The Government warns Almeida about its plan to make a canton on a possible common burial: “Destroying a grave is illegal”

The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, chaired the Territorial Memory Council this Thursday, which was attended by representatives of all the autonomous communities, including those that have recently repealed the regional memory laws or plan to replace them with others. called “of concord”. During the meeting, the distribution of three million euros was approved this year so that the autonomies can continue with the exhumations of remains of victims of Franco’s reprisals, as well as for tasks of disseminating the repression and dignifying the victims, as the budgets are extended State general provisions. On the other hand, the ministry has reminded the Madrid City Council, led by the PP mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida, that it must stop its project to build a waste center in the Montecarmelo neighborhood if it is confirmed that there is underground a common grave.

Andalusia, where the PP governs with an absolute majority, is the community that receives the most money (521,198 euros) from the amount approved today, due to the high number of graves and remains already exhumed or pending exhumation in that region. They are followed by Catalonia (419,856 euros), Castilla-La Mancha (307,874 euros) and the Valencian Community (289,327 euros). The latter is one of the three communities whose bipartite governments of PP and Vox have decided to repeal the regional memory laws. Aragón, the first that the central Executive has taken to the Constitutional Court for this reason, will receive 89,827 euros from the ministry. During this morning’s meeting, this conflict was not addressed in the guarantee court.

Nor was another controversy that arose between the central and municipal Administration – this time, the Madrid City Council (PP) – dealt with in the territorial council over a matter related to democratic memory: the possibility of there being a common grave with the remains of about 400 international brigade members from the civil war in a place where the Madrid City Council intends to build a megacanton for garbage trucks. Asked about this after the meeting, the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, recounted the negotiations, so far unsuccessful, with the City Council chaired by Martínez-Almeida: “We have once again asked to be authorized to carry out archaeological tastings. [ya habían contratado por 17.000 euros a una empresa especializada] to know for sure whether or not there are cadaveric remains in the surroundings of the Fuencarral cemetery. The first request was rejected.”

The Secretary of State has explained that the City Council has not delivered the report that the local corporation commissioned, on its own, from another company, even though it is known that it has been ready “since April.” “The studies tell us that the brigade members can be in that place where the City Council intends to build a waste canton, but evidently, if there is a pit there, they will not be able to touch that area,” Martínez noted. Asked what options the Government has in that regard, the Secretary of State responded: “Destroying a grave is illegal. And the person who has powers over this issue is the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory.” Regarding what he described as “delaying” maneuvers by the City Council to deny the specialists hired by the Government access to the area, the senior central government official insisted: “Sooner or later, we are going to do it. The moment a bone emerges and it is certified that there are corpses there, they must be exhumed.”

The regional councilors have also been informed this Thursday of the imminent launch of the DNA bank of exhumed remains, after the acquisition of the Bonaparte computer program, developed by the Dutch Forensic Institute and regularly used by Interpol. The system will allow genetic profiles to be stored to carry out systematic searches based on human remains from exhumations of mass graves, and compare them with those of relatives who have been searching for years for those missing from the civil war and the dictatorship.

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