The Government of the Generalitat has confirmed the identity of the remains of the anti-Franco militant Cipriano Martos in a common grave in the Reus cemetery. Martos died in September 1973 after ingesting caustic acid during an interrogation by the Civil Guard, after having been arrested and accused of illegal propaganda.
The Department of Justice, Rights and Memory, within the framework of the 2020-22 Grave Plan, began archaeological work last December to locate the remains of Martos in grave number 11 of the cemetery. On January 10, the team in charge of this work concluded that one of the bodies was compatible with Cipriano Martos due to the physical characteristics and those of the grave itself. From that moment on, the remains were analyzed in the laboratory to extract genetic samples and relate them to those of the relatives that are part of the Genetic Identification Plan. The works have finally confirmed that it is the anti-Franco militant.
Cipriano Martos was a member of the Spanish Marxist-Leninist Communist Party and the Anti-Fascist and Patriotic Revolutionary Front (FRAP). He was also part of the Workers' Union Opposition. Born in Loja (Granada) in 1942, Martos emigrated to Morón de la Frontera and later to Teruel. He would later arrive in Catalonia, where he lived in Sabadell, Terrassa and Reus.
On August 25, 1973, he was arrested by the Civil Guard after a political propaganda action. He was transferred to the Reus barracks, accused of illegal propaganda and being a member of the FRAP. After two days of interrogation and torture, the ingestion of caustic acid caused him to be admitted to the Hospital Sant Joan de Reus. Cipriano Martos died on September 17 due to internal bleeding, although his death was not accredited in the Civil Registry until the 19th. The remains were secretly buried the following day in the Reus cemetery, without the family being able to attend the burial or could take the body to Granada.
The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, stressed that it is "an exciting and important day for the memory of the country". "We continue for justice and the dignity of those who fought for freedom," he stated in a tweet. On the same social network, Minister Gemma Ubasart has defended "dignifying the memory" of all the activists who "contributed to making Catalonia a freer country."
According to data from the Department of Justice, Martos is the twentieth exhumed person identified in Catalonia since the Genetic Identification Program was launched in 2016. The Government opened 25 graves last year, of the 887 documented from the Civil War. So far, the remains of 846 people have been recovered from a total of 77 graves. The Generalitat estimates that there are some 14,000 people buried throughout Catalonia.
