Franco’s remains stir debate in Spain, 35 years after death
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MADRID — More than 35 years after the death of Francisco Franco, Spain’s government is mulling whether to move the dictator’s remains from the vast mausoleum he had built with forced labor.
The Valley of the Fallen, an underground tomb complex outside Madrid where he is buried, was constructed on Franco’s orders between 1940 and 1958.
As well as Franco’s own remains, historians estimate the mass graves contain those of between 40,000 and 60,000 of his supporters and the Republicans who opposed them in Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War, which ended with Franco in power.
But for many Spaniards, the memorial site — carved into the side of a mountain in part through the forced labor of thousands of political prisoners — is their country’s most divisive and potent reminder of the Franco era..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110619com3.html
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