- The delegate of the Government in the Basque Country presides the tribute to the policemen killed in the provincial commissariat of Donostia / San Sebastián
- Garmendia defends that “on that infinite pain of the families of the agents killed today lie stronger than ever the pillars of the Rule of Law”
“The validity of the memory of the victims of terrorism is the seed of the freedom that we Basques enjoy today.” The delegate of the Government in the Basque Country, Marisol Garmendia, has thus claimed the memory of the 113 national police belonging to units of the Superior Headquarters of the Basque Country assassinated by ETA in the tribute that has been given to them today in the provincial police station of San Sebastián.
In a simple but emotional act, Marisol Garmendia wanted to emphasize the need to keep alive the memory because “on that infinite pain of the families of the agents killed today lie stronger than ever the pillars of the rule of law. A rule of law that triumphed over the terrorist group and marked the end of a path that our society should never have traveled.”
A video in his memory and a laurel crown deposited before the plaque with the names of the police victims of terrorism have adorned an event in which the Superior Chief of Police of the Basque Country, the Subdelegate of Gipuzkoa, the Chief of the Command of the Civil Guard, the Subdelegate of Defense, the Colonel of the Infantry Regiment, the Naval Commander, the Territorial Chief of the Ertzaintza, the Chief in San Sebastián, the Director of the Municipal Guard of San Sebastián, police commissariats and Kozálava.
Marisol Garmendia has taken advantage of the event to express her support and that of the Government of Spain to the families of the murdered. “Today I tell you that you are not alone, that you have the affection and closeness of the vast majority of Basque society. We assume our collective responsibility as a society and as a country in accordance with our moral and democratic duty,” he said.
“They’re ours”
Garmendia recalled that the last victim of ETA in the Basque Country was the inspector of the National Police Eduardo Puelles, murdered in Arrigorriaga on June 19, 2009 “and today I echo the words that Lehendakari Patxi López said then: ETA has killed one of our own. Like us are those 112 other National Police officers who lost their lives at the hands of ETA, to which we must add hundreds of wounded and families shattered.”
The government delegate has stressed the need to keep alive the story of the victims and combat the lies about what happened in the times of ETA terrorism. “I defend the right to think and feel different because the Basque Country is a plural, tolerant land where the different can live together. But I denounce those who falsify words to try to impose a story that does not correspond to what happened. Because this country will be built on the memory of the victims and not on that of its executioners, because it is important not to forget the times, which now seem so far away but which are not, of fear and terror in the Basque Country and in the country as a whole”, he concluded.