Republicans' Remains Return After 89 Years

Ángel Víctor Torres, Spain’s minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, presided on June 3 over the return of the remains of three Republican victims to their families in Castro Urdiales, nearly nine decades after their killing. The remains of Cecilio Romaña, Alejandro Miquelarena and Luis Portillo were handed over in three urns at the Castillo-Faro, according to the ministry and EFE. The three men, all from Castro Urdiales, were killed in 1937 in the Mirones area of Cantabria during the Spanish Civil War, officials said. Their remains were located last year in the cemetery of Mirones and identified after exhumation work and forensic analysis. ### Who were the three men whose remains were returned? Cecilio Romaña, Alejandro Miquelarena and Luis Portillo were young Republican men from Castro Urdiales who had been returning home from the front when they were detained and killed, the ministry said. Officials said they were shot by Falangists in Mirones on Sept. 6, 1937. (mptmd.gob.es) Luis Portillo was 22 when he was killed, the ministry said. Cecilio Romaña was a fisherman, the father of five children and a member of the CNT union, while Alejandro Miquelarena had also worked as a fisherman and had served as a councilman in Castro Urdiales, according to the ministry. Miquelarena was 27 when he was killed. (mptmd.gob.es) ### Where were the remains found, and how were they identified? Mirones, in the municipality of Miera, was the burial site where the three sets of remains were recovered, according to EFE and the ministry. The remains had been buried in or near a common grave by the cemetery there after the killings in 1937, local reporting said. (mptmd.gob.es) Lourdes Herrasti, who led the exhumation team, said the bodies were exhumed in November 2025 at the cemetery in Mirones. She told EFE that two bodies were found face up and a third was found embracing the other two, and that all three showed gunshot wounds to the head, leading investigators to conclude they had been killed. (efe.com) ### Who attended the ceremony in Castro Urdiales? Castillo-Faro in Castro Urdiales hosted the ceremony at noon on June 3, according to pre-event reporting by El Faradio. Torres was joined by Castro Urdiales Mayor Susana Herrán, the government delegate in Cantabria Pedro Casares, Cantabria heritage official Eva Guillermina Fernández, Democratic Memory prosecutor Carlos Yáñez, and Lourdes Herrasti, EFE reported. (efe.com) Berta Pérez, the ministry’s undersecretary for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, and Zoraida Hijosa, director general for Victim Support, were also with Torres at the event, according to the ministry. ### What did officials and relatives say at the handover? Ángel Víctor Torres said at the ceremony that “forgetting is never the answer” and that the past must be faced “with firmness and dignity,” according to the ministry. (elfaradio.com) EFE separately quoted him as saying that looking directly at the past was “not only a legal duty” but “a moral duty.” (mptmd.gob.es) Ernestina Olabarría, Luis Portillo’s niece, thanked the minister on behalf of the families and described the moment as “bittersweet,” EFE reported. She said the three men had been fishermen and Republicans and that they were killed out of “revenge” by people from Castro Urdiales, adding: “But we are not going to take revenge.” (mptmd.gob.es) ### How long had the families been waiting for identification? April 2026 was when Torres said he phoned the relatives to tell them the remains had been identified. The ministry named the relatives as Eduardo Lazcano, Ernestina Olavarría and Alejandro Miquelarena, and said the call marked the end of years of searching, obstacles, injustice and silence. (efe.com) The Association Héroes de la República y la Libertad, cited by El Faradio, had promoted the search and recovery effort. The group said the handover would allow families to complete a mourning process that had remained open across generations. (mptmd.gob.es) ### What happens next for the families? Luis Portillo’s remains will now be buried in the cemetery in Castro Urdiales alongside members of his family, Ernestina Olabarría said at the ceremony. The other two urns were handed directly to Cecilio Romaña’s grandson Eduardo Lazcano and Alejandro Miquelarena’s great-nephew, who bears the same name, EFE reported on June 3. (efe.com) (elfaradio.com)