The Spanish Government of Cordoba and Lucena authorized an official homage to the dictator Francisco Franco. The ceremony was held in one of Cordoba's municipal cemeteries, near a mass gravesite where the remains of 123 victims of the fascist repression are being exhumed.
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Organized by Juan Leon Cordon, leader of the Andalucia branch of Fuerza Nueva, a far-right political party founded in 1976, the event began at 5:30 PM local time and was attended by roughly 15 people carrying fascist flags and insignias, according to witnesses of the event.
Representatives of the Directorate General of Historical Memory of the Junta de Andalucía confirmed just last week that they have begun excavations in the Lucena cemetery in the hopes of finding the remains of 123 victims of the Civil War. A monolith, erected in 2015, stands near the place of the suspected mass grave to honor the victims.
The spot where the floral offering was made to Franco is nearby the monument that "serves as a place of memory for the families of the people who visit to remember, pray for, bring flowers and honor their dead," said Arcangel Bedmar, a historian of Franco's repression and executions in Cordoba.
"I do not know if this type of acts violates the Law of Historical Memory. Perhaps we should have a broader Memory Law to prevent these Francoist tributes from being held, "said Francisco Adame, delegate of the Lucena Citizen Security.
However, the Andalusian Law of Democratic Memory, which was adopted at the beginning of 2017, expressly condemns any act of "Francoism exaltation."