Daughter Reunited With Her Father’s Remains 70 Years After His Civil War Execution

Spain’s slow and belated recognition of the crimes committed during her Civil War betwen 1936 and 1939 took another step as a daughter was reunited with the remains of her father after searching for him for 84 years following his execution at the hands of the Nationalists.

Concha Dieguez was handed the bone remains of her father Claudio Doroteo Dieguez Loza by members of the local government from the Spanish autonomous community of Navarre on Friday 18th December.

The video shows part of the official act where 16 of the deceased man’s family members received his remains which were later buried by his family on 20th December.

In the video, investigators are seen uncovering the remains which are placed inside a metal enclosure.

At one point the grieving daughter is seen weeping and embracing the coffin where the bones were placed as members of her family try to console her.

Concha spent 84 years looking for her father’s remains after he was executed by pro-Franco members in the Spanish town of Alsasua in Navarra on 13th September 1936.

Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who successfully overthrew the Spanish government and ruled as a dictator between 1936 and 1975.

According to a statement by the local government, Dieguez Loza lived in the town and municipality of Etxarri-Aranatz in Navarre with his wife and four children. He worked at a railway as a stoker.

When Dieguez was working in the city of Miranda de Ebro, he was detained and transported to Alsasua, however it is unclear why he was arrested.

The family was later informed that Dieguez had been assassinated in an area called Sorozarreta and buried on the same afternoon.

Citizen Relations Councilwoman Ana Olla, who was present at the event, said: “He [Dieguez], like the vast majority of the victims from the Franco-era repression in Navarre, was assassinated only for his political ideas and his work in unions.”

Dieguez was a member of the National Confederation of Workers (CNT), a group of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions which still exists today.

Dieguez’s remains were found in the Sima de Otsoportillo (Otsoportillo Cave) and were exhumed between 2016 and 2017.

The Sima de Otsoportillo is located on the Urbasa mountain range in western Navarre.

The authorities confirmed his identity after DNA testing proved a match to Concha who had donated her own sample to the DNA bank of the Navarre Government.

His discovery in the area came as a bit of a surprise to the family as they had initially thought he was buried in a common grave which now rests under a motorway.

Sima de Otsoportillo is an infamous site where many people suspected of siding with the Republicans were executed.

Franco’s grip on Spain continued until his death on 20th November 1975.