Lorca relatives accept mass grave probe


Story Highlights
Many killed by forces loyal to General Franco during 1936-39 Civil War
Lorca family opposed plans to disturb mass grave where poet is buried
Other descendants wished to exhume their loved ones and bury them properly

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Relatives of the poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, executed in 1936 by fascists during the Spanish Civil War, will not try to block a judge's order to exhume his remains from a mass grave, a niece of the poet told CNN Thursday.
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The family, however, prefers that the site remains undisturbed, she said.
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For years, the issue of whether to exhume Lorca's remains has pitted descendants of the world-famous poet against relatives of two other men -- a teacher and a bullfighter -- also executed and thought to have been dumped in a mass grave with Lorca.
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The families of those two men want to exhume their loved ones and bury them properly.
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They petitioned a Spanish judge earlier this month. The judge agreed to study their case as part of a broader effort that could mean exhuming the remains of potentially thousands of Spaniards still in mass graves.
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Many were killed by right-wing forces loyal to General Francisco Franco, who won the three-year long Civil War, which began in 1936. Franco went on to rule Spain with an iron fist until his death in 1975.
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For years, the Lorca descendants have argued that Lorca -- whose poems and plays are widely studied at universities, including his "Poet in New York" -- should not be exhumed, mainly so that he would not be seen as more important than the many other Civil War victims thought to be in nearby mass graves.
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But one of his nieces, Laura Garcia Lorca, told CNN on Thursday, "We will not oppose a decision of the judge."
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Six nieces and nephews of Lorca agree with the position, she said. Their stance was first reported on Thursday by Spanish newspaper El Pais.
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The judge, Baltasar Garzon, has not yet decided what to do about the site at a village near Granada in Lorca's native southern Spain.
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"This is one of the happiest days of my life," said Irish author, Ian Gibson, who is a leading scholar on Lorca. "The (Lorca) family sensibly changed position. Lorca is the most famous victim of the Civil War. It's a huge step in the right direction."
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Gibson added, "I think Lorca can be a symbol for reconciliation of the Civil War."
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Laura Garcia Lorca said the family would prefer to leave the poet's remains where they are, even after a potential exhumation, so that "the figure of Lorca could serve to protect the site" in memory of all who were executed there and put into mass graves.
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But Nieves Galindo, granddaughter of the teacher, Dioscoro Galindo, whose remains are thought to be lying with Lorca's, told CNN, "It's a shame it's gotten to this point. We've been trying for 10 years. It could have been done without all this."
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Galindo said if the judge eventually orders to exhumation, the Lorca family would have "no other choice" but to accept it.

The Galindo family wants to bury the teacher in the cemetery of the nearby village of Pulianas, where he last taught before being executed.

Spanish parliament last year, led by the Socialist government, passed a law condemning Franco's dictatorship and calling on town halls to fund initiatives to unearth mass graves.

It also sought to honor Roman Catholic clergy and others executed by the losing side in the war, the forces loyal to the leftist Republican government.

posted by Prince and Gina Parker @ 1:59 PM, ,


Terror suspect transferred from Belgium to Spain
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Story Highlights
Algerian suspect, Khaled Abidi, released by Belgian authorities to Spanish police
Abidi was listed as a leader in Spain of group recruiting for al Qaeda in Iraq
Arrested in 2004 by Algerian authorities for allegedly belonging to a terrorist group
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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police Friday transferred a suspected leader of an al Qaeda-linked group from Belgium to Madrid, where he was indicted last year for alleged Islamic terrorist activities, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
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The Algerian suspect, Khaled Abidi, was released by Belgian authorities to Spanish police. He is charged with being a member of an Islamic terrorist group.
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Abidi was listed in a Spanish indictment last year as a leader in Spain of Ansar al-Islam, which is suspected of recruiting Moroccans and Algerians to fight for al Qaeda in Iraq, according to a copy of the indictment viewed by CNN.
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A total of 32 suspects were named in the indictment last year, and Abidi was among six who were at large at the time. The court issued arrest warrants for them.
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Before being taken into custody in Belgium, Abidi was arrested in 2004 and held for a time by Algerian authorities for allegedly belonging to a terrorist group.
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The authorities also suspect him of serving as a link between terrorists in Spain and Syria, the ministry statement said.

