The Bad Guys

Seems like a book written expressly to be made into a script for a Hollywood movie. Riding the wave created by "The Da Vinci Code", the victim seems to be the Catholic Pope. The bad guys, you guessed it, two Basques... and an Irish.

Hit by the aftermath of the brutal crusade against the Muslims thinly disguised as a "war on terrorism", authors are resorting to "politically correct" bad guys. In the end, who is going to defend the Basques and the Irish after the brutal propaganda campaign set against those two nationalities by the main stream media?

How well does the propaganda campaign has worked that the author uses citizens of two of the nations more widely identified as "firmly Catholic" on this thriller were the target seems to be the highest representative of the Catholic church.

Here you have preview of the book published by The Philadelphia Enquirer:

A complex thriller converging on Rome

The Death of a Pope

Piers Paul Read |Ignatius Press. 215 pp. $21.95

Reviewed by Frank Wilson

Piers Paul Read's new novel opens with three men - one Irish, two Basque - on trial in London, charged with "conspiring to cause an explosion with the intent to take human life."

Two of the defendants have connections to terrorist organizations. Fergal O'Brien was a member of the Provisional IRA and continues to associate with the Real IRA. Asier Etchevarren was a member of ETA, the Basque separatist group.

The third defendant has quite a different background. A laicized Jesuit priest, Jose Uriarte is a senior aid worker for Misericordia International, a Catholic refugee service. For the last four years, he has been working in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Uriarte is, in fact, the central figure in the trial. He does not deny approaching Etchevarren, a childhood friend, about getting some Sarin gas. He denies intending to use it "to take human life." He says he wanted to use it on the livestock of the Arab militias in Darfur. This, he says, would prevent them from continuing their brutal raids.

He proves a formidable witness. When the prosecutor tells him his story "beggars belief," Uriarte calmly explains that "the Arab militias value their horses and camels more than their women and children. They are hard men, as hard as the rock in the desert from which they come. Their horses and camels and cattle mean mobility and the means of survival."

All three are acquitted.

Kate Ramsey, one of the journalists covering the trial, is much taken with Uriarte and asks him for an interview. Uriarte, however, shifts attention from himself to his work and invites her to accompany him to Uganda and see what Misericordia International is all about.

Kate is a lapsed Catholic whose favorite uncle, Luke Scott, is a priest with a distinctly traditional bent. When Kate tells Father Luke that Uriarte is "really kind of charismatic," the priest remembers the meaning of the Greek word charisma - "a gift from the gods."

"As so often is the case with gifts from God," he reminds himself, it may be "purloined and misused by the devil."

In Africa, Kate sees poverty and suffering she had never imagined. She falls ill herself and Uriarte makes sure she is well cared for. They do not exactly become lovers. More precisely, they make love and she falls for him.

He takes her with him to Cairo and introduces her to some Copts, one of whom is a chemist. Uriarte tells her he is going to help the Copts - much persecuted in Islamic Egypt and, he tells her, desperately in need of money - by smuggling out of the country a valuable scroll. She insists on carrying the scroll herself, since she is less likely than he to be subject to undue scrutiny. He reluctantly agrees.

The narrative threads all converge in Rome after the death of Pope John Paul II. Father Luke is there because he has been alarmed by a visit from David Kotovski, a British security agent who had come to know Kate when he posed as a fellow journalist during Uriarte's trial. Kate is in Rome because she is covering the conclave to elect a new pope. Uriarte is there and has paid a visit to a cardinal who long ago had made a pass at Father Luke when both were seminarians. That cardinal's assistant, Monsignor Perez, pays a visit to Father Luke and asks him to hear his confession.

Read's book is short but concentrated. The foregoing actually only hints at how subtly complex the plot is. But what really makes the book work is its ambiguity.

Kate is right: Uriarte is charismatic. He is both persuasive and forceful. He genuinely cares for the refugees he works with. And they love him. Just as Thomas Aquinas presents the best arguments he can think of for the positions he is disputing, so the arguments Read has Uriarte put forth on behalf of his social gospel sound eminently reasonable and are emotionally resonant - exactly what good temptations ought to be. The evil must appear to be good. And the advocates for good must appear timorous and old-fashioned.

Indeed, the day is not saved by any heroics on the part of the good people. The heroics are reserved for the likes of Uriarte. The only thing the good people have going for them is simplicity and decency.

Miraculously, that proves enough.

We still remember the one book called "Rainbow Six" by state sponsored terrorism supporter Tom Clancy in which the masterminds behind the threat were a group of "eco-terrorists" that had hired, besides a former KGB agent you guessed it... a group of idiotic and murderous Basques.

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ETA Supports Political Resolution

The Basque pro-independence group ETA declared their support of a political resolution to the demand by the Basque society to its self determination after a period of "reflection."

"As an armed organisation, being effective and having an effective strategy becomes the focus and concern of our discussion," an ETA member told the pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara. "In this regard, before the summer, we will end a process of reflection and assembly, the aim of which is to establish an effective political-armed strategy," he said.

Two ETA members, identified as 'Gaueko' and 'Argi', were interviewed by Gara, which is often used by the group to release its statements. The newspaper translated the interviews into Spanish from the Basque language. Their statements came less than three weeks after Patxi Lopez, the regional leader of the Socialist Party that holds power in Madrid who was able to take over the position of lehendakari after the central government annuled 100,000 votes in an openly Apartheid-like strategy against the civil and political rights of the Basque people, thus, Patxi Lopez was inaugurated as the first Basque-phobe to rule the Basque Autonomous Community, a political entity that groups only three out of the seven Basque provinces.

Unlike his predecessor, Juan Jose Ibarretxe of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Lopez rejects any negotiations with ETA and vows to increase the political violence that Madrid has imposed against the Basques. Gaueko told Gara that the Basque political situation is "very worrying, not because the PNV has lost its power, but because that power is in the hand of the Spanish fascist alliance."

The two ETA members also condemned the cooperation between France and Spain, which has led to the escalation of repressive measures against Basque activists. "A game is being played between what this Euskal Herria needs and what Spain and France needs," Gaueko said.

Spain, considered a fascist state many people around the world, has murdered thousands of Basques in its 8-century campaign of ethnic cleansing operations, bombings, massacres, razzias, pogroms and shootings for a colonial hold of the Basque homeland south of the Pyrinees.

