The excavation to recover the mortal remains of Cipriano Martos, an anti-Franco militant tortured and murdered by the Civil Guard at the end of the Franco dictatorship, has finally begun today in grave number 11 of the Reus cemetery (Baix Camp), where it is thought he was buried. in 1973.
His family has fought incessantly during all this time to achieve this exercise in memory and historical justice. The body, after being located and analyzed, will be delivered to his family so that it can be buried 50 years after his murder.
It will not be an easy or simple task to find the skeletal remains of Cipriano Martos among the hundred people buried in the mass grave number 11 of the Reus cemetery, reserved for families who could not pay for their burial. It was not the case of Martos, murdered by the Franco regime and later buried in the grave dedicated at the time to charity.
It is estimated that between 20 and 65 bodies will have to be analyzed to locate that of the anti-Franco militant. Only the remains that may correspond to Martos will be analyzed due to the sex, dimensions and injuries that are known to have been suffered, thanks to the results of a previous, accredited autopsy.
The remains that may be of the anti-fascist militant will be transferred and later analyzed in the anthropology laboratory of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) to extract genetic samples and compare them with those of his relatives. The works could last several weeks, although there is no timetable.
"We have very high expectations of finding the body of Cipriano Martos, with the aim of identifying him and delivering him to his family, which is the objective of any intervention in a mass grave", highlighted Alfons Aragoneses, general director of Memòria Democràtica de la Generalitat.
Antonio Martos, Cipriano's brother, very moved today at the start of the exhumation work in the Reus cemetery, explained that his parents were never able to see the body of their murdered son nor could they hold a funeral with his remains. "My parents were left with great pain at not being able to see the remains of his murdered son or being able to bury him in his town," his brother Antonio claimed today.
The intervention to find the body of the anti-fascist militant, with an estimated cost of 90,000 euros, will be carried out by the Department of Justice. The Reus City Council, owner of the cemetery, has provided all the facilities. "Today is a day of reparation, 49 years ago today a person was tortured, murdered and buried here, and his family was the victim of an injustice because they could not find out what had happened or receive Cipriano's body," lamented Montserrat Flores. , councilor responsible for Serveis Funeraris Reus i Baix Camp.
This will respond to a silence of almost 50 years. "His case was forgotten except by a group of family and friends. In the 80s and 90s in Spanish society there was no social demand to recover the memory of these anti-Franco fighters, all this began in the 21st century," added Aragoneses .
The rest of the bodies from the same common grave no. 11 in the Reus cemetery, which are not related to the Francoist repression with the exception of Cipriano Martos, will be deposited again in an orderly manner in the same place.
Cipriano Martos was arrested and cruelly tortured to death in 1973, accused of making propaganda against the Franco regime and being part of the Anti-Fascist and Patriotic Revolutionary Front (FRAP). Cipriano's relatives denounced the case before the Argentine courts in 2014. The case was added to the macro cause against the crimes of Francoism investigated by the Argentine judge María Servini.
