The Aspe City Council will promote the exhumation of the remains of the former Real Madrid president during the Civil War, who was executed by garrote vil and thrown into a mass grave in Alicante cemetery. This director, the only one not officially recognized by the club, was killed along with 52 other people in 1939.
The director presided over Madrid Football Club between 1937 and 1938, a name the club adopted after removing the adjective 'Real' granted by King Alfonso XIII. In addition to his connection with the white club, he was civil governor of Gipuzkoa and leader of a battalion of anti-fascist Basque militias.
During the Civil War, he held the position of Director General of Security and reached the rank of colonel in the Popular Army of the Republic. After the victory of the Francoist side in 1939, he tried to flee abroad from Alicante, but was captured. He was transferred to concentration camps and finally executed by garrote vil on July 15, 1939, after a summary trial, and buried in a mass grave in the municipal cemetery of Alicante.
“"Regardless of whether his remains are handed over to his family, which is the objective, we would like Real Madrid to recognize him as president."
In March 2022, the Generalitat Valenciana began work on this mass grave. After several complications and an increase in budget, the Aspe City Council has confirmed that the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory will finance the exhumation with 50,000 euros. DNA tests will be covered by the Basque Government through the Institute of Memory and Coexistence of Human Rights.
Mass grave IX of the municipal cemetery of Alicante holds the bodies of 52 people executed between May and August 1939. The exhumation is a joint initiative of Aspe with the Alicante city councils of Novelda and La Romana.
