ARCHIVED - Wreaths laid in Murcia to honour the victims of Francoism

The largest reservoir in Murcia was one of the infrastructures built by political prisoners during Franco’s regime

All over Spain on Thursday, as the mortal remains of General Franco were exhumed from the monumental burial site of El Valle de los Caídos and re-interred in the cemetery of Mingorrubio, in the northern outskirts of Madrid, leading representatives of the PSOE political party paid homage to the victims of Franco’s supporters during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the repression and reprisals in the years which followed.

The PSOE, it is worth remembering, is the party which introduced the Historical Memory Law in 2007, outlawing the glorification of the former dictator and his regime, and which set in motion the process of removing Franco’s body from the Valle de los Cálidos in the summer of 2018.

In Murcia, wreaths were laid in the municipal cemeteries of the regional capital and Cartagena to honour the memory of the victims of Franco-ism, with Diego Conesa, the leader of the party in the Region, describing the day as a “triumph for democracy” after laying roses on a memorial in the cemetery of Espinardo in the north of the city of Murcia. Similarly, in Cartagena a ceremonial wreath of red roses was laid by a group including Senator Lourdes Retuerto, who commented that the day was one of celebration as Spain celebrates its triumph over “those who imposed on us the darkest years of our history”.

There is a great deal of disagreement over the number of fatalities in the Spanish Civil War and as a result of the subsequent repression and estimates range from 150,000 to 2 million. Of course, those who died included not only the supporters of the Republicans in the conflict but also members of Franco’s nationalist movement.

Few people in Spain can still remember the war, which ended 80 years ago, but many recall the latter years of the dictatorship which lasted until shortly after Franco’s death in 1975, and in that sense Francoism is still an important and deeply divisive part of the collective identity of the Spanish. The removal of the dictator from his glorified mausoleum on Thursday is a statement to the effect that his regime cannot be openly exalted in a democracy, but it is probable that the exhumation will be a widely discussed and publicly debated topic over the next fortnight as campaigning takes place for the general election on 10^th November.

During his 36 years as the effective ruler of Spain Francisco Franco visited the Region of Murcia on only four occasions (click here to read more), the last of them 12 years before his death in 1963 when he inaugurated the Cenajo reservoir which lies partly in the municipality of Moratalla and partly in the province of Albacete. This is the largest reservoir in the Segura basin and has contributed greatly to the growth of the irrigated agriculture in the Region, but it was also built as a flood prevention measure in order to eliminate the risk of inundations in Murcia, an objective which was not achieved, as the gota fría storm in September demonstrated.

The dam and the other infrastructures at the Cenajo were built by a workforce which included numerous political prisoners, and for this reason, in compliance with the Historical Memory Law, a plaque commemorating the inauguration ceremony on 6^th June 1963 was removed in 2016.

However, on one of the hilltops close to the dam a cross erected in memory of the workers who died during construction has been allowed to remain in place.

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