Remains of Epifanio Osoro Icobalceta, a CNT anarchist activist, identified among victims exhumed at Berriozar cemetery in 2022
Epifanio Osoro Icobalceta, a prisoner from Durango, is the fifth person to be identified by the Government of Navarra’s DNA Bank thanks to the analysis of the remains exhumed at the municipal cemetery of Berriozar in March 2022. This was confirmed by the Department of Memory and Coexistence, External Action and Basque Language of the Regional Government, through the Navarra Institute of Memory. This native of Bizkaia and member of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) was part of a group of 21 prisoners from the San Cristóbal fortress prison who were extrajudicially killed on 1 November 1936.
Epifanio Osoro Icobalceta was born and lived in the town of Durango (Bizkaia), in the Basque Autonomous Community. At the time of his killing, he was 22 years old, single and a mechanic by profession. Like most of those killed with him, he was a member of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT). He was sentenced by the Provincial Court of Valladolid to 6 years, 10 months and 1 day of major imprisonment and subsequently incarcerated in the fortress located atop Mount Ezkaba.
As in other cases that have concluded with the victims of repression, the first step was locating family members, in which researchers Elena Aliaga and Jimi Jiménez played a prominent role. After that, the donation of genetic samples for comparison by the Government of Navarra’s DNA Bank was essential; its genetic laboratory is managed by the public company NASERTIC and is attached to the Institute of Legal Medicine of Navarra.
For this reason, the Department of Memory and Coexistence, External Action and Basque places special emphasis on the importance of obtaining DNA samples to compare with the remains found at the site that are still pending identification, since genetic samples from relatives of several of these prisoners are lacking. Following previous calls, new genetic samples have been obtained, but several are still missing for comparison, and therefore the Navarra Institute of Memory wishes to recall the list of prisoners exhumed in Berriozar whose relatives have not yet been located.
To begin the DNA sampling process, it is essential that relatives of the victims contact the Navarra Institute of Memory at inm@navarra.es.
Source: navarra.es