ETA officially called off a 15-month ceasefire in June 2007, due to the lack of progress in tentative peace talks with the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, an Spanish politician that derailed the peace process to prove his boss, francoist monarch Juan Calros Borbon, that him and the members of his political party loath the Basque people even more than the members of the extreme right Partido Popular.

You can read the article about this interview in Spanish here.

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ETA : 50th Anniversary

This article was published at Yahoo News:

ETA vows to keep fighting after 50 years

MADRID (Reuters) – Armed separatist group ETA on Friday vowed to keep fighting as it marked its 50th anniversary and said demand for an independent Basque Country was stronger now than when it formed under the Franco dictatorship.

ETA said the governments of Spain and France had forced it to continue its armed struggle in which it has killed more than 800 people since the late 1950s, mainly in shootings and bombings.

"Without imposition from the states, this people would take the path of independence by pacific and democratic means ...

"Until then we will have to keep fighting with all strength and means because the enemy states do not show the slightest sign of a will to respect the Basque Country's word," ETA said in a statement published in the newspapers Gara and Berria.

ETA formed during General Francisco Franco's right-wing dictatorship when the Basque language and culture were repressed. Spain returned to democracy after Franco's death in 1975 and the Basque Country, and regions such as Catalonia and Galicia, have since gained varying degrees of autonomy.

"Although it (ETA) rose up in Francoism, ETA's goal was not to conquer Francoism but to achieve liberty for the Basque Country, and ETA still continues bound to that goal," ETA's statement said.

"Today, support for independence is more deeply rooted than 50 or 30 years ago," it said.

Spanish governments have held unsuccessful peace talks with ETA rebels, including the current Socialist government which abandoned talks in 2006 when the group killed two people with a car bomb at Madrid airport.

Spanish authorities say ETA has been reduced to a relatively small number of guerrillas after a series of arrests of senior figures.

Polls show most Basques do not want an independent state.

(Reporting by Raquel Castillo and Sarah Morris; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Spanish Government Foiled Peace Accord

Like I said, the Spanish political class is full of spineless cowards. First they torpedoed the peace negotiations, now they deny how close they were to clinching a commitment to disarm by ETA. People need to know this so they can finally learn which side prefers violence over peaceful coexistence.

This article was published at EITb:

Government denies contacts, Gara daily offers more details

According to the Basque daily the socialitst party PSOE "rejected a political agreement after the armed group committed to dismantle its military structures as consequence of the process."

Spokesman of socialist group in Spain's Chamber of Deputies, Diego Lopez Garrido, maintained Sunday "it is obvious Spanish government have had no kind of political agreement with the armed group."

During a press conference, Garrido denied what Gara newspaper has been publishing during the last days about meetings, contacts and agreements between Spanish Government, the armed group ETA, socialist party PSOE and outlawed Basque party Batasuna.

According to Gara's Sunday edition, last May 21 took place "the definitive meeting" for a resolution process, a meeting in which "only participated delegations of PSOE and Batasuna. The first rejected the proposal of a political agreement."

The Basque newspaper unveiled ETA would have stopped its armed struggle and dismantle its military structures, if they reached a global commitment and brought the process to its end.

Garrido insisted that "a political agreement would never be accepted with a group of criminals and terrorists." This kind of information comes from "the terrorist milieu, who lack all credibility." Spanish Government’s position was clear, he added.

How about that last sentence, sounds to me like he is talking about the government that he represents.

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Spanish Politicians Exposed

The article you're about to read was published by the International Herald Tribune is a lame attempt at excusing the behavior displayed by the top Spanish politicians during the peace process initiated by ETA's ceasefire. I say it is a lame attempt because it actually exposes the Spanish politicians in all of their hate-mongering self, here you have it:

Spanish prime minister says there were talks with Basque separatists ETA

The Associated Press
Published: June 7, 2007

MADRID, Spain: Spain's prime minister on Thursday acknowledged there had been high-level talks with Basque group ETA in an attempt to defuse violent separatism in the country's troubled northern region.

"There have been direct and indirect contacts during a short period," Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said during a television interview on Canal Cuatro station.

Zapatero said he would not give details about the talks, in order to protect those involved.

"One has to have prudence because there are people who committed themselves a great deal, including people from outside our country to whom I am very grateful," Zapatero said.

What Zapatero fails to mention is that he had Spain's regular police forces and secret services arresting ETA's envoys which is a violation of international treaties that convey immunity to the negotiators to a peace process.

This week, ETA announced the end of a 15-month self-imposed cease-fire, though it already had detonated a massive car bomb at Madrid's international airport on Dec. 30, demolishing a five-storey car park, killing two people and shattering any hope of a negotiated solution.

No one had to die that day, but the Spanish police refused to act in behalf of two immigrants from Ecuador despite having information of where they were, something that Zapatero does not mention.

Zapatero broke off all contact with ETA following the explosion.

The prime minister said, however, that he still felt it had been his obligation as government leader to try for a negotiated end to violence.

All he needs to do to end violence is to withdraw all the Spanish occupation forces from Euskal Herria by having Spain renouncing to its genocidal and colonialist past.

ETA, which stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, is accused of killing more than 800 people since 1968 in a violent campaign for independence from Spain.

Ok, so, who is counting all the people murdered by the invasion, conquest and colonialist regime by Spain against Euskal Herria?

"I would have wished to have had the backing other prime ministers had," Zapatero said in reference to heavy criticism from the opposition conservative Popular Party.

When in opposition Zapatero said he offered former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar his full support in efforts to eradicate terrorism from Spain.

The Popular Party, now led by Mariano Rajoy, claims Zapatero's government has shown weakness in trying to deal with ETA, which has been classified in Madrid, Brussels and Washington as a terrorist organization.

Rajoy was deeply critical of Zapatero for negotiating with ETA before it renounced violence and disarmed.

This last part is the one I was telling you about, the one that exposes the Spanish political elite in all of its rotten and dispicable reality. Heh, and they thought this article would make them look good.

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ETA's Cease Fire End Text

The translation of ETA's text in which it declares the end of the cease fire has been published by EITb:

Full text of ETA's announcement in translation

ETA said in a statement sent to two Basque newspapers that the truce it called in March 2006 will end as of midnight Tuesday. Following is a translation by eitb24 of the original full text.

Following is a translation by eitb24 of the original full text.

