The Canary Islands are still searching for approximately a thousand individuals who went missing due to Franco’s repression, coinciding with the 5th anniversary of Franco’s death on 20th November 1975. The central government has organised around a hundred events throughout 2025, under the theme Spain in freedom.
President Pedro Sanchez commenced the first of these events last Wednesday at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, amid criticism from PP and Vox regarding this commemoration. The popular party argues that the dictator’s death in bed did not usher in democracy, asserting that the transition and the Spanish Constitution of 1978 marked that era.
Regardless of this occasion and the political tensions, this year both the central and Canarian administrations have committed to intensifying efforts to locate those who were persecuted by Franco’s regime during the Civil War (1936-1939). This initiative aligns with state and Canarian laws of Democratic Memory and involves local councils to ensure recognition and dignity for the victims.
The sea, the vast grave of the missing in Tenerife
It is believed that around a thousand individuals may have been murdered in the Islands, many of whom were thrown into the sea— the Archipelago’s great grave— specifically in Tenerife, where no missing persons have been uncovered to date. Estimates suggest there could be around 500 individuals, of which 182 have been identified. The remaining numbers predominantly stem from Gran Canaria, with 337 individuals reported missing, about fifty from La Palma, and around fifteen from La Gomera. However, investigations are ongoing, presenting opportunities for new identifications, according to historian Sergio Millares.
In comparison to the number of missing persons, who were forcibly taken from their homes, executed, and disposed of in various locations across the Islands, the number of victims discovered is exceedingly low. Currently, there are 21 documented graves scattered across Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma, and La Gomera, although the majority remain unexplored. Altogether, approximately 60 individuals executed under Franco’s regime have been uncovered, of which 38 were located in the wells of Llano de Las Brujas in 2008 and Tenoya in 2017, both situated in Arucas. An additional 13 individuals were found in Fuencaliente— five in 1994 and eight during 2006-2007— and about four or five persons were discovered last October in the archaeological excavation taking place in the Sima de Jinámar in Telde. In this 80-metre deep volcanic tube, the remains of five individuals were also located at intermittent times throughout the 1970s, now housed in the Canary Islands Museum, yet they remain unidentified.
Jinamar Chasm
Thus, the most extensive and promising search is currently underway at the Sima de Jinámar, where the Gran Canaria Cabildo intends to continue its investigations this year. According to Sergio Millares, there may have been “more than a hundred individuals” murdered there, including workers from La Isleta and the cliffs of Gran Canaria, as well as individuals from Telde and approximately thirty missing from Agaete.
This year, plans are also in place to excavate once again in La Palma, particularly around Pino del Consuelo in Fuencaliente. An agreement has already been established between the Government of Spain, the Canary Islands, the Palma Cabildo, and the local council of this municipality. Moreover, further explorations are anticipated in two wells designated as Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC) in Arucas: the Arucas Barranco Bridge and the Return of the French, though the latter project is more advanced.
Additionally, two potential excavations are planned in Tenerife, with the locations to be determined by the Technical Commission of Historical Memory, a body that Minister of the Presidency, Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Nieves Lady Barreto, aims to convene in the first half of February.
Tefía, LGTBIQ+ Historical Memory centre
There are resources allocated for all these projects, states the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Victor Torres, formerly the mayor of Arucas and president of the Canarian Government. He insists that, “for the first time”, they have approved royal decrees allocating 100,000 euros in funding for the councils of Gran Canaria, La Palma, Tenerife, and Fuerteventura for exhumation efforts. For the island of Fuerteventura, this funding will also contribute to establishing the Canary Islands Interpretation Centre of LGTBIQ+ Historical Memory at what was once the Tefía Agricultural Penitentiary Colony, where the Franco regime imprisoned approximately one hundred homosexual men between 1954 and 1966.
‘Extra’ funds for excavation
These are extraordinary allocations, funded by the 2024 budgets, and “the intention is to maintain these in forthcoming years from Democratic Memory,” states Torres. In the agreement formed to uncover the remains in Fuencaliente, the Ministry is contributing 100,000 euros; the Government of the Canary Islands is supplying nearly 80,000 euros to erect a monument of dignity— a project already awarded and set to be completed this year; the Palma Cabildo will prepare the area and a car park; and the Fuencaliente City Council will provide the initial project, as detailed by councillor Nieves Lady Barreto.
For Torres and Barreto, the goal is for this agreement to be mirrored across four districts in other probes, like the wells in Arucas and the explorations yet to be determined in Tenerife, to ensure that all administrations cooperate and work towards the same aim: to mend the wounds caused by locating the disappeared and granting them a dignified burial.
