Bilbao (EFE).- Falange has concentrated on the candidacies of the three Basque capitals to its best-known names: Norberto Pico Sanabria, Carlos García Juliá and Martín Sáenz de Ynestrillas.
Thus, in Vitoria the list of the Spanish Falange of the JONS, which lacks representation in all of Spain, is headed by its national leader since 2011, Norberto Pico Sanabria.
In San Sebastián, the head of the list is Martín Sáenz de Ynestrillas Pérez, Ricardo’s brother, prosecuted for the murder in 1989 of HB deputy Josu Muguruza, and son of the commander Ricardo Sáenz de Ynestrillas Martínez assassinated by ETA.
Archive image of the Falange candidate in San Sebatián, Martín Sáenz de Ynestrillas. EFE/Emilio Naranjo
In Bilbao, the candidate for mayor is the “gunman” convicted of the murder of the Atocha labor lawyers in 1977 Carlos García Juliá, released in November 2020 after having fled in Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil.
Falange defends Juliá
The Falange has justified the candidacy for the Bilbao City Council of Carlos García Juliá, convicted of the murder of the Atocha labor lawyers in 1977, arguing that he responded with the Justice despite the fact that he was on the run for decades and only served 14 years of the sentence of 193 years in prison.
In a statement, the Falange Española de las Jons affirmed that García Juliá “already asked for forgiveness many years ago, complied with Justice and is today fully reintegrated into society, unlike many of the ETA terrorists, who more recently committed attacks who continue without being judged”.
García Juliá was released from prison in November 2020 after having fled in Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, the latter country in which he was kept after decades on the run and a period incarcerated in Bolivia for a crime related to drug trafficking.
Falange regrets the Atocha massacre
Falange also argues that “the victims themselves prefer to turn the page on events now far away that we all regret and call for reconciliation”, despite the fact that the Fundación Abogados de Atocha tried to stop the release of García Juliá without success, since he had more than ten years left on his sentence to serve.
They describe the five murders and the four attempted murders for which he was convicted as “facts” that happened “almost 50 years” ago when his now candidate “was barely over 20 years old.”
They also frame them in a “context of generalized political violence, with constant attacks by ultra-left terrorist groups and separatism” and add that “it was proven” that the Falange “had no participation.”
The Falange also denounces a “double standard” that they exemplify with the PSOE, by the members of this party who were convicted by the GAL, or that of EH Bildu, a formation that they consider “the political brand of ETA”.
They affirm that they are committed to “peace and national reconciliation” to then ensure that “the political heirs of José Antonio Primo de Rivera have desecrated his grave”, for the transfer of the remains of the founder of the Falange from the Valley of the Fallen, in compliance with the law of Democratic Memory.