An exhumation of Civil War remains ordered by the Junta de Andalucia against the wishes of family and the townhall of Almería has descended into a fiasco after only genuine remains were found in the municipal cemetery.
The Junta had forced through the exhumations claiming that a civil war common grave was located in the cemetery of San José y Santa Adela, basing its explanations mainly on “oral tradition”. The townhall resisted, saying that there was no historical record of graves being there, and relatives of the people legally interred in that section also objected to their ancestors being disturbed.
But the exhumation went ahead two weeks ago on a ministerial order from Seville. The excavations were abandoned today after only genuine remains were found.
Carlos Sánchez, Almeria councillor for Health, said that the excavations were a fiasco, adding that the Junta had refused to talk to his department over the issue and “clearly were only interested in political point scoring ahead of the elections”.
“How can someone force through a project like this, when similar experiences have happened many times before, ignoring proper archaeological procedures and the historical records?” asked a furious Carlos in a press meeting earlier today. “Our townhall has been proven right, although the Junta accused of us delaying tactics and ignoring procedures”.
Carlos also said he was disgusted by the Junta releasing a photo of the remains underneath a Republican civil war era flag, before any medical examination of the bodies were carried out. “It’s a scandal and a public embarrassment” complained Carlos.
So far, all bodies appear to have died of natural causes, contradicting the Junta, which claimed at least six people were shot in the back of the head and tossed into a common grave there.