Spain exhumes body of general linked to Garcia Lorca's execution

MADRID, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Spain exhumed on Thursday the body of a Francoist general who is believed to have ordered the execution of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca in 1936 at the start of the Spanish civil war.

Church authorities, acting on orders from the leftist government, removed the body of Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, who commanded the Nationalists' Southern Army in 1936-37, from the Macarena basilica in Seville in the early hours of Thursday.

The remains of his right-hand man, Francisco Bohorquez Vecina, who was buried alongside him in the altar of the church, were also exhumed.

The exhumations are the first since a law designed to tackle the legacy of General Francisco Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship and the three years of civil war that preceded it was enacted last month.

They are also the first exhumations since Franco himself was removed from the basilica he had built for himself outside Madrid in 2019.

"We can't have any place that serves as homage to genocidal killers," Minister for the Presidency Felix Bolaños said, naming Queipo de Llano and Bohorquez as responsible for executions of 45,000 Spaniards.

The legacy of Franco's dictatorship continues to divide Spain more than 40 years after his death and the subsequent reestablishment of democracy. Franco apologists say atrocities were committed on both sides during the civil war.

Footage of the exhumation process showed the body of Queipo being driven away from the church in a van as family members shouted "Long live Queipo!"

A small group of activists who have campaigned for justice for the victims of Franco's regime were also gathered outside.

No written records of Garcia Lorca's execution remain, but Ian Gibson, author of a biography of Queipo de Llano, cites a telephone operator who said Queipo personally ordered the firing squad to give the poet "coffee, lots of coffee" - a codeword for the execution.

Garcia Lorca was an internationally renowned poet and playwright whose works include the play "Blood Wedding", "Gypsy Ballads" and "Poet in New York".

The new law annuls all convictions for political and religious beliefs or sexual orientation. It also allows the state to promote the search and exhumation of victims buried in mass graves, tasks previously handled by memory associations.

Paqui Maqueda, president of the association "Our Memory", said she often wondered how her grandmother had felt when visiting the Macarena basilica since Queipo was responsible for killing her great-grandfather and great-uncle.

"We're settling an historic debt with the victims of Francoism," Maqueda said. "This puts an end to impunity."