A book investigates Otegi's past as a 'miliki': they committed seven attacks and asked for forgiveness to join ETA

'Heroes of the withdrawal' highlights the relevance for the Transition of the dissolution of ETApm thanks to the agreement between Rosón, Onaindia and Brandés

MADRID, 2 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The book 'Heroes of the withdrawal' investigates the dissolution of the political-military ETA and the role played, against the abandonment of violence, by the current coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, and other terrorists such as Francisco Javier López Peña, alias 'Thierry', who ended up assuming the military leadership of the gang until his arrest in 2008.

They were part of what was known as 'milikis', a score of irreducible people who agreed to ETA-military asking forgiveness for their past outside the 'hard faction', for which they committed seven attacks. It happened in the middle of the Transition, when the negotiation for the dissolution of ETApm was opening: the former Minister of the Interior of the UCD Juan José Rosón and the founders of Euskadiko Ezkerra Mario Onaindia and Juan Mari Brandés.

Otegi was one of those who signed a statement denying his past as a 'miliki' to record that he rejected the offer of social reintegration agreed with the Government of the time. "Among the so-called 'milikis' are Arnaldo Otegi and Thierry, who end up joining ETA-military, but first they demand two things from them: to carry out attacks, and they commit seven including the Laredo barracks with several injured children, and then ask for forgiveness" .

The explanation is offered by Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla, a researcher at the Memorial Center for Victims of Terrorism, who has coordinated the book 'Heroes of the withdrawal. The dissolution of political-military ETA' (editorial Tecnos) together with Sara Hidalgo García de Orellán, which highlights the "notable role within radical Basque nationalism" that both Arnaldo Otegi and Thierry later had, each from their level.

The book cites the internal struggles to seize the hideouts and weapons of those who abandoned violence. "The lack of funds made ETApm VIII Assembly, commanded by Josu Abrisketa (Txutxo) and Arnaldo Otegi, resort to the kidnapping of around half a dozen businessmen, who reported 302 million pesetas," they explain, citing Miren Elósegui, among others. , the only woman kidnapped by ETA in its entire history.

After a rescue by the Civil Guard, in 1983 the group led by Otegi --which was not arrested until 1987, in France-- made another decision on the terrorist scale: "claim the revolutionary fines in a very selective way", which They justified that it was very important "to recover a part of the surplus value that the bourgeoisie snatches from the working class."

Fernández Soldevilla recalls that terrorism killed 498 people between 1976 and 1982, more than half of all the murders committed in the bloody history of ETA. "Spanish society as a whole benefited from the end of ETApm," he maintains, although he goes on to add that the process cast shadows on the fatalities due to the impunity of a "disguised amnesty."

Between 250 and 300 'polimilis' were released or returned from exile under this process, and with the arrival of the PSOE to the Government in 1982, 44 pardons were approved. Sara Hidalgo García de Orellán, coordinator of the book, recalls these cases and proposes "restorative justice as a real possibility."

The book recalls that Onaindia's Euskadiko Ezkerra was electorally relegated by Herri Batasuna, although this historian's thesis is that "if the Transition came to fruition it was thanks to the slowdown in terrorist violence."

"The return home of the former polimilis not only made a number of experienced terrorists lay down their arms, but also demoralized their former comrades, many of whom ended up joining the withdrawal, and allowed the State Security Forces and Bodies focused on those who continued to kill," says Fernández Soldevilla.