Executions in Ibiza: third attempt to locate the bodies

The Balearic Government’s third attempt to locate the bodies of those shot in the walls of the Vell de Ibiza cemetery between 20 September 1936 and the spring of 1937 and who were originally and largely buried there in a mass grave. Juan Pedro Yllanes, Vice President of the Balearic Executive and Councillor for Democratic Memory, visited the island yesterday to report on the third phase of the Comunitat, which he described as “the development of the grave plan that was unanimously approved by all Parliamentary groups” and which will cost the treasury 380,000 euros in this new edition. Additionally, this is his third intervention in the cemetery of los Figueretes, where he expressed “hope of discovering remains.”

This third plan includes seven interventions in Mallorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, as well as six studies “to identify possible graves that may result in additional interventions in the near future,” according to Yllanes. So far, 17 cemeteries and 161 remains have been uncovered in the Balearic Islands as a result of the initiative, 30 of which have been recognized and returned to their families: “The government will make every effort to identify any missing individual in the Balearic Islands.” It is a test of democratic purity, of reclaiming memory and dignity, of uncovering the truth about the killings whose victims we want to locate here, in ses Figueretes”.

Almudena Garca Rubio, PhD in Physical Anthropology from the Autonomous University of Madrid, specialist in funerary archaeology and forensic anthropology, and representative of the Aranzadi Society, which will conduct the third search, exhumation, and identification of Civil War victims in the Balearic Islands, recalled the previous steps: “In the first intervention, we acted in three areas where testimonies indicated possible victim burials. Only one of them yielded bones, owing to the testimony of a family who knew precisely where they had been buried. There, we discovered a grave.

Comparative analysis of DNA in Ibiza

They have not yet obtained conclusive evidence that these remains correspond to those executed by nationalists following their 1936 landing on the Pitiusas: “At the moment, there are no DNA results because the bone finds from the first year grave were not preserved and therefore could not be compared. 16 of the 24 samples given to the laboratory from those interred last year contain DNA. They are currently comparing their findings to the DNA of 13 families. There are no longer any results.”

In Manacor, the third plan of graves will commence. It will continue in Formentera to search for the bodies of the 58 people who died (literally, by starvation: cachexia, as stated in their death certificates) in the jail colony and were buried in the cemetery of Sant Francesc, and then for two weeks in ses Figueretes.