The Council of Ministers has approved a Royal Decree that regulates the direct granting of 2.4 million euros to the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and different local entities for the carrying out of actions of search, location, exhumation and, where appropriate, identification, of remains of victims of the war in Spain and the dictatorship.

Among the beneficiary entities are the deputations of Cáceres, Badajoz, Jaén, Sevilla and A Coruña; and the municipalities of Seville, Jaén, Huelva and Córdoba, cities that have large graves.

This Royal Decree, which is approved within the framework of the II Four-Year Exhumation Plan 2025-2028, also contemplates 100,000 euros to erect dignification memorials in which to deposit mortal remains that cannot be identified. It is 50,000 euros for the city of Nerva (Huelva), where remains of 266 victims have been recovered; and 50,000 euros for the city of Víznar (Granada), where remains of 171 victims have been recovered.

Balance of the Quadrennial Plans

The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, reviewed in the press conference of the Council of Ministers the achievements obtained with the two Quadrennial Plans deployed by the Government of Spain from 2019 to today to exhume mass graves throughout the country.

The plans establish as priority objectives the eradication of graves that are susceptible to exhumation, with the location, exhumation and identification of victims, the dissemination of the work carried out and the dignification of the victims under the principles of truth, justice and reparation.

Since 2019, with the governments presided over by Pedro Sánchez “8,941 exhumations of victims have been carried out throughout Spain” of which 6,000 have been funded directly by the four-year plans.

The minister also recalled that, in 2019, a study of the Aranzadi Society placed at 20,000 the number of corpses of victims that at that time were susceptible to exhume. “With these almost 9,000 exhumations in five years, we have come a long way. We are talking about almost half of the susceptible exhumations, and it has been thanks to the memorialist entities, the public administrations at all levels and the contribution of the Government of Spain with the four-year plans,” he said.

Beneficiary entities

▪ FEMP, to finance the actions of local entities related to the investigation, location, exhumation and identification of missing persons in graves of the Spanish War and the dictatorship, as well as those destined to their dignification, in the amount of 1,000,000 euros.

▪ 5 Provincial Deputies for the exhumation of various graves:

• Provincial Council of Cáceres, for the amount of 150,000 euros.

▪ Provincial Council of Badajoz, for the amount of 100,000 euros.

▪ Provincial Council of Jaén, for the amount of 100,000 euros.

▪ Provincial Council of Seville, for the amount of 150,000 euros.

▪ Provincial Council of A Coruña, for the amount of 150,000 euros.

▪ 4 municipalities that have large graves in the process of exhumation or are going to start soon, as a first State contribution for the exhumation of large graves:

Seville City Council for the amount of 200,000 euros, for the exhumation of the common grave of Monument of the cemetery of San Fernando, in which are the remains of more than 2,000 people, result of the shootings as a result of the sides of War of Queipo de Llano and war councils.

Jaén City Council, for the amount of 200,000 euros, for exhumation Fosa 702 from the cemetery of San Eufrasio, where the remains of some 1,800 people are found, as a result of the executions of the death sentences of the Councils of War.

▪ Huelva City Council, in the amount of 150,000 euros, to continue the exhumation of mass graves from the cemetery of La Soledad, where the remains of 1,100 people are found, as a result of the executions of the death sentences of the Councils of War and the war camps.

Cordoba City Council, for the amount of 150,000 euros, to continue with the exhumation of the mass graves of the cemeteries of La Salud and San Rafael, in which there can be about 4,500 people, the result of the councils of war sumarímos and sides of the war.

▪ 50,000 euros to the municipalities of Nerva (Huelva) and Víznar (Granada) to erect dignification memorials where corpses that are not identified can be deposited and, therefore, cannot be delivered for the time being to the relatives to give them a dignified burial. In the proceedings of exhumation of graves carried out with state funding in both municipalities, 266 victims have been recovered in Nerva and 171 (of them 5 already genetically identified) in Víznar.