Daniel cumplirá diez años este miércoles. Cursa quinto curso de Primaria en un colegio de Vitoria. Rubén Mateos, socialista y en aquella época alto cargo de la Administración vasca, es su padre y conoció en el hospital la noticia del final de ETA. En algunas entrevistas que ofreció aquel día bautizaron a su hijo como “el niño de la paz”. El joven nació a la vez que ETA comunicaba aquel 20 de octubre de 2011 que ponía fin al terrorismo, a la amenaza, a la extorsión y al secuestro y simbolizaba un nuevo tiempo en la sociedad vasca.
Eduardo Santos, of invisible mediator in the film 'Maixabel' to a counselor in the Government of Navarra
Mateos was part of the Patxi López government. The Lehendakari, the first non -nationalist in democracy and who came to office in 2009 auged by the PP, was officially traveling in the United States and the statement coincided with a journey on an Amtrak train between Washington D.C. and New York. The first reaction of the Basque President occurred right there, in the train seat and with the sole company of a small bottle of water from the Crystal Geyser brand. Then we had to improvise another statement in the staircase of a Manhattan building. “I knew him in advance. We knew from days before when and how the announcement was going to occur. Everything that surrounded the announcement of ETA that he abandoned terrorism was the result of a discreet job of months and with many parts involved, ”explains the now deputy in Congress in a written interview. In fact, the Basque Government had reserved a room at the UN with the official flags and all the institutional iconography for the first statement after the statement, but the rush of the Moncloa because the Lehendakari appeared first and then the then president could do it, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, precipitated the events.
The announcement of ETA took 72 hours after a conference held at the Palacio Donostiarra de Aiete and to which international personalities headed by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN, attended it.It was the landing floor for ETA communication not to look like a conditions without conditions."You could not have been celebrated without the knowledge and approval of Basque and Spanish governments, although we decided not to participate directly," López explains.The PSE-EE and UGT did attend, in any case, like the rest of the games except the PP.
If Aiete had already been held and if what was going to happen in advance, what did the Lehendakari do thousands of Miles from Euskadi in a historic moment?“It was an important trip.And we wanted to show that ETA could not condition the agenda, ”explain exassants of that cabinet.Moreover, López had a reservation already made of a flight for that same night of October 20, so that he could already be in Vitoria the next day.Meanwhile, from New York, its head of foreign policy, Guillermo Echenique, offered that October 20 a reception to 500 people: “Today we presented the Basque Country in New York and for the first time we do not have to explain that, despite the terrorists,We are a great country. ”
The Lehendakari speaks of a "succession of calls" after the news was confirmed.“I don't remember order.But surely Rodolfo Ares was the first, ”he says.Ares was his right hand in the party and in the Executive, where he had the Royal position of Interior Minister and the unofficial Vicelehendakari.Already retired from public life, Ares has declined to participate in this report.López also spoke with Jesús Eguiguren, president of the Basque socialists and negotiator with the Abertzale left of Arnaldo Otegi.He was also in contact with Rodríguez Zapatero and also with Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, although he formally was no longer a minister of the Interior since July of that year."It was a very intense moment and loaded with emotions," he recalls.
Patxi López: "Give a walk or accompany your children to school became a conquest"
“Remember that the socialist government of Euskadi was born, already before its constitution, with a direct threat of ETA as a result of which it had to escort a good part of their positions, which joined the long list of councilors, judges, judges, judges, Businessmen, journalists, teachers, ... with the end of ETA, all those hundreds of people were able to recover their freedom. The simplest things, such as taking a walk or accompanying your children to school, became a conquest, ”says López. And he adds: “At a more general level, I think that the end of ETA has been a breath of fresh air in Basque society. Political tension has been reduced, relationships have been normalized. Euskadi is no longer the national center of political confrontation. An indicator that can be lower but that is revealing: we verified how the number of tourists began to increase, Euskadi began to project an attractive image abroad and that had an impact on the economy, in commerce or social relations. It will cost time to objectively assess everything we have won with the end of ETA and everything we lost for decades of lack of freedom. ”
What lost Euskadi? According to data from the Vitoria Memorial, a space inaugurated this year by the central government, there were 853 killed (including those perpetrated by related organizations). In Spain, for offering the comparison, jihadism has caused 288 victims, Grapo 92, the extreme right 62 and Gal 27. They are added 2,597 injured. In 2009, when the end of ETA already glimpsed, the Arartko (Ombudsman's Office) estimated at 42,000 threatened, almost twice the entire population of Eibar. Of them, some3,300 brought bodyguards at some point. A work of the applied ethics center of the University of Deusto figure in around 100 million euros the money entered by the terrorist band due to bailouts of kidnapped people. 10,000 entrepreneurs were extorted to pay the so -called ‘revolutionary tax’ (and 13% paid to the threats, according to a study by Javier Marrodán). Only Ertzaintza suffered 1,300 ambushes of ‘Kale Borroka’.
