Pamplona (EFE).- The family of Mikel Zabalza, recognized as a victim of politically motivated violence after appearing dead 37 years ago weeks after his arrest by the Civil Guard, has considered the appointment “a jug of cold water and an offense” as a lieutenant general of the Benemérita of one of the guards involved in those events.
It was at a public appearance in Orbaizeta, a Navarrese town where Zabalza was from, whose sister Idoia, accompanied by other relatives and members of the platform Mikel Zabalza Gogoan and the Red de Torturados, recalled the “fight” that all of them They have been trying to clarify the facts for 37 years, convinced that their brother “died in the same barracks due to the torture they inflicted on him.”
After appreciating the “great social support” perceived at this time, he has valued recent gestures and decisions, such as the institutional declaration approved two years ago in the Provincial Parliament, and later in the municipalities of Pamplona and Donostia, which demanded the investigation of the facts after some audios implicating the Civil Guard came to light.
In addition, last year the Basque Government recognized Mikel Zabalza as a victim of politically motivated violence.
“A jug of cold water, an offense”
For the family, these statements implied “demanding the reactivation of all avenues for the total clarification of the facts and, where appropriate, the recognition and assumption of responsibilities by the State”, convinced those close to Zabalza that “there was a great consensus in the search for truth, justice and reparation”.
Having exposed the situation, Idoia Zabalza has assured that now the appointment of one of the agents linked to the events, Arturo Espejo, as Lieutenant General of the Civil Guard is “a jug of cold water, an offense, which erases all threads of hope and makes it very clear to us that we are at exactly the same point we were at 37 years ago, before a wall that they will not let tear down”.
“Once again the government has preferred to advise, trust, reward and give power to people related to the darkest episodes of the State instead of aligning itself with the principles of the United Nations on victims. He has preferred to choose torture instead of truth and justice ”, she lamented.
They denounce “helplessness and disgust”
For their part, from the Network of Tortured Persons of Navarra they have shown their rejection, “helplessness and repugnance”, to the attitude of the central government, because “it is not ethical to recognize and repair on the one hand, while being promoted and decorated on the other ”.
On this matter, the regional senator Koldo Martínez (Geroa Bai) has advanced that on Tuesday he will ask the Government in the control session about the promotion “to the highest degree of generalship” of Espejo, “one of the two lieutenants who endorsed the version of the escape and subsequent drowning in the Bidasoa of Mikel Zabalza, arrested and transferred to the Intxaurrondo barracks without having any relationship with ETA, as was later demonstrated”.