• Marisol Garmendia pays tribute to the National Police killed by terrorism at the event held today at the Police Station of Betoño, in Vitoria
• “I remind families that they are not alone. The sacrifice of your children, parents, siblings, or spouses has never been forgotten, nor will it ever fall.”
• “The memory of our fallen police officers is a beacon that guides us towards a more democratic, just, more united and cohesive society”

The delegate of the Government in the Basque Country, Marisol Garmendia, has presided, together with the Superior Chief of Police, Jesús Herranz, the tribute to the fallen agents on the ‘Day of the Victims of Terrorism in the National Police’ that has been commemorated at the Vitoria Police Station, in Betoño. During the event, the 188 members of this Corps, 113 in the Basque Country, murdered between 1968 and 2015, were remembered.

“We must convey to the youngest members of the population the commitment of the agents killed in favor of peace, democracy and coexistence in the Basque Country and Spain,” said Garmendia. “That memory must soak up the world of education, culture, family and the social environment. We need to inoculate young Basques with the vaccine of respect for the different and differences, of defending the civic and democratic values of freedom, plurality and non-violence against hate speech and exclusive nationalist identities.”

Marisol Garmendia has addressed the families of the victims, reminding them that “they are not alone. The memory of your loved ones is also our memory. The sacrifice of their children, parents, brothers or husbands has not fallen into oblivion, nor will it ever fall. Spain owes them eternal gratitude. We Spaniards and Spaniards owe them the democracy we enjoy today.”

Thanks for the sacrifice and the need to preserve memory have been two main axes of the Government delegate’s account. “His memory, that of our fallen police officers, is a beacon that guides us towards a more democratic, fair, more united and cohesive society. We cannot and must not forget. Nor do we whitewash or distort what we suffered for too many years at the expense of what others made us suffer. Everyone knows well where he was, what he did and what he did not do in the face of ETA’s terror. Memory, justice and reparation for the victims”, he has claimed.

During the event, a video tribute was broadcast to the fallen police and all the victims of this Corps caused by terrorism were remembered.