Historical Memory Associations
The Association for the Recovery of the Historical Memory of La Palma estimates that at least 37 individuals remain missing, including the great-uncle of Félix González, the current president of this Association, who hopes that his relation, Félix Ferraz Vergara, will be discovered in the new excavations slated for the area surrounding Pino del Consuelo. This follows the discovery of the ’13 of Fuencaliente and subsequent surveys conducted last year, which proved unsuccessful.
With the new project and agreement between the central and Canary Islands administrations, the entire zone where, according to researchers and oral histories, approximately 50 individuals were killed, will be addressed. Félix González’s great-uncle was just 23 years old when he was taken away one night, never to be seen again. “I witnessed my grandmother— the missing man’s sister— crying for the entirety of her life,” he recounts.
Pino Sosa, Arucas
One individual who was able to identify her father is Pino Sosa, president of the Association for the Historical Memory of Arucas. Her father, José Sosa, a modest brass worker from the northern part of the Island, disappeared on 14th March 1937. After a lifetime of searching for him, DNA tests eventually confirmed in 2018 that he was among the 14 victims discovered in the Tenoya Well in 2017.
In Arucas, there are still two wells awaiting exploration: the Vuelta del Francés and the Puente del Barranco de Arucas. Amidst the undergrowth and inaccessible areas, a company hired by the Arucas association sent cameras last year to assess the conditions of these wells. The Vuelta del Francés was found to be in the best condition as it is dry, whereas the other contains water and mud.
He ArucasCity Council
Plans are already in motion to commence exploration at the Vuelta del Francés well, which reaches a depth of over 50 metres, and the council is currently seeking financing. Nieves Lady Barreto asserts that, similar to Fuencaliente, the intention is to engage all relevant authorities, and she is confident that approximately €500,000 will be secured to initiate comprehensive action at the Arucas wells.
The expenses for the explorations at the Vuelta del Francés alone may amount to around €300,000. In this context, Ángel Víctor Torres remarks that the additional €100,000 for the Cabildo of Gran Canaria could serve to uncover remains both at the Sima de Jinámar and in the Arucas wells. Regardless, he underscores that the Ministry is committed to continuously contributing resources each year to facilitate the essential excavations.
‘Villa Cisneros, 1937: The Great Escape of the Canarian Antifascists’
From March 19, Father’s Day to April 4, 1937, the Canary Islands endured harrowing times. As per Sergio Millares, the raids initiated from Burgos, the capital of Franco’s Spain during the Civil War, were a consequence of the escape that transpired a week earlier, on March 14, 1937, from the Spanish military outpost in Dakhla, which had been renamed Villa Cisneros in Western Sahara.
Shrouded in silence and complicity, around one hundred Canarian antifascists took up arms and seized the fort where they had been detained. A few hours later, the arrival of provisions aboard the steamship Viera and Clavijo from the Canary Islands became their exit door to freedom. They proceeded south to Dakar, Senegal, before travelling to Marseille and then Barcelona, to join the anti-fascist efforts in the Spanish Civil War.
Following the conclusion of the war, many of them entered exile in France or managed to cross the Atlantic in decaying vessels. The remaining individuals were apprehended, placed in concentration camps, and later transported back to the Canary Islands to face trial in War Councils, with some imprisoned and six executed by firing squad. The daring act of this group of men, propelled by deep political convictions, has been recorded in history as the most significant wartime action associated with the Archipelago. This is recounted succinctly by Jose Manuel Hernandez, a graduate in Geography and History and researcher, in the book Villa Cisneros, 1937: The Great Escape of the Canarian Antifascists.
This Canarian uprising at Villa Cisneros against the Franco regime prompted retributions from Burgos, leading to increased raids in the Canary Islands shortly thereafter, particularly in Arucas, Agaete, and Gáldar. Over a hundred individuals went missing, with the possibility that they may be located in the wells of Arucas or the Sima de Jinámar. A multitude of mysteries still remain to be unravelled.
Notes
Activities in the Islands
The Government of Spain has scheduled a series of activities to mark the 50th anniversary of Franco’s passing. Initially, two events are planned in the Canary Islands for 2025. One of these is the designation of a Place of Democratic Memory at the Agricultural Penitentiary Colony of Tefía (Fuerteventura) in June. This process is already underway. It was the first specialised penitentiary centre for homosexual individuals in Spain.
Another event to commemorate freedom in Spain will be a colloquium titled ‘Spain: From Isolation to Incorporation into Europe’, taking place on March 18 and 19 at both public universities in the Canary Islands, La Laguna (ULL) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC).
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