The definitive cessation of armed activity came in October 2011 but, in practice, ETA was already inactive for months.His last murder was that of the French policeman Jean-Serge Nérin in March 2010. The last ones in Spain were Diego Salvà and Carlos Sáenz de Tejada, Civil Guard agents destined in Mallorca and, in Euskadi, the inspector of the National Police EduardoPuelles.It was in the summer of 2009. A year later, in the tribute, the band tried to kill López and Ares with a telescopic sight rifle.José Pardines, another member of the Civil Guard, was the first victim in 1968, a decade after the birth of the organization.More than 750 of the crimes arrived after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco.Again with landing clues as in Aiete, ETA disassembled in 2017 and dissolved in 2018. He apologized only to a part of the victims, who had no “responsibility in the conflict”.
"The rest are well dead?" Asks Consuelo Ordóñez, sister of the Basque parliamentarian and spokesman of the PP in Donostia, Gregorio Ordóñez, shot in 1995. He is also in charge of the collective of victims of terrorism (Covite), which He estimates that there are more than 300 unsolved crimes. She believes that that of 2011 "was a negotiated ending" and that "the price that has been paid for peace by the victims is impunity." “They have given our right to justice. The best thing is that now ETA does not kill us and, who says otherwise, lies. But this country has an infinite debt with the victims. The medallies of ‘We have defeated ETA with the rule of law’ I will not consent to it, ”she says on the other side of the phone. And she wonders out loud: “Has anyone seen the police operation of dissolution and disarmament of ETA? Rodríguez Zapatero negotiated with ETA and Rajoy negotiated with Rodríguez Zapatero the legalization of political arms and non -detention [of terrorists]. ”
Of the ETA structures, the only standing building is that of the EPPK, acronym in Basque of the Collective of Basque political prisoners.He groups those imprisoned for terrorism that remain in orthodoxy, so he does not include either the repentants of the 'via nanclar' or the hardest dissent, of little relevance and gathered around acronym such as ATA or HB (ofBatasuna Herritar).The EPPK prisoner association, Etxerat, reported on October 5 that the inmates were 201. Since Pedro Sánchez (2018) there have been dozens of approaches and, in Spain, none is further from Madrid.78 of those 201 comply with a sentence in Álava, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarra.
But for Joseba Azkarraga, formerly for the PNV in the first legislatures of democracy, former counselor of Justice for EA and now spokesman for the platform in favor of the rights of Sare prisoners, this is insufficient. “The decision of ETA from ten years ago has changed our lives positively to the vast majority of citizens of this country. Another different thing is whether that change has affected everyone equally. As far as victims affects, there is no homogeneous treatment. There can be no specific treatment for those of the ETA organization and another for those of state terrorism. And then they remain with political prisoners of an exceptional nature. More than a hundred is in prisons outside the Basque Autonomous Community or Navarra and about 70 could be on probation for having spent three quarters of the conviction and are kept in the second degree. There is an absolute blockade of prison permits. You have to go from an anti -terrorism policy to an ordinary. Something goes movement, but more than 50% are still far, ”he explains.
Jesús Loza is a member of the Fernando Buesa Foundation in Memory of the Vicelehendakari and socialist leader killed in 2000. After the end of ETA, López appointed him commissioner for coexistence. In Sánchez's first legislature he exercised as a government delegate. In 2021 he understands that the end of terrorism "was a tactical and not ethical decision." “They saw that they went to the gate. In the world of Batasuna they understood that they could not continue. The pressure of the political arm was fundamental to stop. The police pressure was strenuous. The fundamental asset for peace was not Arnaldo Otegi; If you have to highlight someone, it was Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. The ethical step will occur when that world does the self -criticism that everything they did is useless, ”he says. He says that ten years ago there was "a joy for all" but warns that "there are still desolds of hate in the form of painted, receptions or insults." In Euskadi, in any case, there have been no splits that IRA has had, for example.
