Mass graves from Franco era become Spanish election issue

In this Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018 photo, a victim's skull is examined during the classification process by anthropologists following the exhumation of a mass grave found in 2018 at the cemetery of Paterna, near Valencia, Spain. DNA tests will be conducted in the hope of confirming the identities of those who disappeared eight decades ago, believed to have been executed by the forces of Gen. Francisco Franco during and after the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

In this Thursday, March 26, 2019 photo, a wooden pencil found inside the clothes of a victim's body is seen photographed after being exhumed from a mass grave at the cemetery of Paterna, near Valencia, Spain, as archaeologists conduct forensic analysis of the remains. DNA tests will be conducted in the hope of confirming the identities of those who disappeared eight decades ago, believed to have been executed by the forces of Gen. Francisco Franco during and after the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

PATERNA, Spain – Spaniards are divided over whether or not to exhume bodies and provide a proper burial for some of the tens of thousands summarily executed by Gen. Francisco Franco's forces during and after the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.

A small number of victims' descendants have already been promised provincial funds for DNA tests to confirm that their ancestors were tossed into a mass grave at Paterna Cemetery in Valencia.

But the campaign for Spain national election on April 28 has exposed a left-right ideological divide and some Spaniards worry they may lose the chance to recover their dead.

The far-right Vox party wants to scrap efforts to exhume and identify Franco's victims.

Experts say an estimated 114,000 bodies are still hidden in 2,500 mass graves in Spain.

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