The Institute of Memory of the Government of Navarra has identified one of the four wounded prisoners killed in the skirts of Mount Ezkaba, near the town of Berriozar, known as Sparzeta: Vicente Mejuto Leis

It is the fifth identified fugitive, the first of the 55 Galicians killed on May 22, 1938, fleeing the fortress of San Cristobal. There are already 29 people identified since the creation of the DNA Bank of Navarra and a total of 268 files have been opened.

Vicente Mejuto Leis was born in Cee, a Coruña, on January 24, 1913. Single and chauffeur. He was arrested alongside his brother Theophilus and other trade unionists in his region. Vicente was prosecuted and tried for military rebellion and sentenced to twelve years and one day in prison. On 17 June 1937 he was transferred from the prison of the Province of La Coruña to the fort of San Cristobal, on Mount Ezkaba, where he remained locked until the day of the flight.

She was exhumated by the Society of Sciences Aranzadi, at the initiative of the City Council of Berriozar, on 18 April 2015. To locate them, the investigations of Fermín Ezkieta and the testimonies of several neighbors, who after learning of the leak reported the great movement carried out by the military and the civilian guards, as well as the arrest of four prisoners who were led by the Camino del Agua to the site of Esparzeta, where they were killed, were of great importance.

In the coming years, an important project has been developed to create a memory space in the Sparzeta area, with the participation of the community, especially with young people of the people (most students of the IES Berriozar), organized around Gaztegune, with the dynamization of the Ikari Ari association. Within the educational proposal of the learning service, the tasks of cleaning and conditioning the space were carried out, along with the reflection on the facts that have given rise to the creation of a park inaugurated last year.

Identification can only be carried out if genetic samples are provided by family members. The work of the associations is fundamental to contact them. In this case, a relative of Vicente Mejuto contacted the Fort de Chispa of San Cristobal, who communicated it to the Instituto Navarro de la Memoria. In the case of the Galicians who have fled, although they have not yet been able to make further identifications, the DNA bank contains samples of several relatives of people killed in the flight thanks to the collaboration of several Galician memory associations that have participated in the search. The Navarro Institute of Memory hopes that this identification will lead to new contacts to continue advancing this complex process that is taking place.