"ETA, Basque socialist revolutionary organization for national liberation, wants to announce Basque citizens:

It’s time for clarification. Euskal Herria wants to overcome its institutional division and make a way to the construction of an Independent State. Thousands of voices in favor of a political and social change, thousands of voices in favor of this country. ETA too backs a process for the liberation of the Basque people. The final stage of this process will surely be an Independent State called Euskal Herria. Nevertheless, in order to reach this stage, a unique framework is needed including Navarre, Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and another that unites Lapurdi, Benafarroa and Zuberoa. With the union of the seven territories, we will construct the future of our country.

All in all, the union of the seven provinces to construct the future of our people. It’s obvious that pseudo-solutions will take nowhere. The future is in our hands and we will succeed.

The masks fell. Zapatero's character has turned into a fascism that left parties and citizens without rights. But they are not the only ones. Insulting repeatedly, unable to satisfy their desire for money, the PNV leaders lost their mask as well. Unfortunately, the liberty of people uses to have treachery as its enemy. Each time it was necessary to take important decisions to construct the future in defense of Euskal Herria, they lied. Now, in return, citizens didn’t give them blank checks to continue feeding the suffering of this people under the Spanish protection. They only succeeded in seducing those responsible of the repression against national rights, not the Basque citizens, who want to live in democracy and freedom.

We citizens suffer the lack of democracy. Instead of disappearing, the attacks against Euskal Herria increase and become worse. Spain’s Justice kept out off these antidemocratic elections thousands of citizens and the Basque leftwing movement, principal agent of the process. Euskal Herria is actually living a state of exception. The recent elections were illegitimate. Spain’s Government responded to ETA’s permanent ceasefire with arrests, torture and every type of persecution. Minimum democratic conditions for a negotiating process do not exist.

We have the key to guarantee the present and future of Euskal Herria: self-determination and territoriality, and the grains that thousands and thousands of citizens have sown will bring our country an abundant harvest.

Meanwhile, we confirm our decision to defend with arms the people who are attacked with arms.

We call all citizens to rebel against this fake and corrupt democracy and to engage themselves in the construction of a free State called Euskal Herria. Everyone from his own area and with his own possibilities. With generosity and in unity.

Finally, ETA wishes to announce that it is abandoning its permanent ceasefire and has decided to act on all fronts in defence of Euskal Herria as of midnight June 6, 2007.

In Euskal Herria, june 2007

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End Of the Cease Fire

Unable to keep its commitment to a peaceful resolution of Euskal Herria due to the treachery of the Spanish government (heir to a genocidal and colonialist past) the Basque pro-independence group ETA has called off the cease-fire.

This is what the press says about it in the CNN version:

Basque group calls off cease-fire

POSTED: 10:16 p.m. EDT, June 5, 2007

From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Basque separatist group ETA called off a unilateral cease-fire it declared more than a year ago, a statement published in a Basque newspaper said on Tuesday.

The ETA statement was published overnight in the Basque-language newspaper Berria and it warned of attacks resuming as early as midnight Tuesday (6 p.m. ET).

The announcement came a day after Spain's largest-circulation newspaper, El Pais, published a story, citing police and intelligence services, warning of imminent new ETA attacks.

Government ministers huddled Tuesday morning to address developments, CNN's sister network CNN Plus reported. In a nationally televised statement after the meeting, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the Spanish government would never respond to the actions of terrorists.

Reacting to ETA's announcement, Basque politician Javier Madrazo said in an interview with Spanish radio network SER that "ETA always blames others when it breaks a cease-fire. But they're the only ones to blame."

Much of Spain had already considered the cease-fire dead following a December 2006 ETA car bombing at a parking garage at the Madrid airport, which killed two people.

Prior to the December 30 airport bombing, ETA had not killed anyone since 2003.

After the blast, the government announced that it considered the peace process finished, although ETA later issued a statement saying its cease-fire was still in force.

But after the bombing, the Spanish government said it would no longer trust any future ETA cease-fire announcements and instead would expect the group to make a pledge to end violence and lay down its arms.

The ruling Socialists and the opposition conservatives have long been at odds over policy towards ETA.

The conservatives have argued that the rule of law and police crackdowns are enough, while Socialists have said that those measures combined with possible dialogue after a commitment to end violence would be better.

The cease-fire was a unilateral ETA initiative -- one to which the government never agreed. Spanish police continued to arrest group members, upsetting ETA leadership, which called the arrests "aggressions," claiming ETA prisoners had been tortured.

In late March, Spanish and French authorities arrested 10 suspected members of the Basque group in what police called a blow to ETA's "infrastructure."

A total of 21 ETA suspects have been detained this year, including 10 in Spain and 11 in France, the Spanish Interior Ministry recently said.

About 500 people -- including convicted ETA operatives and suspects awaiting trial -- are in Spanish jails and an estimated 100 more are in French jails, authorities have told CNN.

ETA's announcement of a unilateral, "permanent" cease-fire on March 22, 2006 initially raised hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of ETA violence...

Among those 21 ETA suspects detained this year were the envoys of the group to the peace talks, something that is considered a violation of international treaties granting protection to those involved in this kind of negotiations. That is the bit of information that you will not read at the main stream media.

Spain has wasted one more chance to find a peaceful resolution to the political conflict generated by its colonialist occupation of Euskal Herria. Something tells me that after ETA's announcement the Spanish will back up from the negotiation table.

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Bias and Prejudice

One of the reasons why we decided to start this blog five years ago was the bias present in 99% of the articles about Euskal Herria published by the main stream media, namely, the big news agencies. Well, via The Washington Times we got this paradigmatic example of what we are talking about, an article by an anonymous author (that alone speaks about the lack of ethics that is rotting the journalistic profession) that highlights the vicious bias and prejudice against the Basque people:

Here you have it:

A job for Don Quixote

When most Americans hear the word Basque they think "terrorist." It's not quite fair, but that's what many Spaniards think, too. Basque terrorists kept their bargain for a ceasefire for nine months last year, but in December they detonated a car bomb in a parking garage at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, killing two and injuring dozens. Most Spaniards -- large majorities, by the polls -- blame not only the bombers, but the prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, as well for his coddling the terrorists, for naively taking them at their word that they would negotiate honorably while keeping their arms.

Lets start right here.

¿Americans the author says?

Well, news for him, Americans are all those who were born in the continent called America from Canada to Argentina, so, what he really needed to say was US Citizens, poor way to start an article available to readers outside the USA where ignorant and poor educated people think that they are the only "Americans" in the universe.