posted by Prince and Gina Parker @ 10:05 PM, ,




Did You Know That...
Saturday, September 06, 2008

Did you know that... the greatest authority on cardiovascular research in the U.S. is a Spanish scientist?
Dr. Valentín Fuster has been carrying out research at several US hospitals for more than twenty years. He currently leads the heart research team at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and is the president of the World Heart Federation, a former member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council, and a past president of the American Heart Association. He is also the President of the scientific advisory committee at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research. (Published in Alba, October 19-25, 2007)
Did you know that... the first European woman who gave birth in the US came from Spain?
The first son of Europeans who was born in the US was the son of a Spanish woman who was traveling in the Vázquez de Coronado expedition in 1540. A few years later, in 1566, Martín de Argüelles came to the world in Saint Augustine, Florida, twenty one years before Virginia Dare did in the English colony of Roanoke, Virginia. (Published in Alba, June 29-July 5, 2007)
Did you know that... four Spanish films have won an Oscar for best foreign language film?
The first Spanish film to win an Oscar for best foreign language film was To Begin Again, directed by José Luis Garci, in 1982. After that, winners included Belle Epoque, by Fernando Trueba, in 1993; All About My Mother, by Pedro Almodóvar, in 1999; and The Sea Inside, by Alejandro Amenábar, in 2004. La venganza, by Juan A. Bardem, was the first Spanish nominee for the same award, in 1958. (Published in Alba, June 22-28, 2007)
Did you know that... a Spaniard named the Alcatraz island, famous for the prison founded there?
Victor Lustig spent many years in the Alcatraz prison, established on the famous, small island in the San Francisco Bay. The first European who sailed those waters was the Spaniard Juan de Ayala commanding the San Carlos. He also made, in 1775, the first map of the area, where the Rock was named Isla de los Alcatraces (Island of the Gannets, a seabird), from which the famous prison takes its name. (Published in Época, May 25-31, 2007)
Did you know that... New Orleans’ French Quarter is actually Spanish?
Although the French Quarter, for which the city of New Orleans is world famous, was built by the French, its architecture today is Spanish. Numerous fires destroyed the French buildings, and those who carried out the reconstruction of the quarter during the time when they ruled the city, between 1763 and 1803, were Spanish. (Published in Alba, March 30-April 5, 2007)
Did you know that... the designer of the future transportation hub that will be built at Ground Zero is Spanish?
Spanish engineer and architect Santiago Calatrava has designed the future transportation hub that will be built at so-called Ground Zero in New York, the site where the Twin Towers and adjacent skyscrapers that collapsed as a result of the suicide attack once soared. The construction is not expected to be completed before 2009. (Published in Alba, February 16-22, 2007)
Did you know that... the US dollar symbol ($) is of Spanish origin?
Symbol “$” is, according to some historians, a stylization of a stamp with two ribbon-wreathed pillars of Hercules and the motto Plus Ultra. The stamp used to be written on the Spanish coins minted in the Mexican mint (columnarios), and on the gold and silver bars that were sent from the Americas to Spain. (Published in Época, January 12-18, 2007)
Did you know that... there are five places named Toledo in the US?
The places called Toledo are in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, and Washington. The first two took their name from the Spanish town of Toledo, while the other three took it from the city located in Ohio. (Published in Alba, January 12-18, 2007)
Did you know that... there are several towns named Madrid in the USA?
In the US there are three towns called Madrid, located in Alabama, Iowa, and Nebraska; there is also a town called New Madrid in Missouri. (Published in Alba, December 15-21, 2006)
Did you know that... the first Spaniard who won an Oscar was Juan de la Cierva?
Juan de la Cierva, the nephew of the inventor of the autogyro, receiveda an Oscar for the invention of the Dynalens optical image motion compensator. This revolutionary system, which eliminates camera movement, vibration and out-of-focus effects, was used for the first time in the film Tora, Tora, Tora (1969), in which this Spanish engineer took part. (Published in Época, November 17-23, 2006)

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posted by Prince and Gina Parker @ 3:06 PM, ,




'Most wanted' drug trafficker arrested
Story Highlights
  • Drug trafficker on U.S. State Department most wanted list is arrested in Spain
    Spanish police say he was arrested outside luxury Madrid hotel
    U.S. says he heads one of South America's most violent drugs operations
    U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.

(CNN) -- Spanish police announced Friday the arrest of one of the most sought-after narcotraffickers in the world, Edgar Guillermo Vallejo Guarin, also known as "Beto the Gypsy."

Vallejo Guarin was arrested outside a luxury hotel in central Madrid with the collaboration of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Spanish Civil Guard said in a news release.

Vallejo Guarin has a long history of violence, involvement in money laundering of drug funds and corruption of high-level government officials, the release said.

Among the nations seeking him was the United States, which had offered a $5 million reward to anyone who helped bring about his capture.

He was also on the U.S. State Department's Most Wanted list.

In June 2001, he was accused in Florida of being a principal source of cocaine smuggled from Colombia into the United States throughout the 1990s.

"He is responsible for the shipment of a multitude of tons of cocaine via ship to the United States (especially the west coast of Florida and Miami) and Europe," the release said.

In addition, he is suspected of being linked to various assassinations, it said.

It said that, when he was arrested near the hotel, Vallejo Guarin was carrying false identification documentation that identified him as Jairo Gomez.

Vallejo Guarin's permanent residence was in a suburb of Barcelona, but he had been moving among a number of hotels in Europe and Venezuela in an apparent attempt to avoid arrest, the release said.

posted by Prince and Gina Parker @ 2:55 PM, ,