Delays frustrate the exhumation of Franco victims in Benaguasil.
The project to locate, excavate, and identify the bodies of 12 people shot in the Civil War and buried in the Benaguasil cemetery will not be undertaken after a tortuous administrative process that has pitted its proponents against the City Council of this town in the Camp de Túria region. Finally, on June 24, the Association of Relatives of Victims of Franco's Regime from the Common Grave in the Benaguasil Cemetery filed a document with the Valencia Provincial Council's general registry renouncing the €84,000 grant provided to finance the work.
The withdrawal of the aid granted by the Democratic Memory Delegation comes after an extension to try to obtain the necessary authorization for the family to carry out the work. However, this extension expired on June 30th, and, given the impossibility of carrying out the exhumations, the association withdrew.
The permit arrived just four days before the deadline to execute the project expired.Just one day after the resignation, on June 25, the Benaguasil City Council finally granted permits for the temporary occupation of the designated cemetery land to carry out the location and excavation requested by the relatives. The notification reached the association a day later—on the 26th—with just four days remaining (including the weekend) before the grant expired. “It was impossible to carry out work that normally takes a month and a half in such a short time, if there are no complications,” explains Alejandro Calpe, archaeological co-director of the scientific association ArqueoAntro, which was to be in charge of carrying out the work.
This organization and the association of affected parties believe that the City Council has put up every obstacle to prevent the work from being carried out by delaying responses and obtaining permits for a request that, Calpe recalls, began processing in August of last year.
Read also Countdown to obtain permits to exhume 12 people shot during the Civil War in Benaguasil. Hector Sanjuán
In fact, as La Vanguardia reported, the relatives even submitted a letter to the Valencia Provincial Prosecutor's Office alleging that the Benaguasil City Council was delaying granting the license. The letter also recalled the refusal to authorize the placement of a monument with the names of those executed, another initiative by the organization to honor the 12 executed victims.
A version contradicted by the mayor, who explained to this newspaper that the permit was granted when the City Council received approval from the Directorate General of Heritage—which reports to the Ministry of Education and Culture—from whom the municipality had requested express administrative authorization for the requested work. This authorization, explains Mayor Joaquín Segarra, did not arrive at the City Council until June 20. "And we can only authorize it after first receiving authorization from the Ministry," argues the mayor, who maintains that it is not the City Council's responsibility if the project did not go ahead. "I don't know if they could have requested an extension, although I think it could be considered under extraordinary circumstances, and I believe it would be sufficiently justified," Segarra points out.
The Provincial Council asks local councils not to hinder the recovery of historical memory.After learning of the incident, the First Vice President and Delegate for Historical Memory of the Provincial Council, Natàlia Enguix (of Ens Uneix), lamented the incident and expressed regret at the fact that "such a significant grant (€84,000) had to be waived due to the failure to obtain municipal permits." "From the Historical Memory Department, we ask municipalities for greater collaboration. We ask for greater sensitivity regarding memory projects because they relate to fundamental rights: the right of every victim to a decent burial and the right of families to know the whereabouts of their loved ones."
In this regard, Enguix denounces "the attitude of some mayors who are putting obstacles in the way of the recovery of memory." In this case, the Benaguasil City Council is presided over by the People's Party (PP), with whom Ens Uneix governs the Valencia Provincial Council. This situation, as the provincial deputy emphasizes, does not prevent the budgets dedicated to exhumations, identifications, and memory-related activities from doubling.
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