Spain orders removal of Franco monument in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Spain's Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has urged the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, to comply with the state order to dismantle the Franco‑era monument on Avenida Anaga. Expert panels concluded the Juan de Ávaló sculpture lacks sufficient historic value to merit protection, and the central government gave the municipality six months to remove it.

The local council, governed by Coalición Canaria and the PP, is fighting the order by seeking to list the work as municipal heritage and has appealed to the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory. The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory of Tenerife (ARMHT) has denounced the move as an attempt to shield a symbol of the dictatorship and called it a scandal, urging legal assistance from the national government.