New chapter on the future canton of Montecarmelo. It Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory has asked Madrid City Council for permission to carry out new investigations in the areas where “it is most likely to find the bodies of 450 members of the International Brigade.” The government’s request comes after The first works did not find any remains.
In a statement published by the ministry which orders Angel Victor TorresThe Executive explains that the preliminary report of the archaeological team hired concluded that zones 1 and 2, the “only ones” where the Madrid City Council has given authorization for the excavations, “they do not present any elements of archaeological relevance”.
The specialists reached depths of 10 meters without finding anything other than “modern debris”. For this reason, according to the ministry, it is advisable to extend the investigations to other areas “are likely to yield positive results”.
Furthermore, from Democratic Memory, they emphasize that the places where they were able to work were “imposed by the owner” And? “they were not ideal for research”.
Once the experts’ report was received, the Ministry asked the delegate of the Government Department of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility of the Madrid City Council, Borja Carabantewhich allows the excavations to be extended to areas A and B, located outside the walls of the Fuencarral cemetery.
“Total collaboration”
In response to this request, the Borja Carabante Region proposed to its “total collaboration”The Municipal Council will study the authorizations requested by the Ministry to carry out new archaeological studies and surveys, “provided that they comply with the law on democratic memory and are supported by concrete evidence and indications”the Consistory said in a statement in response.
Furthermore, he recalled the steps taken so far regarding the controversial excavations and stressed that Cibeles has already carried out three studies with which the presence of a mass grave in the area where the canton will go has been “excluded”.
“The Madrid City Council has carried out three studies for this task: an analysis of historical cartography and aerial photographs, six surveys and 10 soil resistance tests and a tomographic and georadar analysis. The final, most comprehensive georadar report was compared by three external archaeologists” he said.
“An anomaly compatible by its size with a tomb was detected at a distance of almost 12 meters from the canton and 6.5 meters from the access road and another secondary one of no importance. Both were analyzed by the ministry without any relevant results,” he added.
In this sense, the Area of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility has maintained that already in August 2017, with the government of Manuela Carmena and “the PSOE as an ally”, works were carried out in the cemetery of Fuencarral “without carrying out any type of prior investigation or archaeological study that would allow verifying the existence of a tomb containing the bodies of 451 members of the international brigade.
“Furthermore, the Carmena government itself assured then: ‘There is until now no indication, evidence, information or document that proves the possible current location of the remains of these people, who were exhumed and removed from the cemetery in the years following the end of the civil war,’ he added.
Finally, the City Hall emphasizes that it has “demonstrated at all times its willingness to dispel any doubt on this subject.”