But lets see what the author states right away, he says that when US Citizens "hear the word Basque they think terrorist". Of course, thanks to articles like the one we are analyzing today which is actually not a fluke but part of an slanderous campaign designed and orchestrated from Madrid.

The author tries to avoid a law suit by stating that "is not quite fair", notice how he is not gracious enough to drop the "quite" but hey, it is because "that's what many Spaniards think, too". But of course, the Spaniards are the ones with an special interest in having the Basques appear as the scourge of Earth before the eyes of the international community, but since the Spaniards think it too, that is why is not quite fair instead of not fair.

The next part of the paragraph is directed against Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and it only shows who's behind the article penned by an US Citizen seeking to please the Spanish extreme right camp.

The author splurges using the word terrorist left and right, and then he wonders why "Americans" think that the words Basque and terrorist are synonyms. Check this out:

A terrorist organization called Basque Fatherland and Liberty, or ETA for short, took responsibility for the car bomb. ETA is often compared to the Irish Republican Army, but the comparison is not exact. What the two organizations have held in common is their ability to kill without conscience. ETA is a leftist, separatist group that demands an independent Basque state carved from northern Spain and southwest France. The U.S. State Department lists it as a terrorist organization. ETA has killed 800 innocents over a 40-year campaign, including four killings over the last four years, and they wield political clout well beyond their numbers.

Wait!

What happened to the IRA?

The author (we don't know if it is a male or a female) starts out with a comparison between ETA and the IRA but then says that "ETA is a leftist, separatist group that demands an independent Basque state carved from northern Spain and southwest France" without telling us what they IRA fought and is still fighting for, which in the author's own words would be "an unified and independent Irish state carved from England". But he simply drops the issue hoping we won't notice.

One more thing, he mentions that the State Department has ETA listed as a "terrorist" organization. News to the author, the US military and the CIA are actual terrorist organizations that spread death and destruction all over the globe to satisfy the plans for economic domination by Washington.

And the pearl: "ETA has killed 800 innocents over a 40-year campaign".

Thus the author becomes a Holocaust denier and anti-Semitic for ETA's first execution was carried out against Meliton Manzanas, the liaison between Franco's secret police and the Gestapo. This "innocent" individual was in charge of hunting down the Jewish and the Allied pilots being spirited away from Nazi occupied France into the Basque Country. Meliton turned in dozens of Jewish and downed Allied pilots to the Nazis while torturing and murdering hundreds of Basques men, women and children and torching down entire villages.

And since we are talking about "innocents", how about Admiral Carrero Blanco?

See, we think this is the reason why the author chose to remain anonymous. Admiral Carrero Blanco was hand picked by Francisco Franco to become his successor in his fascist regime, thus Admiral Carrero Blanco was in charge of perpetuating a genocidal regime that came to be thanks to the military support of non else than Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Carrero Blanco was a member of the regime that managed to be considered neutral during WWII when in fact it contributed men and resources to the Axis but that nevertheless is a minor participant in the Holocaust, a regime that sheltered Nazi officials after the war was over.

The "innocent" list also include members of the Spanish armed forces, mercenaries and drug dealers but since the author is an apologist of a deadly regime in cahoots with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy we understand why they are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

But as if what we've read so far is not enough, the author also exposes himself as a complete illiterate:

Most Spaniards hold Don Quixote, the famous tilter at windmills, as their comic ideal, but they regard ETA as real and dangerous. They are particularly angry about the prime minister's release from prison of an ETA terrorist convicted of 25 murders. Jose Ignacio De Juana Chaos -- no Don Quixote he -- was on a hunger strike when he was allowed to serve the final three years of his sentence in comfortable house arrest. The PM argued that this was better than transforming him to martyr in prison.

Huh?!

Don Quixote and ETA?

Seriously, first the ETA/IRA comparison and now this?

If you are going to resort to a world wide recognized character of Spanish literature to represent today's Spaniards at least try to keep it in the field of literature and come up with another literary character to represent the Basques. Which tells us that the author never read Don Quixote because as it happens, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra provides with that character, but we will get to that.

First we would like to point out that Don Quixote is not (by any means) considered a "comic ideal" by the Spaniards, oh no, quite the opposite, Don Quixote represents the idealism of all what Spaniards consider conform their identity. Don Quixote is a Christ like figure that holds all the moral values and the chivalry of the "good" Spaniards, he will fight for the right thing by all means necessary.

Now, opposite to Don Quixote we have a brute, Sancho, who is uneducated and filthy... and a Basque. Yup, Spanish propaganda against the Basques is nothing new, goes back to Cervantes Saavedra who lived from 1547 until 1616, a period of time in which Navarre (the Basque kingdom) although reduced to its northern portion was still a sovereign state. And since the Basques have managed to keep the Spaniards from invading what was left of their kingdom after the defeat at Noain when they lost the southern portion seems like Cervantes Saavedra wanted to express the hateful resentment that the Spaniards held against the Basques by creating Sancho Panza to represent all what was wrong as opposed to Don Quixote who represented all what was right. Goebbels had so much to learn from Cervantes Saavedra.

If the author had read Don Quixote would know that, but he or she hasn't.

One more thing, the author went from the usual dishing out of misconceptions to plain out lying, de Juana did not hold a hunger strike over him being "awarded" with "a comfortable house arrest", he did it because after he had served the term of his conviction (when Spanish law requires only 75% of it) he was sentenced to another 12 years for writing two articles of opinion. Talk about freedom of expression in the Kingdom of Spain.

Then the article goes on and on repeating all the usual drivel, here you have it:

Terrorism, and the fear of it, has raised the temperature of the body politic despite an unusual chilly spring in Madrid. Debates and marches abound. So do reminders of past terrorist outrage. The government only last month dedicated an enormous glass memorial to the 191 slain and 1,800 injured at the Atocha railway station three years ago, and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were there, along with Mr. Zapatero, but it hardly mellowed public antagonism toward the party in power. The Atocha Station terrorists turned out to be Islamist terrorists, angry that Spanish troops were part of George W. Bush's "coalition of the willing in Iraq," but the Spanish public is weary of living in fear of mayhem. They want all terrorists treated harshly. The anniversary offered the opposition, the conservative Popular Party, an occasion to put hundreds of thousands of angry Spaniards in the streets to rally against Mr. Zapatero's soft treatment of terrorists. Banners flying over a vast sea of angry demonstrators demanded: "No more concessions to ETA."

