Navarre government returns remains of 1930s fugitives to families

The Government of Navarre has returned the remains of Jesús Esteban Muñoz and Gerardo Gómez Lorenzo to their families. Both men were executed following an attempted escape from the San Cristóbal Fort in 1937 and 1938.

Following exhumations conducted in 2017 and 2018 at the Urtasun and Leranotz mass graves, the remains were identified through DNA testing. The handover ceremony took place at the Rozalejo Space of Memory and Coexistence in Pamplona, attended by family members from Galicia and Bizkaia, institutional representatives, and memory associations.

Ana Ollo, the Second Vice President and Counselor of Memory and Coexistence, stated that the act aims to provide dignity to the deceased and offers hope to hundreds of other families still searching for relatives killed during that era.