Northern Spanish town buries mayor killed in 1936

[April 16, 2012]  MADRID (AP) -- A Spanish mayor says her northern town held an official burial ceremony for one of her predecessors and three other townsfolk after their bodies were found in an unmarked dump dating from the country's civil war.

Pilar Perez, who presides over the town council of Torrellas, says the bodies were discovered and exhumed in October 2010. DNA analysis revealed they were those of former mayor Gregorio Torres and residents Luis Torres, Feliciano Lapuente and Marcelino Navarro.

All four had been driven out of town and shot by forces loyal to Gen. Francisco Franco in 1936 after the beginning of the war, which lasted until 1939.

Relatives and around 200 residents attended a ceremony at the town hall on Saturday before a formal burial in the town's cemetery.

[Associated Press]

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