Ironies abound. Mr. Zapatero and the Socialists were regarded as having no chance to win office in 2004, but the Atocha Station bombings changed all that three days before the parliamentary elections. On winning the election and becoming prime minister, he quickly withdrew every Spanish soldier from Iraq. Now, although he's presiding over the strongest economy in nearly a decade, his softness toward terrorists, perceived or not, invites the punishment he inflicted on his predecessor.

Jose Aznar, the prime minister deposed by the Atocha Station bombers, sees signs of revivals of deep political division. He tells the Wall Street Journal that the Zapatero government gave the Madrid bombers what they wanted by withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq, and he's appeasing further violence by courting ETA.

An exhibition of posters and photographs from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and Franco's subsequent decades of dictatorship, now on exhibit at the Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, renders all that as history. But Mr. Aznar says the post-Franco bipartisan "compact is destroyed" and there is real danger in the "Balkanization of the country." He blames the Socialist government's encouragement of decentralization in the Basque country, Catalonia and other smaller regions, as well as the absence of a consistent foreign policy, for diluting a sense of national identity.

After the December ETA bombings, Mr. Zapatero conceded his mistakes in a speech to the nation: "There can be no dialogue with violence." But almost nobody trusts him now, and soon he must decide whether to allow the political wing of ETA, currently banned from politics, to take a new name and run candidates in local elections in May. That's a windmill that would break the lance of Don Quixote.

King Juan Carlos was the substitute for Carrero Blanco and that is how the Francoist regime has managed to rule over the Spanish State until today, which means that the Basques have been resisting against a fascist regime since 1936. But the author won't mention that either.

Anyway, if you want to learn what really took place just read all the posts tagged with "peace process".

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The Trecherous Spanish Government

Rodríguez Zapatero wanted a firestorm?

How about the recently undisclosed information that his government (as usual) did not fullfill their promises and compromises?

Even after ETA had given up its own part in the Peace Process in behalf of the Basque political parties and the Spanish government, Rodríguez refused to live up to the word given.

Here is the note by EITb that puts the spot light on Madrid's treachery:

ETA- Government meeting

Government admitted the importance of a Basque political agreement

01/18/2007

The Basque armed group ETA and the Spanish Government talked during their last meeting in December about "a political agreement between the Basque parties" as a "key-solution" to unfreeze the peace talks, the Basque newspaper Gara assured today. The Spanish Government "promised not to block the negotiations between Basque political parties so that they could reach an agreement", informed the newspaper.

The newspaper assures that both manifested their desire to continue peace talks, but made clear that a political agreement between the Basque political parties would be fundamental.

According to Gara, both parts confirmed during the December meeting that the peace talks were freezing.

ETA's proposal

The Basque newspaper also assured that ETA presented to the Spanish Government a global proposal to develop the peace process when a political agreement would be reached to resolve the Basque conflict.

This proposal and the Spanish Government’s one should be analyzed by both, at least if the Spanish President didn’t put an end to the dialogue.

The meeting also treated the Basque-prisoners-issue. The Basque armed group asked, according to the newspaper, to respect the Basque prisoners' rights and to stop the use of exceptional measures. The group also asked the Government "to respect all the guarantees linked to the agreements that gave place to the cease-fire". They warned that "policial and judicial attacks" and the situation of Basque prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos (nowadays in hunger strike) could "blow up the process".

~ ~ ~

Lessons From the Demonstrations

I hate to pat myself on the back but... what did I tell you?

While the Basque-phobes and the neocons drooled over the allegedly anti-ETA rallies in Euskal Herria, Spain and Catalunya I insisted that if Rodríguez Zapatero and his PSOE wanted to survive the next electoral process they needed to listen to the Spanish public.

And what was the Spanish public saying?

Yes to dialogue and yest to a peace process for the Basque Country.

So, after his confrontation last Monday at Congress with Über-fatxa Mariano Rajoy, Rodríguez is giving out signals that he knows how to read the pulse in the streets.

Check this out, it was published at the Boston Herald:

Spain’s prime minister says dialogue still an option to solve Basque conflict

AP
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

MADRID, Spain - Spain’s prime minister staunchly defended his policy of dialogue with the violent Basque separatist group ETA on Wednesday, even after a deadly New Year’s weekend car bomb that shattered his peace efforts and left him open to the harshest criticism of his term.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the government has an obligation to seek any avenue to end the four-decade-old conflict, in which 800 people have been killed. While arrests and recruitment problems have reduced ETA to no more than 20 active fighters and about 100 collaborators, the group’s ability to create havoc is still alive.

The bomb planted at Madrid’s international airport on Dec. 30 weighed more than 1,100 pounds, and police subsequently found and disabled two other bombs in the northern Basque country. The airport attack killed two people, and reduced a parking garage to rubble.
"Spaniards have a right to live in peace," Zapatero told a breakfast meeting with politicians, businessmen and journalists at Madrid’s Ritz Hotel. "The government has to make that right a reality by using the justice and security forces, and by exploring avenues for dialogue aimed at finding an end to the violence."
Zapatero’s stance has been highly criticized by the opposition Popular Party, which has accused him of being soft on terrorism and naively believing the word of killers.
The bombing has deepened a political divide that has existed in Spain since the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings by Islamic radicals. Zapatero’s Socialist Party won election just days after the attack, and the conservatives, now in the opposition, have yet to recover from the loss.
Zapatero called on the opposition to stop its combative stance and join the government, noting that when his party was out of power it always stood by the ruling party in its dealings with ETA.
"Anti-terrorism policy is the responsibility of the government," Zapatero said. "All the political parties must unite around the government. This issue should not be a political one. It is the struggle of life against death."
ETA wants to create a sovereign homeland in the Basque region that straddles the border between northern Spain and southern France.
While ETA is small in comparison to other militant groups like the Irish Republican Army, the issue is an extremely emotive one for Spain, which has been grappling with demands for greater autonomy by wealthy regions. Conservatives feel that if the government caves in to these demands, it would eventually lead to the breakup of the country.

One thing Mr. Rodriguez, not only the Spaniards deserve to live in peace, also the Basques, and the Catalonians, and the Galizans. For that, their right to self determination must be brought to the foreground of any future negotiation. And when justice is served, peace will be the natural outcome.

Hopefully this time around Rodríguez will give up his extensive use of state sponsored violence and will take decisive steps towards the viability of the peace process.

And hey, this article mentions something new, that the IRA was at one time way larger than ETA has ever been. You know why?

