Civil War General could leave Sevilla 

WITH Franco gone from the Valle de los Caidos, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano should leave Sevilla’s Macarena basílica, protesters maintained. 

Queipo de Llano was the army general who led Franco’s military coup in Andaluciaon July 18, 1936, and each year a demonstration is held outside the basilica on the uprising’s anniversary. 

The late dictator’s removal from the Valle de los Caidos recently prompted hundreds to protest at the continuing presence of Queipo de Llano’s tomb. 

Their demands were echoed by Susana Diaz, Andalucia’s former regional president, as well as Sevilla’s mayor Juan Espadas and Teresa Rodriguez, regional head of Podemos. 

Moving the general responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 people during the Civil War could be even more complicated than relocating Franco’s tomb, legal experts explained. 

The Valle de Los Caídos belongs to the state but the Macarena basilica is private property, although the former regional president Susana Diaz maintained that the state could intervene when a private building had a public use. 

Patricia del Pozo, who heads the regional Culture department, announced that nothing can be done until a team of experts decides whether or not Queipo de Llano’s tomb infringes Spain’s Historical Memory Laws.