Victims of ETA, including the PP, call on politicians and citizens not to use the slogan 'Que te vote Txapote'

They urge that "terrorism and terrorists not be trivialized, and that the cause of the victims not be used in a partisan manner"

BILBAO, 11 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Covite, the Fernando Buesa Blanco Foundation and around twenty ETA victims, individually, have made an appeal this Tuesday to the political class and society not to use the slogan 'Que vote Txapote', when considering that "represents a trivialization of terrorism and terrorists". Among them are relatives of PP councilors José Ignacio Iruretagoyena and Manuel Zamarreño, assassinated by the terrorist organization.

In a joint statement, both associations and the other victims who subscribe to it denounce that this slogan "is very painful for many victims", and assure that "it does not help at all in the task of delegitimizing terrorism" for which "all the days".

The text stresses that Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, 'Txapote', is the murderer of dozens of people. "That the families of his victims have to listen to his name tirelessly in a slogan that undermines what the murder of his relatives meant is unworthy and cruel, for which we ask, once again, the political class and the citizenry to stop use it," he insists.

For this reason, these victims of the extinct terrorist organization ask for "respect" for the memory of their relatives, as well as for "the plurality and diversity of the group of victims as a whole." "The cause of Memory, Truth, Dignity and Justice has no political ideology and should stay away from patrimonialization and partisan polarization, which is why we demand that no political party assume our representation or impose on us how the victims have to feel ", they assure.

In his opinion, "the partisan use of the memory of terrorism goes in the opposite direction of consideration for the dignity of the victims, whose pluralism is inscribed in the universality of their condition as such."

"We are in a difficult moment for the memory of the past of terrorism, in which the temptation to forget and to turn the page without having addressed the pending task of the ethical, social and political delegitimization of ETA is very great," they warn.

For this reason, they consider that, "if in this delicate moment, flawed slogans are used, such as the slogan in question, there is a risk of contributing to the distortion and disaffection of that memory necessary for the delegitimization of terrorism from a social consensus broad".

The victims who, individually, adhere to this petition are: Pablo Romero Martínez, son of Juan Romero Álvarez, assassinated by ETA on June 21, 1993; Francisco Zaragoza, president of the Association of State Security Corps and Forces Victims of Terrorism and wounded in an ETA attack on December 18, 1988; Sandra Carrasco, daughter of Isaías Carrasco (PSE mayor), killed by the gang on March 7, 2008; o Gorka Landaburu, journalist injured in an attack on May 15, 2001.

They have also adhered to the document Mikel Iruretagoyena, son of PP councilor José Ignacio Iruretagoyena, assassinated by ETA on January 9, 1998; and Naiara Zamarreño, daughter of Popular Party mayor Manuel Zamarreño, assassinated on June 25, 1998.

In addition, this claim has been signed by Iñaki García Arrizabalaga, son of Juan Manuel García Cordero, assassinated by the CAA (Autonomous Anticapitalist Commandos) - a split from ETA - on October 23, 1980; Barbara Durkhop, widow of the socialist Enrique Casas, assassinated by the CAA on February 23, 1984; Josu Elespe, son of Froilán Elespe (PSE-EE), killed by the gang on March 20, 2001; Ivan Ramos Torrano, son of María Teresa Torrano, assassinated by ETA on April 25, 1987.

Other signatories include Miguel Ángel Díez Ferreira, son of Isidoro Díez Ratón, assassinated on November 25, 1985; Rafael Olaziregi Borda and Miren Edurne Albizu, brother and sister-in-law of Eugenio Olaziregi Borda, murdered on January 30, 1997; Nerea Barrios Cuevas, daughter of Jose Luis Barrios Capetillo, assassinated by ETA on September 17, 1988; Juan Carlos Abalos Bofill, son ofJesus Abalos, assassinated by ETA on May 25,

They have also stamped their signature Rubén Múgica, son of Fernando Múgica Herzog, assassinated on February 6, 1996; Alberto Muñagorri, wounded by an ETA attack on June 26, 1982; Jaime Arrese Araolaza, son of Jaime Arrese, assassinated on October 23, 1980; José María Lobato, wounded in an attack on December 4, 1997; José Miguel Gómez Elosegui, brother of Francisco Javier Gómez Elósegui, assassinated by ETA on March 11, 1997; and Andoitz and Ibai Korta Zearreta, sons of businessman Joxe Mari Korta, assassinated by ETA on August 8, 2000.