BACKGROUND

- On July 20, 1976, her son Eduardo Moreno Bergaretxe “Pertur”, leader of ETA Political-Military, disappeared in the Irun-Hendaye border region. He has never been heard from since.

CONSEQUENCES

“My son went missing on July 23, 1976. I have never heard from him since, nothing at all. We think they got rid of him because he wanted to change the direction of ETA Political-Military and turn it into a political party. He thought the time had come to abandon the armed struggle. Since then, we haven’t heard from him. We don’t even know what they have done with his body. We haven’t been able to bury him. There has been no funeral. There has been nothing“.

“When they kidnapped Miguel Angel Blanco and, if I recall correctly, they wanted to bring the prisoners nearer to the Basque Country, I was shocked that many mothers of prisoners, although I am sure many of them felt this inside, did not make a statement saying that this was not the way, that a human life was more important than bringing or not bringing prisoners nearer to the Basque Country”.

“I think we need to learn a little more to place ourselves in other people’s shoes, because we cannot consider others as so different or so opposed or as enemies. Deep down, we are all the same. At least I think mothers feel the same and I cannot understand why we don’t unite, why we don’t have the same feelings because, in this country, whether Basque or not Basque … I think we are all women and mothers, and I do not think that there are differences between being a Basque mother or a mother somewhere else. We are all the same”.

“I think we have tried to sympathize with many people who have suffered or who are simply searching for peace and that, in turn, others have approached us with a sense of solidarity. This does not mean that some of us have had to go through life being looked at and knowing it”.