Among other things, because it counted with wide open support by the Irish American community.

Food for thought.

~ ~ ~

It's All About Peace and Dialogue

The post by Joe Gandelman regarding the demonstrations in Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Spain last Saturday is so juicy that have no clue were to start.

Let me begin by saying that Joe never once apologized for this shameless piece of drivel he published on March 13th of 2004. In that post, Joe aligned himself with the official version put forward by José María Aznar and his henchmen, the authors of the attacks in Madrid on the morning of March 11th could not be others than the Basques, I mean, ETA.

Less than 24 hours later Joe Gandelman was proven wrong. By then two Basques were dead. He said nothing about. Adding insult to injury, Mariano Rajoy, dauphin to Joe's hero José María Aznar, was rejected by the Spanish public during the elections for Prime Minister.

But why do I bestow so much importance to Joe's infatuation with José María Aznar and his political party the Partido Popular (PP)?

Quite simple, Aznar is the embodiment of Spain's extreme right, he is heir to the Francoist regime, and that is no literary license, oh no, José María is the grandson of Manuel Aznar, the propaganda chief during Franco's dictatorship, a brutal era in Spain when up to a million people were murdered. Just try to imagine something similar in Germany or Italy, where a racist from the extreme right, with a last name like Goebbels or Mussolini, would earn the rank of Prime Minister while leading a political party founded by a former Nazi or a Black Shirt.

Which brings us to another dark episode in Spanish recent history.

Take a wild stab at who ushered Francisco Franco to power. I'll give you a clue, it was the same guy who slaughtered millions of Roma, Poles, Russians, Jewish, Jehova Witnesses, homosexuals and handicapped individuals during his European tour de force.

By now you should be appalled, because if you read his blog, Joe Gandelman claims to be... a Jew.

A Jew that in his little history of the Basques, Spain and ETA dismisses the Basques as a people, as a nation hijacked by two other nations.

Now, if a Basque was to dismiss the Jewish as a people, or Israel as the rightful home of the Jewish, that Basque would be called an anti-Semite. So I say we apply the same rule the other way around, but let us wait, this just gets better and better.

Let us get to the present post, the one titled 'Spaniards Protest Basque Separatist ETA’s Bullet-Riddled “Ceasefire”'. Whoa, talk about a pulp fiction title.

Once again Joe decides to jump on the Spanish extreme right wagon. A bomb, two deaths and a gutted parking lot.

Two deaths.

And the two were Ecuadorians, people that had nothing, absolutely nothing with the Basque conflict, a conflict that pitches Basques and Spaniards against each other, but no Ecuadorians.

But wait, remember how Joe never ever mention the death of the two Basques in the aftermath of March 11? A conflict between Al Quaeda and Aznar over Iraq?

Suddenly, it seems like Basque dead people are less important that other dead people, amazing, discriminated in death.

What is really disgusting about all this is that in the last nine months (and you are welcomed to review his archives), Joe never once spoke against the decision by Rodríguez Zapatero to refuse to do anything, something, in behalf of the Peace Process. Instead, Rodríguez stepped up the repression in the Basque Country, with arbitrary detentions, continued practice of torture and the last pearl of democracy, to extend the jail terms of Basques political prisoners. And Joe said nothing, zilch, zero, nada.

Meaning, because of the Spanish political apparatus, the Peace Process never really started, so how can it be that ETA was the one that violated the cease fire, putting and end to the Peace Process?.

Now we have a bunch of Spaniards claiming that the Peace Process can not continue under the threat of violence. What about the violence generated by the Spanish state during the last nine months? All those pseudo-pacifists never saw it?

Finally, Joe decides to go along with another blogger, an open Basque-phobe who goes by the nick name of Franco Alemán.

Here you have Joe's final statement:

The bottom line is that to many Spaniards of many political persuasions ETA — and the Zapatero government — have a long way to go before many of them will accept that the ceasefire is more than yet another hiccup in the wave of violence and sea of blood that has marked ETA’s history in Spain. During the Franco era, even though many repudiated its tactics and violence, some privately considered it a kind of folk hero organization, battling the dictatorship.

But now Spain is most assuredly a democracy. Some Spaniards have lived all their lives being given assurances that some day a ceasefire would be put in place with ETA that would endure.

They’ve heard it all before.

Been there. Done that. Buried them….

Did you notice?

Not one word of criticism towards Franco's dictatorship, a terror regime that spawned ETA. Not one word of criticism towards the PP, an embarrassing political formation that has been torpedoing the Peace Process since its beginning.

On top of it, he takes away the real meaning of all the marches. People in Euskal Herria, Spain and Catalunya want the Peace Process to continue, even ETA is in for it as shown in their last statement. Joe, Franco Aleman and others insist that it was against ETA's attack on December 30th, in doing so, they patronize the Spanish people who demonstrated in Madrid supporting dialogue, reason why the PP and its satellite groups did not attend.

Shame on Joe Gandelman, the Basque-phobe.

~ ~ ~

ETA's Press Release

A man is seen reading a newspaper in Pamplona, Spain, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, with the headline reading that the Basque separatist group ETA claimed responsibility for a bombing in Madrid that killed two people last Dec. 30. ETA claimed responsibility for the bombing, but insisted the truce it called in March which they described as permanent is still in force. It was the first deadly attack by ETA since May 2003. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Now, if the Spanish politicians would get some sense of what is going on maybe there would be a chance for justice to prevail.

What they need to do is to shake up their old glories, get rid of that false sense of honor they draw from their past as invaders and colonizers.

How can they be proud of the genocide they conducted in America?

How can they be proud of the amazing cultures and societies that they oblitarated?

How can they find excuses to continue to do it today?

How can they think like they did during the XV century at the dawn of the XXI century?

Are they ever going to evolve and become a democracy and justice oriented people?

The Spaniards do not deserve their political class. Starting with their king.

~ ~ ~

ETA's Renewed Compromise

ETA expressed its commitment to the Peace Process in the Basque Country.

Here is the note by EITb:

Statement

Basque armed band ETA affirms March 24 cease-fire still holds

01/09/2007

Basque armed group ETA insisted Tuesday that a cease-fire it declared in March still stands, even as it claimed responsibility for a Dec. 30 car bombing that killed two people in Madrid. ETA made its assertion in a statement sent to the pro-independence newspaper Gara.