Covite, on the other hand, understands that those known as ‘NGO ETORRI’, those tributes to ETA members at their exit from jail, have already been reduced to the minimum expression although this summer there has been some exception. A few weeks ago, Sare changed plans at the last minute and did not carry out a day for the rights of the Henri Parot prisoner, with 40 victims. “We have achieved it with a lot of effort. In 2016 we created an observatory to document them all and of course they are advancing, ”confirms Consuelo Ordonez. They were a "shameful practice that was not given in any corner of Europe," she adds. “The‘ NGO ETORRI ’are, in addition to a humiliation for the victims, the clearest expression of the difficulties that the Abertzale left has to break its past. It is the responsibility of that world, of Sortu, of EH Bildu, put an end to all this. Because a decent society cannot allow the public and holiday tribute of murderers. But I don't want to end with a pessimistic message. We suffered the long disease of terrorism, but recovery is going well. We are a better and healthier society than ten years ago, ”says Patxi López.
The game with more charges killed by ETA is the PP. His general secretary in Euskadi now, Laura Garrido, was one of the last ones to which the escort was removed in 2017. She wore 17 -year -old bodyguards. “I received the news in 2011 with some disbelief. We had attended the T4 trap truce [in 2006]. We have won in tranquility, obviously. Know that there is no terrorist band that can kill ... In the end, we all live better, ”she says. Garrido joined in 1989, with 18 years. Almost half of ETA's total victims occurred in that decade. In 1997, she read in Basque sentence for the kidnapping and murder of her partner Miguel Ángel Blanco. "I attribute that final," she says, "she at the pressure of the instruments of the rule of law, judges, police work, international collaboration and legislation." “In 2021 I have very present personal drama, those murders of the principle in which police or military guards, civil or military guards were buried. The pending subject is that there is a force sitting in the institutions, Sortu, which still does not condemn terrorism, ”says Garrido, which does grants that“ there are parts of EH Bildu that do ”, citing EA or the former Aralar. And she concludes: “You have to maintain the demand with hate redoubts. ETA has finished but I have party colleagues to those who have given balls because they are new generations. ”
A few days after the end of ETA, Mariano Rajoy beat Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba in the general elections and achieved an absolute majority.In Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, the coalition that integrated to the Abertzale left, then Amaiur obtained excellent results in the four constituencies.Before, in spring, Bildu managed to govern in Gipuzkoa and Donostia, the city with more victims in Euskadi.At that time, the Basque PP had 13 seats in the regional Parliament and now has five of six in the coalition with citizens.“It's a paradox, yes.The vote has gone down.We will have to analyze well why it is, ”says Garrido.
Urkullu's historical toast
The main Basque party is the PNV. "We were late for the cause of the victims," admitted the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, in which ETA dissolved, 2018. Ten years ago, Urkullu was president of the PNV and "knew what was going to happen" opposition leader. "He arrived at the scheduled time of the day planned and with the planned content," they say from his environment. His first reaction was to "get into the office of the fifth floor of Sabin Etxea [nationalist headquarters] and call his family and the former presidents of the Euzkadi Buru Batzar." For the story there will be a photograph of an extreme abstemium organizing a toast with cava next to his team. "But he didn't drink, he just provided," those who were present joke. On October 20, Urkullu will preside over the central institutional act of recognition to the victims at the headquarters of the Gogora Memory Institute, in Bilbao. Gogora, in addition to the victims of ETA and other terrorisms, also recalls the civil war and the Francoist dictatorship and the victims of police violence. A Basque law and several decrees are also covered by this group that suffered torture or, in the most extreme cases, shootings.
The Euskadi of 2021 now pounds what some voices have come to call as "the battle of the story."The veil has risen and there are numerous literary or cinema productions on Basque history.‘Maixabel’ is still in theaters, the series ‘The invisible line’ told the origin of ETA and the novel ‘Patria’ has also been adapted to the screen.There are also jobs like ‘Non Dago Mikel?’ On torture.The repentant terrorist Carmen Gisasola wrote ‘Gaur Zortzi’.And in ‘The eyes of the other’ it is explained what that ‘via Nanclar 'consisted.
“There is no color in how Euskadi was when I was 10 years old and how is now that Daniel is 10 years old.It is day and night.However, I notice that many people have passed too soon.He didn't want to look back.Daniel had to talk about this issue because at school they have not told them anything.Peace values are taught but there is no explicit mention to ETA and persecution violence.You cannot leave this kind of thing to the will of the parents, ”reflects Rubén Mateos, the father of whom some came to call" El Niño de la Paz. "And he concludes: "Daniel will face all kinds of problems of the society in which he lives but, of course, not to violence."
