Spain to exhume fascist movement founder's body from Madrid mausoleum

Tombs of the Primo de Rivera family are seen on the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid, where the remains of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Spanish fascist Falange party, might be buried after being exhumed from the Franco-era monument known as "The Valley of the Fallen" on Monday in Madrid, Spain, April 23, 2023. REUTERS/Juan Medina

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain on Monday will dig up the body of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the fascist Falange movement that supported the Francoist regime, and remove it from a mausoleum carved into a mountainside near Madrid.

Primo de Rivera's exhumation, which follows the 2019 removal of the remains of dictator Francisco Franco, is part of a plan to convert the so-called Valley of the Fallen complex built by Franco into a memorial to the 500,000 people killed during Spain's 1936-39 civil war.