ETA said it did not mean to cause casualties in the attack, accusing the government of failing to evacuate the parking garage targeted at Madrid's airport despite three warning calls pointing out exactly where the car bomb was parked. The airport was largely evacuated, but both victims were sleeping in parked cars.

ETA blamed the Spanish Government and the governing Socialist Party for "placing obstacles endlessly in the democratic process," Gara said in a summary of what it called a long Basque-language statement.

Hours before ETA's statement, the government announced the arrest of two suspected ETA members in southern France linked to arms caches found in late December and last week in the Basque region. They were the first arrests since the Madrid car bombing.

Peace process, in danger

ETA and its political supporters had been warning in recent months that continued arrests and trials of suspected ETA members were endangering the peace process, which was launched with its announcement March 22 of a "permanent" cease-fire. It had been demanding, and the government refusing, the transfer of ETA prisoners from jails around Spain to prisons in the Basque region.

Spain's Government has responded to the bombing by scrapping plans for negotiations with ETA and declaring the once-promising peace process terminated.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said he had not immediately read ETA's statement, but his initial impression was that "ETA has only one path left to take, which is to end the violence."

Right to "respond"

In its statement, ETA reiterated a claim that the government had made, and was not keeping, unspecified promises as part of the process that began with the truce.

The group wants to promote the peace process, but reserves the right to "respond" if what it calls government aggression against the pro-independence movement continues, Gara reported.

ETA insisted progress in the peace process must come from a "political agreement" that includes "the minimum democratic rights owed to the Basque Country,'' an apparent allusion to Basques long-standing demands to be able to decide between independence and remaining part of Spain.

Demand to halt fruitless "police formulas and policies"

It called on the government to halt "police formulas and failed policies that lead nowhere," said Gara, which did not publish a full text of the ETA statement.

The explosion destroyed a five-story parking garage at Madrid airport, which in addition to killing the two Ecuadorean immigrants, injured 26 people.

Until now, ETA had not claimed responsibility for the bombing but a caller warning of the blast said he represented the group.

It was time for Rodriguez to be exposed in all his mendacity. He is no different from Aznar or Felipe Gonzalez (the creator of the state sponsored terrorist group known as GAL, that on top of the regular terrorist organization known as Guardia Civil). He thought he could bring ETA to the negotiating table while steping up the Spanish repression in Euskal Herria. And while Rodriguez was using the international forums to claim he was engaged in a peace process, all the while he was hammering down on one of the columns of peace, justice.

Now, if only Rodríguez and his PSOE and Rajoy and his PP can get it through their thick heads that they need to stop their genocidal violence against the Basque people, maybe in the near future we can finally see justice served, which in turn will usher a new age of peace.

Read that again, justice first, and then peace will take place as part of a natural process.

~ ~ ~

The Ceasefire Stands

A young boy plays with the letters of graffiti from the Basque separatist group ETA that reads, 'It's Necessary To Make the Basque Country', in Alsasuna, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007. ETA claimed responsibility Tuesday for a powerful car bombing that killed two people, but insisted a ''permanent'' cease-fire it called in March remained in force and said the fatalities were unintentional. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

For those who do not understand, is actually quite easy, the Spanish government never once gave up on their violence and repression against the Basque people, meaning, they did not live up to their part in the truce, they have no honor.

To all the little people that thinks this is a turn for the worst, show me in your blogs a post were you demanded a halt to the dispersion policy or to the rampant practice of torture against Basque political prisoners.

Once.

See?

~ ~ ~

Batasuna's Call for Compromise

For those of you who do not know it, Batasuna is a political party that was banned by José María Aznar, yes, you read that correctly, in Spain a so called "young democracy" they ban political parties. You are going to love it even more when you learn that this Aznar is the son of a prominent junta member during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. As you can see, some things never change in Spain, no wonder why the Basques want nothing to do with a country that shows such disregard for democracy, civil liberties and human rights.

Well, Batasuna was banned for refusing to state something some else wants them to state, as if you could be sent to jail for refusing to say "I hate rap music" when someone else demands it from you.

As it happens, the politicans from Batasuna are the only ones with the political courage to demand from ETA to stick to its compromise in behalf of the Basque Peace Process.

Here you have the note from Yahoo News:

Basque militant urges continued peace

By MAR ROMAN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jan 8, 5:06 PM ET

A leading pro-independence militant urged the armed Basque separatist group ETA on Monday to maintain a cease-fire which the government declared void following a Dec. 30 car bombing in Madrid that killed two people.

Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna Party, called on ETA "to keep intact the commitments and objectives stated in its March 22" cease-fire announcement. He also encouraged the government and ETA to resume contacts.

"Political dialogue has to be developed ... in the absence of any kind of violence," he added.

Batasuna, considered ETA's political wing, has never called on ETA to halt its attacks. Last week, party members said they said they were surprised by the Madrid bombing and offered condolences to the victims in another unexpected gesture.

The bomb destroyed a parking garage at Madrid's international airport, killing Ecuadorean immigrants Carlos Alonso Palate and Diego Armando Estacio, and wounding 26 people.

Hundreds of people in the Spanish capital, meanwhile, staged a silent protest in memory of the two victims.

Five-minute silences were observed at noon in Madrid from city hall to the airport. Workers, passengers, firefighters and police at the blast site stopped all activities for the five minutes of silence.

The bombing was ETA's first fatal attack in more than three years and it shattered a nine-month cease-fire that the group had described as permanent.

The government, which had announced plans to negotiate with ETA, responded by declaring the peace process was over.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met with opposition leader Mariano Rajoy for talks aimed at forging a united stance following the attack, but no agreement was reached.

ETA has not claimed responsibility for the blast, but a man who made a warning call to authorities before the explosion said he represented the group.

Zapatero has said he is more determined than ever to end ETA's nearly four-decade campaign of violence, aimed at achieving an independent Basque homeland.

Rodriguez (some like calling him Zapatero for some reason) must understand that to end violence one simple thing needs to be accomplished, for justice to be served, and that will happen when the Basques are allowed to go their own way, as enshrined at the UN's Charter.

~ ~ ~

From Batasuna to ETA

Arnaldo Otegi (R), spokesman of banned Basque party Batasuna addresses a news conference with Batasuna negotiating team member Rufi Etxeberria in San Sebastian, January 8, 2007. Otegi asked armed separatists ETA to continue with their ceasefire agreements. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

Now, this is politics, all the other tugs from the PP, the PSOE and the PNV are too busy trying to win their piss contest.

~ ~ ~

Four Decades?

