He tells the PNV that the recognition of the victims of the GAL was already given by Zapatero and does not fall under the Democratic Memory Law
MADRID, 15 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has transferred this Tuesday the “resounding” condemnation of the Government towards the Antiterrorist Liberation Groups (GAL), for whose activity the former minister José Barrionuevo ended up in jail, who in an interview has acknowledged that he ordered the arrest of illegally an ETA member and free Segundo Marey, whom they mistook for a member of ETA.
To a question from the PNV in the government control session in the Senate, Bolaños pointed out that “there are things that should never have happened.” That said, he has indicated that the Justice “already sentenced” the authors and that “these sentences have already been carried out.”
“The Government rejects and unmitigatedly condemns those acts, a resounding condemnation, with all clarity. It is the antipodes that this Government has to do things”, the minister highlighted.
Bolaños highlighted the “exemplary” way in which Spanish democracy defeated ETA through “unity of political forces, respect and support for the victims and the strength of society”. For the head of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, this is the “best example of memory”.
This is how he answered a question from the PNV about whether the Government intends to adopt measures to defend the “dignity of the victims of the GAL as a result of the latest confessions” of the former Minister of the Interior, at the time of Felipe González, José Barrionuevo.
However, Bolaños wanted to make it clear to PNV senator Estefanía Beltrán de Heredia that he had answered her out of “parliamentary courtesy”, but that her question had “absolutely” nothing to do with the recently approved Democratic Memory Law, designed by the ministry headed by Bolaños.
The minister has replied that the victims of the GAL are already “perfectly” recognized in a victims’ law that the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promoted in September 2011.
With that law, he has stressed, all victims of terrorism are now regulated in a “universal” manner, including those committed by “vigilante groups” in the so-called “dirty war.”
On behalf of the PNV, Beltrán de Heredia has demanded that the secrecy of all the documentation surrounding the GAL be lifted, urging the minister to take measures “in favor of the truth and dignity of the victims of the GAL” after the statements of Barrionuevo.
The spokeswoman for the Basque party in the Senate has said that “it is time” to declassify the “hidden” information on events from 40 years ago “under the protection of the Official Secrets Law”. “This is not typical of a democratic state committed to truth, justice and reparation for victims,” ??she has expressed.
