• Senate Approved the Law of Democratic Memory with the rejection of the PP, Vox and Cs: "It is a betrayal of the Spaniards"
  • More than 200 personalities demand Sánchez the withdrawal of the Law of Democratic Memory: "It opens wounds that the Transition closed"

Last week was commemorated in Vitoria the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of three young Galicians who crossed into France and ETA took for members of the Civil Guard. These are three of the 113 cases of murders to which according to the victims the Law of Democratic Memory approved last October could be applied.

Victims of ETA consider that the rule can be applied to the crimes of the terrorist group and have been waiting for more than three months for the State Attorney General's Office to respond to the request in that regard that they made. The Dignity and Justice Association has asked the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, that its Technical Secretariat address "the analysis and study on the possibility of applying this Law to the victims of terrorism of the terrorist organization ETA, who were persecuted, kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the period from January 1, 1969 to December 29, 1978".

The final date is that of the entry into force of the Constitution and the one that the memory law fixes as the last day to which the norm is applicable, which according to the association must fall within the scope of that law. "All crimes against persons committed by the terrorist organization ETA in the aforementioned period would be perfectly framed," all this "in response to the general principles" that underpin the norm, "such as the principles of truth, justice, reparation and guarantee of non-repetition, as well as in the democratic values of harmony, coexistence, political pluralism, defense of human rights, culture of peace and equality of men and women".

The association chaired by Daniel Portero reiterated last week its request to the Prosecutor's Office, given that it has not yet received a response on the preparation of that study. The letter of request, dated December 11, incorporates a list of people killed by ETA in the period covered by the law, for which it asks – although not only for them – "the protection, recognition and reparation contained in the Law of Democratic Memory."

113 killed

The first on the list is the taxi driver Fermín Monasterio, murdered in Arrigorriaga (Vizcaya) on April 4, 1969 when he asked for explanations from a wounded ETA who was fleeing. The last is Joaquín María Azaola Martínez, who died in Guecho (Vizcaya) 10 days before the Constitution came into force. ETA killed him for having revealed to the police a plan to kidnap the future King Juan Carlos I.

The norm that Dignidad y Justicia asks to protect the 113 murdered by ETA establishes that among its objectives is "the recognition of those who suffered persecution or violence, for political, ideological, thought or opinion reasons."

The rule goes on to add that, in general, any person "who has suffered, individually or collectively, physical, moral or psychological harm, property damage, or substantial impairment of his or her fundamental rights" as a result of acts or omissions constituting violations of international human rights and humanitarian law will be considered a victim.

The association considers that its request is aligned with "the spirit" of the norm, which is "to fulfill the moral duty to promote policies of democratic memory to strengthen to neutralize oblivion and avoid the repetition of the most tragic episodes in history, as well as to promote the pedagogy of "never again", as of the temporal scope, object and purpose of the norm, general principles and democratic values on which it is based"

Thus, it is "perfectly acceptable" to include in the scope of protection of the law "all those people, men, women and children, who in the period between January 1969 and December 29, 1978, were extorted, persecuted, tortured, forcibly displaced from the Basque Country and Navarra or murdered by the terrorist organization ETA in defense of democracy and freedom". As in the case of thousands of victims since the Civil War, the body of the three Galicians still does not appear.

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more

  • ETA