Monumento a las víctimas de la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Montes de Oca, Burgos, 2011On this

Monumento a las víctimas de la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Montes de Oca, Burgos, 2011On this date eighty years ago the military coup which began the Spanish Civil War took place. While Burgos Province, known as a hotbed of reactionary politics and home to large military facilities, was quickly captured by the “Nationalists,” as the military coup called itself, the city and its province did not entirely escape that exceptionally bloody war’s carnage. This monument, in a rugged and hilly area  (the Goose Mountains) about 25 km from central Burgos, was erected near the the site of a mass burial of “dissidents” -  Communists, labor leaders and others of leftist and anticlerical persuasion who were slaughtered  as the military coup leaders under Franco tried to bring about an “ethnic and ethical cleansing” of the Spanish population. A “Nationalist” motto was “viva la muerte” (long live death)!Today pilgrims who walk the Camino Francés, the most popular route from the French border westward to the shrine at Santiago de Compostela, are nearing the halfway point of their route in Spain as they pass this sobering memorial. -- source link

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