Report From Tolosa

In the article you are about to read you will soon notice two things:

a) Emma Daly from The New York Times is a poor excuse of a journalist, going to great extent to reflect the venomous Spanish propaganda against the Basque people every time she is able to do so.

b) The Spaniards, invaders in a foreign land, always manage to present themselves as victims, knowing that reporters like Emma Daly are being paid to ensure that the violence dished out by Madrid to the Basques never makes it to the public.

I went ahead and highlighted the most blatant examples of Spanish propaganda, here you have it:

Tolosa Journal; Politics in a Perilous Place: The Basque Country

By EMMA DALY
Published: May 22, 2003

In virtual secrecy and certain of defeat, the mayor of this small, prosperous town in Guipúzcoa Province in Spain's Basque country, is campaigning for a second term.

''We call this the macramé class,'' Mayor Antton Izagirre said with a grin. Away from prying eyes, a dozen volunteers were stuffing thousands of illegal ballot papers into envelopes for distribution to potential voters. In municipal elections on Sunday, voters will drop their favored party's papers in the ballot box.

The scene appeared to echo stories of Franco's Spain, when political opposition to the dictatorship was banned along with the Basque and Catalan languages. But these volunteers were sitting in Tolosa's tastefully renovated Town Hall, working for a party outlawed by a democratically elected government.

Mr. Izagirre, an affable man of moderate tone, is a member of Batasuna, the radical separatist party recently named a terrorist group by the United States government because of its close ties to the violent separatist group E.T.A.

He ran for mayor four years ago during a 15-month truce called by E.T.A., and ''to the surprise of everyone, including myself,'' was elected, he recalled in an interview today.

But any prospect for a peaceful solution to the conflict between Basque separatists and those who see themselves as both Basque and Spanish were dashed when E.T.A. returned to its campaign of violence, much of it aimed at local council members loyal to the governing Popular Party of the prime minister, José María Aznar, and the opposition Socialists.

The ensuing police crackdown on E.T.A. activists was accompanied by a judicial assault on political and civilian groups said by the government to be acting on behalf of E.T.A., leading to the formal ban of Batasuna and its offshoots.

In Tolosa, as in dozens of Basque towns, Batasuna supporters formed new, local parties -- in this case, Tolosa Bizirik, which means Tolosa Alive. But two weeks ago, virtually all were ruled illegal by Spain's highest court. The Town Hall was ordered to destroy ballot papers listing Bizirik candidates. The mayor promised to do so, then hid them.

Now, with the help of the envelope-stuffing volunteers, the mayor is ready to distribute the ballots to voters among Tolosa's population of 18,000. The hope is that supporters will cast the ballots anyway and that, although void, they will be counted unofficially and reveal the strength of popular support for Batasuna.

The man who appears assured of victory in Tolosa is Jokin Bildarratz of the nonviolent Basque Nationalist Party, which came in second in 1999. He and his party oppose the banning of Batasuna as antidemocratic. Even so, he said, ''In previous elections neither the Popular Party nor the Socialists have been able to join in freely.''

The Socialist candidate, Óscar Renedo, who has spent 10 years as Tolosa's only Socialist councilor, sees a sharp difference between the difficulties he and Mr. Izagirre face. ''I would prefer the civic death they say they face than the physical death we confront,'' he said.

At a town council meeting tonight, Mr. Renedo left early to paste up posters in the center of town. He was attended by six party activists and his three bodyguards, who stand at a distance, scanning passers-by. In July 2000, Juan María Jáuregui, a former Socialist politician from Tolosa, was shot dead while vacationing in the town.

No one stopped to greet Mr. Renedo as he walked the streets. Many here feel it is dangerous to be seen talking to him or to Ángel Yáñez, another council member and the local candidate of the Popular Party.

''Fear runs so deep here it is a sickness,'' said Mr. Yáñez, gazing around the crowded Cafetería Frontón, where Mr. Jáuregui had a drink before an E.T.A. gunman walked up and shot him in the head.

Mr. Yáñez, 67, who calls his bodyguards umbrellas because ''they shield me from danger instead of rain,'' went to great lengths to fill his party's list of candidates, holding a 40-hour hunger strike and persuading 10 fellow citizens to put their names on the ballot with little hope of being elected.

Mr. Yáñez, unlike his Basque Nationalist Party rival, rejects the notion that banning Batasuna is anti-democratic. ''I'm all for defending ideas,'' he said, ''but we should put a stop to those that endanger society.''

At tonight's council meeting, Mr. Yáñez, sitting alone, faced insults and veiled threats from Batasuna supporters, though not from the mayor, who says he tries to keep such proceedings civil.

Mr. Izagirre said that he opposed the use of violence and that he believed E.T.A.'s armed struggle had not worked. But he said he would rather return to his job as a schoolteacher than quit his party.

''The government is not criminalizing a political grouping but a series of ideas,'' he argued. ''The excuse is that while E.T.A. exists, anyone who defends similar goals, such as the creation of a state, self-determination or the use of a language -- anyone who shares those ideas -- is part of E.T.A.''

The volunteers stuffing envelopes said they wanted to show their support for the party, even if it had no legal weight.

''They tell Bush we are terrorists simply because we are struggling for the independence of the Basque country,'' one man said. ''We are not terrorists, we are Basque fighters.''

Moments later, he added in Basque, ''Long live military E.T.A.!''

No one said hello to Mr. Renedo because unlike other places, Basque towns are so small that the locals can tell when someone is an outsider, specially an outsider trying to perpetuate the genocidal occupation of their country.

Yes Mrs. Daly, if this was 1776 and instead of Tolosa you happened to be in say, Washington, the Colonials would have been called "terrorists" by the English. Got it?

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