ROOTS OF LIBERTY Antonio Merino Santamaría Álvaro Chapa Imaz Foreword by Mariano Rajoy © Fundación Popular de Estudios Vascos, 2011 Cover design: luzpublicidad.com Layout: Mono-Logo comunicación English translation: Elena Muñoz Aldecoa All rights reserved DL: BI-324/2011 ISBN 13: 978-84-615-0648-4 Collaborate: So that our children understand why her parents fought INDEX ¬ Presentation 7 ¬ Foreword 9 ¬ Introduction 13 ¬ Luis Candendo Pérez 17 ¬ José Antonio Vivó Undabarrena 23 ¬ Modesto Carriegas Pérez 29 ¬ Luís María Uriarte Alzaa 39 ¬ Ramón Baglietto Martínez 47 ¬ José Ignacio Ustaran Ramírez 57 ¬ Jaime Arrese Arizmendiarrieta 63 ¬ Juan de Dios Doval de Mateo 71 ¬ Vicente Zorita Alonso 83 ¬ Alberto López Jaureguizar 91 ¬ José Larrañaga Arenas 99 ¬ Gregorio Ordóñez Fenollar 115 ¬ Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido 127 ¬ José Luís Caso Cortines 139 ¬ Juan Ignacio Iruretagoyena Larrañaga 151 ¬ Manuel Zamarreño Villoria 159 ¬ Alberto Jiménez Becerril and Ascensión García Ortiz 169 ¬ Jesús María Pedrosa Urquiza 177 ¬ Manuel Indiano Azaustre 189 ¬ José María Martín Carpena 199 ¬ José Luis Ruiz Casado 209 ¬ Francisco Cano Consuegra 217 ¬ Manuel Giménez Abad 223 ¬ List of victims of ETA 233 7 PrESENtatION he first objective with which the Fundación Popular de Estudios Vascos was born -Popular Foundation for Basque TEStudies- is completed today with the presentation of this book. Roots of Liberty is a deeply felt tribute to the victims ETA´s terrorism, murdered for the sole fact of being representative of a Right-Centre ideology in politics tied to the concept and feeling of being Basque and Spanish at the same time. We can divide the terrorist senseless actions in two well defined moments: the beginning of the political democratic transition –end of the seventies and beginning of the eighties- in which terrorism almost succeeded in exterminating our ideology in the Basque Country, making an attempt on the lives of representatives of two Parties, Unión de Centro Democrático and Alianza Popular, and a second moment, from 1955, with the renaissance of the centro derecha vasco -Basque Right-Centre-, attained by the fusion of several parties which gave birth to the Partido Popular. From this moment it can be posed a political alternative to the nationalism even to a municipal-town level. During both periods many more have been the failed attacks against comrades who don´t appear in this book, and whom I would like to thank for their commitment, 9 ROOTS OF LIBERTY because with everyon´s work and pain now we know that we can put an end to ETA´s terrorism. We wish to remember mainly the people, the human beings, no the positions they held, because in first place they were parents, husbands, sons and daughters excited about their jobs, full of hope about their families. As with the rest of victims of terrorism, the portraits which appear here are for us more than just a date in a “pain calendar”. With this publication we want to remember our comrades who affiliated themselves, without conscious intention and together with all the other victims, to the roots of liberty, a gift that we are on the verge of attaining. This is the only reason why the active party members and the supporters of the Partido Popular keep defending the same our dead mates did: freedom in a society which is not free, equality of rights for all Basque citizens and, with their example, the representation of those who are denied voice and voting. In this fight we have not been alone: comrades all around Spain have also been suffering, some of them victims as well of this terror because of their identification with the ideology of the Populares Vascos -Popular Basque Populars-, with the aggravating circumstance of the lack of protection. I would like to thank Álvaro Merino and Antonio Chapa, authors of this book, without forgetting the necessary coordination and effort of Carlos Olazábal, alma mater, life and soul, promoter of this work. Thank you very much to all of you. Antón Damborenea Basterrechea President of the Fundación Popular de Estudios Vascos 10 FOrEWOrD e were in the “zero hour” of Spanish democracy. No doubt, the political transition meant one of the most WWextraordinary achievements in our society, besides an example of unity and strength for the rest of the world. Those were as well the first hours for the centro-derecha in our country, many of whose “architects” are nowadays, sad enough, unforgettable main characters of this book for which I have the honour of writing the prologue and whose authors are proud witnesses of the value of all those men and women who, with a literally un-payable sacrifice, helped make democracy possible in Spain. “Zero Hour” also for a political party that has to look itself in the mirror of those years so that it can see reflected all that it is today; because in turning its gaze to that sincere mirror from any possible