The Popular Party of Tías denounced this past Thursday that "the inefficient management" by the City Council has forced them to "take drastic measures" to find space in the cemetery, building new niches on existing tombs, forcing the exhumation of corpses, which has generated a deep discomfort in the affected families.
However, the mayor of the municipality, José Juan Cruz, declares that "the removal was notified" to the relatives, contrary to what some of them claim, who "have encountered this situation unexpectedly."
In addition, the mayor assures that "everything has been placed by a company specialized in ossuaries (a type of smaller niches) enabled for this purpose."
From the Department of Cemeteries, Pepa González, responsible for the area, assures that "the exhumation procedure has been carried out according to regulations and according to the law, and it was made public throughout the month of July, while the file was initiated in May."
Likewise, González states that "the relatives of those remains that had the names correctly were contacted because we had to go to the Diocese to get information because they were burials from 1969."
For her part, the councilor says that they "contacted" some of the relatives from whom they could get the phone numbers. "I was attending to them in the cemetery up to three times and explaining the procedure to them," she says.
Regarding the human remains, the City Council comments that they are all "geolocated. They have been exhumed with great care and have all been placed inside the cemetery in the ossuaries that were available to put all the bags with the bone remains, and they will be given their life identification, which has already been requested from a company that performs this type of work," she explains.
If any family has doubts about where the remains of a loved one are, the Department of Cemeteries asks that "they contact the Area and they will be informed of the place where they are located."
In this area where the exhumation works have been carried out, approximately 290 new niches will be built. "We are also waiting for the document from the Government of the Canary Islands that allows us to acquire the land adjacent to the cemetery to be able to make an extension," González concludes.