Spain exhumes fascist party founder from Madrid mausoleum

By JENNIFER O’MAHONY
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — The body of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Spain’s fascist Falange movement, has been exhumed from a Madrid mausoleum and transferred to a city cemetery. The fascist political leader was executed by Spanish Republicans in November 1936, after Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of soldiers in July of that year to bring down Spain’s democratically elected government. When the ensuing civil war ended in 1939, hundreds of thousands were dead and the country was in ruins. Primo de Rivera’s death was exploited by Franco. His body is being exhumed in line with updated legislation that bans the glorification of Spain’s dictatorship and fascist legacy.