Gogora hands over to the families the remains of the Cosme Ayala and Manuel Narváez militia who disappeared during the Civil War

On Sunday, the Basque Government handed over to the families the remains of two militiamen who died onthe war fronts of Bizkaia in April 1937, recovered in July 2025 from the Amorebieta-Etxano cemetery.

At an event in Bilbao, the Justice and Human Rights Counsellor, María Jesús San José, and the Director of Gogora, Alberto Alonso, handed over their remains to the families of the militia, Cosme Ayala Yoldi and Manuel Hernáez Ruidiaz.

In both cases, genetic identification of the remains was made possible by samples provided by their daughters, who were present this morning at the headquarters of the Gogora Institute to collect the remains of their parents.

Cosme Ayala Yoldi, a native Navarro and neighbour of Barakaldo, Meabe 1, Largo Caballero, was a militia member of the battalion attached to the Unified Socialist Youth, who died on 27 April 1937 at the front in Elorrio.

Manuel Hernáez Ruidiaz, a Riojano of birth, lived in Bilbao and was a militia member of the Zabalbide battalion attached to the Republican Left, died on 20 April 1937 at the front in Muxika.

The remains of the two militiamen were found in the same grave at 11 Amorebieta-Etxano cemetery, along with 28 others, in July 2025.

The Gogora Institute has clarified that it is generally considered to be the only grave in the Amorebieta-Etxano cemetery, but the truth is that after excavating the entire area, a total of 11 burials have been found with the remainsof 157 people, of whom only 8 have been identified so far.

Both genetic identifications have been carried out under the Civil War Missing Persons Search and Identification Programme, funded, managed and coordinated by Gogora.

In his speech, Councilor San José stressed the need to "recover the past, to search for the missing from the Civil War and Francoism, to return to where they should never have left," which is "to remember."

That is why he has claimed "the fundamental role of the laws of democratic memory without which Manuel and Cosme would never have returned home," he concluded.