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba gives a press conference in Madrid. The Spanish government refused to confirm press reports of a first meeting with the Basque separatist group ETA, some nine months after a ceasefire revived hopes of ending four decades of violence.(AFP/Philippe Desmazes)

More like five centuries of violent oppresion, genocide and the clear attempt to wipe out Europe's oldest culture.

~ ~ ~

As The Peace Process Stalls

Ok, go ahead and read the footnote for this picture:

A couple walk past a wall painted with a mural supporting the Basque separatist group ETA, reading in Basque: 'Continue the struggle!' in the Spanish town of Alsasua, Spain, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, considered ETA's political wing, spoke in Bilbao at a protest outside the Socialist Party offices saying that the fledgling peace process in the Basque region is now 'unviable', the starkest warning yet that hopes for ending the decades-conflict in northern Spain might be in jeopardy. ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s and is Europe's last armed political militancy. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos).

First of all, 'Bietan Jarrai' does not mean "Continue the struggle!", it would actually translate into "The Two Ways", the snake stands for knowledge as the ones you find in the symbol used by doctors, while the axe stands for struggle.

And well, seems like Augusto Barrientos forgot to mention the amount of Basques murdered by Spain and France throughout the last 500 years.

~ ~ ~

Fear of Peace Process Collapse

Zapatero and Borbon think that the Basque people is not aware of their efforts to derail the Peace Process, well, according to the result of this survey published at EITb the Basques are painfully aware that Madrid is not up to the task and prefers violence and confrontation over peaceful negotiation and resolution.

Here you have it:

Half of Basque society afraid of cease-fire collapse

A 93 percent of Basques are in favour of the process, but are cautious about its course. Half of them think it's advancing very little and are afraid it could collapse, according to a survey by Gizaker for Radio Euskadi.

Basque citizens are overtly in favour of the peace process. Nine out of ten citizens in the Basque Country are in favour of the process, a stance common to all stratums, according to a survey carried out by Gizaker for the public station Radio Euskadi.

Navarre is the province in which the support is lowest with an 89 percent. Those who don't support it say it's not fair, leads nowhere or means surrender. Among those who back the process, the 36 percent think that the way to advance is dialogue, although prisoner's rapprochement and amnesty are considered good measures as well.

Most of those polled –nine out of ten- are in favour of talks between the Spanish Government and the armed band ETA to put an end to violence and a multiparty table to search the end of the political conflict.

The process is not advancing

Despite the support to the peace process and the results, there is some kind of confusion among citizens with regard to its course. Over half citizens in the Basque Country believe that there has been little or no progress since the ceasefire was declared.

Most people don't know why there is no progress, but those who voiced their opinion said the Spanish Government is mainly responsible for it. Curiously, those who think there has been some progress (41.8 percent) think that it was thanks to the steps taken by Zapatero's Government as well as ETA.

Most of them –seven out of ten- think that conservative PP and UPN are the only parties that don't want the process to prove fruitful.

Fear of truce collapse

Over half Basques –six out of ten- consider that ETA could put an end to the truce and could attack people. There is not a clear idea on when definitive peace could be reached. Half citizens assure they don't know, and a 35 percent think maybe in less than five years.

Citizens don't have the feeling that their personal life quality will change if ETA disappears.

The survey was carried out by Gizaker with a sample of 1,000 individuals living in the Basque Autonomous Region, from October 18 to 25.

.... ... .

Salvador Puig Antich

His was a lonely death by garrotte, an iron collar which is slowly tightened around the victim's neck until they are strangled. Salvador Puig Antich, an anarchist mixed up in a robbery in which a police officer was killed, became the last person to be executed under General Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

He was the scapegoat of a regime which was determined to prove its authority after ETA executed the prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco, in an audacious attack weeks before. But Puig Antich's death in 1974 became a symbol of rebellion for a country which had endured 35 years of "El Caudillo". Now, more than 30 years after his death, Puig Antich's case has become a cause célèbre. His family and a team of lawyers have fought for three decades to prove he was denied justice by a kangaroo court. Spain's Supreme Court is considering reopening a case which has refused to go away, despite the best efforts of not only Franco, but subsequent military authorities.

Puig Antich came from a well-to-do Barcelona family which made its money from a chemicals warehouse. His father, Joaquim Puig Antich, had been a political activist and was condemned to death but then pardoned. Puig Antich's sister, Imma, said: "My father was afraid something would would happen to us. But we were anti-Franco and we wanted to do something to fight the regime."

Puig Antich joined the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL), an anarchist organisation which believed in robbing banks to finance its cause. After a series of heists, police mounted a special operation to crack MIL. The film begins with MIL's last bank robbery in September 1973. Four members had earlier been arrested and, under torture, one revealed when the robbery was due to take place. A special police plain clothes unit set up an ambush. A struggle started in which a gunshot rang out and everyone froze.

One police officer, Deputy Inspector Anguas, was shot and later died in hospital. One MIL member, Xavier Garriga, was tortured in prison until he signed a statement saying Puig Antich had fired the gun which killed the policeman. But Puig Antich's family and lawyers claim his guilt cannot be established because crucial evidence was not admitted to court.

Garriga was not allowed to testify. Puig Antich told the court he pulled out a gun and shot it "a couple of times, without aiming it or trying to hurt anyone". One officer claimed that Puig Antich shot at Anguas. Dr Ramon Barjau, who examined the dead officer, said there were two bullet wounds on his leg and groin and signed the death certificate. But his evidence was not accepted by the military court.

Earlier this year, Dr. Barjau told the Supreme Court he would stand by his statement, saying the officer's body was "ridden with bullets". But in the original trial, a post-mortem examination which said the officer had three bullet wounds was the only one admitted. Sebastian Martínez Ramos, a lawyer in the case, said the bullets found in the bodies of Puig Antich and Anguas disappeared and were never presented to the judge. Martinez Ramos has used new technology which tracks bullet paths in 3D to help analyse the evidence.

He believes that it may prompt the Supreme Court to reopen the case, despite a series of failed attempts. Puig Antich was convicted in a one-day trial and condemned to death for killing a public servant "for political reasons". Eighteen days earlier, ETA killed Franco's nominated successor Carrero Blanco in a car bomb in Madrid. Imma Puig said: "Salvador insisted that he didn't want to be a martyr for any cause." His other sister, Carmen, added: "Our wounds are still open and will be until the case is reopened and justice is done."

.... ... .