angle, we can see Liberty has always been in the root of our political commitment, behind of any of the acronyms which later on would converge in the Partido Popular - one the the two 11 ROOTS OF LIBERTY major Parties in Spain; Right, traditional - Liberty, with capitals, Liberty that goes inexorably tied to other capital words in democracy: Justice and Equality. On these three mainstays are built the postulates of the Partido Popular from its origin, with people as the core of its compromise, avoiding the excesses of dogmatism and trying to always maintain the coherence between subjects and predicates. In the late seventies of the last century we began to build up, all together, the Constitución – Constitución - by which we are ruled nowadays. We rescued the sovereign political character which was constituted in1812: a nation of free and equal citizens. And in that historic referendum, on the 6th of December of 1978, almost nine out of ten Spaniards voted in favour of the text that had been previously passed by the Cortes -Parliament/House-. That day, which I remember was a rainy one in Pontevedra, it happened in Spain an act of national conciliation which explained the wish of Spaniards of living in peace. But, as it happens in all open societies, history always gets tinged with lights and shadows. Here, the biggest of lights has been the courage of all those who have bet for the defence of State of rights and for its safeguarding as the best of the guarantees in order to combine that Liberty, together with Justice and Equality. The heaviest of all the shadows has been undoubtedly terrorism, the worst enemy of open societies. The aim of the terrorism of ETA has been to undermine coexistence by attacking life and citizens´ liberty, forcing democracy to give up and imposing a breaking-off. It has caused the death, mutilation and suffering of thousands of people, and has also threaten the strength of our democracy by trying to 12 FOREWORD impose by violence the rupture of the constitutional regime that Spaniards gave to ourselves in 1978. The testimonies of family and friends of the victims of ETA´s terrorism match up in recognizing somehow a turning point in their daily lives; a turning point which entails the difference between feeling free and feeling really threatened. The Spanish society also recognizes its turning point with the demonstrations that followed the kidnapping and assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco, after a criminal attempt to blackmail the Spanish government and the citizens themselves, who came out from everywhere in order to give back the ultimatum of the terrorist group. Terror was useless from now on, threats, blackmail and coercion were useless. That turning point meant the social defeat of ETA. And we had to make effective that defeat. This was the duty of the consecutive governments of José María Aznar, in which I was active member and in charge, together with some other responsibilities, of the Ministerio de Interior -Home Office- during an essential period of the antiterrorist fight; we have the duty to make effective the defeat of this gang without dialogued ends which would only entail endless dialogues. Regarding coherence between subjects and predicates, speech and action, we have always had totally clear that the only possible end is that which presents the victims as winners, and the terrorists as defeated. And in that sense, during those years we based our successful antiterrorist politics on five fundamental principles. First: democratic soundness, which entails the most absolute refusal to pay any political price or to give in to blackmail. Second: the strength of our Estado de Derecho –State 13 ROOTS OF LIBERTY of rights, democracy-; I firmly believe in democratic laws and in their application without any margins for fraud, impunity and defy. Of course, international cooperation was not only a question of efficacy, but also a moral requirement; it was necessary that the social defeat which had taken place in Spain was shared by all the other democratic societies in the world. Fourth: we base our antiterrorist politics upon the efficient action of our Security Forces. And fifth: the most fundamental aspect is the memory, the respect for the victims and hearing their voices. Nobody deserves in Spain bigger testimony of proximity and commitment than the victims of terrorism; first, because our institutions have the obligation to adopt the necessary measures in order to alleviate their personal and family tragedies, to instigate the help, protection and social recognition they deserve; and second, because they are the first reference of struggle itself against any expression of terrorism. The Spain of today gives back on that sincere mirror the reflection of the capacity of all those men and women who, following their own consciences, defended ethics to the last consequences.