The Government of Spain has today delivered to the family, in an institutional act of an intimate nature, held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the remains of Constancio Allende, exhumed in the Cuelgamuros Valley.
The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, who handed over the remains to the victim’s granddaughter, Amaia Allende, stressed that “the Government remains committed to the exhumations in the Cuelgamuros Valley of all victims whose relatives demand it. It is a duty of remembrance and an obligation of the democratic state.”
Constancio Allende was born in Vallarta de Bureba (Burgos), on September 19, 1904. His parents were Valentín Allende, a day labourer by trade, and Jacinta Sancho. At some point in his youth he emigrated to Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he married Gertrudis Elguea, a native of Adana (Araba). He worked there as a worker.
Allende was compulsorily recruited and fought with the Phalanx. He died on November 2, 1936, during a war action in Guadalajara. He was 32 years old.
The investigation carried out by the Forensic Technical Team, led by Forensic Francisco Etxeberria, has determined that the body was moved from Guadalajara, although it has not been possible to determine which of the six cemeteries, parish or special, of the area exhumed its remains. He moved without prior communication to his relatives in the Cuelgamuros Valley on May 26, 1959.
“Today we have delivered the remains of Constancio Allende to his relatives so that they can mourn him, and bury him with his grandmother,” said the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, who has been accompanied by the Delegate of Government in the Basque Country, Marisol Garmendia; the director of the Institute of Memory, Coexistence and Human Rights ‘Gogora’, Alberto Alonso; and the Forensic Technical Team responsible for the exhumations in the Cuelgamuros Valley.