glorified. The law specifically states that no individual
should remain buried in a "prominent position" on the Cuelgamuros
site. The exhumation, which took place on the 120th anniversary of Primo de
Rivera's birth, began early on Monday morning and was carried out without media
coverage. A group of people linked to the Primo de Rivera family later attended
the site and witnessed the remains being taken away in a hearse - to be
reburied in San Isidro Catholic cemetery, in southern Madrid. There were
several arrests during the clashes between Primo de Rivera's supporters and
police. The family of Primo de Rivera had rejected the government's offer to
move his remains to another part of Cuelgamuros because of plans to turn the
site into a civic cemetery. Instead, they proposed that he be transferred to
San Isidro in order to obey a wish in his will to be buried on Catholic
"blessed ground". His brother, Miguel, a minister in the Franco
regime, and sister, Pilar, who founded the female branch of the Falange, are
also buried in San Isidro cemetery. Their father, Miguel Primo de Rivera,
governed Spain as a dictator from 1923-1930. Cuelgamuros has been the most
visible and notorious symbol of the Franco regime. It was in theory a monument
to all those who died in the civil war - and around 34,000 victims from both
sides are buried in its crypts. But it was built by anti-Fascist Republican
prisoners, and its architectural links to Franco's National-Catholic ideology -
it is crowned with a 150m stone cross - have seen it closely associated with
the regime.
Félix Bolaños, minister for the prime minister's office, said
Monday's exhumation went "one step further" in converting the
monument into a site that did not glorify the dictatorship. According to the
Democratic Memory Law, the community of Benedictine monks which currently
manages the Cuelgamuros site will have to leave. The community's priory head -
who sought to block the 2019 exhumation of Franco - has said that "it will
not be easy" to remove them. The political opposition has criticised the
exhumation, casting it as a ploy by the prime minister to mobilise voters ahead
of May's local elections.Madrid's mayor said the move interested "all
those who understand politics as opening up the wounds of the past rather than
trying to create a future for all of us."
^ The Spanish are not known for moving quickly (or at all) in
terms of dealing with the Crimes of Franco’s Dictatorship (1936-1975.)
Franco wasn’t removed from the Valley of the Fallen until
2019 which was 44 years after his death (for reference Joseph Stalin was
removed from Lenin’s Mausoleum by the Soviets in 1961 which was 8 years after
he died.)
The last Statue of Francisco Franco in Spain was only removed
in Melilla in February 2021.
I like that
José Antonio Primo de Rivera was removed on his 120th Birthday. He died in 1936
and was buried with honors at the Valley of the Fallen since 1959.
Spain even has official laws that prevent the country from
dealing with the crimes (including murder) committed during Franco’s
Dictatorship:
In 1975 the Pact of Forgetting was the Political
Agreement for all Spanish Political Parties to avoid confronting Franco’s
Repression.
The 1977 Amnesty Law (still in force today) guaranteed
impurity to those who committed crimes during Franco’s Dictatorship. It also
made the Pact of Forgetting official.
The 2007 Historical Memory Law recognizes the victims
on both sides of the Spanish Civil War, gives rights to the Victims and the Descendants
of Victims of the Civil War and the subsequent Dictatorship of General
Francisco Franco, and formally condemns repressions of the Franco Regime.
It doesn’t negate the 1977 Amnesty Law so no one can be
punished for their crimes.
Crimes During Franco’s Dictatorship:
During Franco’s White Terror (1936-1975) the following
were considered State Enemies: Loyalists to the Second Spanish Republic
(1931–1939), Liberals, Socialists of different stripes, Protestants, Intellectuals,
Homosexuals, Freemasons, Romani, Jews and Basque, Catalan, Andalusian and
Galician Nationalists.
At least 400,000 Men, Women and Children spent time in
Prisons (there were 12,042 Children in Franco’s Prisons in 1942 alone.)
300,000 Children were removed from their “State Enemy”
Families and raised by Franco Officials. They are called the Lost Children.
There were 300 Spanish Concentration Camps from 1936-1947
that held 431,251 Men, Women and Children in them.
An estimated 200,000 Men, Women and Children were murdered by
Franco’s Dictatorship from 1936-1975. The exact number is unknown (and most
likely much higher) because the vast majority were shot and buried in unmarked
graves through Spain.
The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory formed in 2000 is a Spanish Organization
that collects the oral and written testimonies about the White Terror of
Francisco Franco and excavates and identifies their bodies that were often
dumped in mass graves. ^
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