PATERNA, Spain — Spaniards are divided over whether or not to exhume bodies and provide a proper burial for some of the tens of thousands summarily executed by Gen. Francisco Franco’s forces during and after the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.
A small number of victims’ descendants have already been promised provincial funds for DNA tests to confirm that their ancestors were tossed into a mass grave at Paterna Cemetery in Valencia.
But the campaign for Spain national election on April 28 has exposed a left-right ideological divide and some Spaniards worry they may lose the chance to recover their dead.
The far-right Vox party wants to scrap efforts to exhume and identify Franco’s victims.
Experts say an estimated 114,000 bodies are still hidden in 2,500 mass graves in Spain.
Renata Brito And Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press
