Mass Graves Exhumed in Central Spain

VALLADOLID, SPAIN—Reuters reports that Valladolid’s city council has authorized the exhumation of mass graves that could hold the remains of more than 1,000 people killed between 1936 and 1939, during the country’s civil war, and during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco that followed. So far, three graves have been excavated, and the bones of 185 individuals have been sent to a forensic archaeologist for analysis. “This is a question of national dignity and human rights rather than opening the wounds of the past,” said Oscar Puente, the mayor of Valladolid. There may be as many as ten mass graves in the cemetery. For more on archaeology in Spain, go to “The Red Lady of El Mirón.”