FACTS:

–In 1998 she was elected to the City Council of Urretxu. From then she began to receive the first insults and threats. She was contacted by the Guardia Civil and also by the Ertzintza (Regional Police) to inform her that her data had appeared in several documents seized from ETA.

–During that term in office (1998 – 2002) several instances of threatening graffiti depicting “bulls eye targets” appeared.

–In 2007 she was appointed Councillor for Lizartza. On the day she was sworn in, the Municipal Corporation had to be protected by the police from attacks in order to be able to go ahead with the event.

–On September 6, 2007, as she left a ceremony in a chapel in the town of Lizartza, she was attacked by a radical nationalist with the mast of a banner in support of prisoners. The assailant was sentenced to four years in prison and to a fine of 1,800 euros.

–During the summer of 2010, in the middle of the main square in her home town of Zumarraga, her own sister, before a large group of witnesses, threatened her with expressions of the type: “ETA should kill you” while mimicking the gesture of shooting with her hands, according to a report she lodged with the police. The trial has already taken place and they are waiting for the sentence.

CONSEQUENCES:

“It all started in the early 1980s. Those were very tough times when non-nationalist parties had to place their propaganda in the streets at night during election campaigns. That seemed unfair to me and I began to help the party I preferred with this task in my town, Zumarraga, and in the vicinity. Over time, I met Gregorio Ordonez, and I was deeply affected when he was killed (January 23, 1995). I had recently decided to go into politics and that encouraged me even more.”

“In 1998 I was elected to the council of Urretxu. I was the only council member for the Partido Popular. In those days, Herri Batasuna was represented in the city council. That is when I started to be insulted and receive threats from that environment. I lived there and had to suffer it on a daily basis, during my everyday life.”

“During that term, the Guardia Civil or the Ertzaintza (Regional Police) called me from time to time to warn me that data on me and my children had been found on ETA operatives.  At first I had no escort and I was really afraid, especially for my children.  Later, I was assigned an escort.”

“At the following elections, I was elected once again for Urretxu. Although Batasuna had been outlawed, the mayor (I believe out of fear) allowed its member to be present in the Plenary Hall and they threatened and insulted me. But the worst was that, in addition to one on the façade of the town hall itself, they painted me in the centre of a target in three places in the neighbourhood where my parents live. That really hurt me and affected the family.”

“Today, I am a councillor for Lizartza. There, in addition to the assault in which I almost lost my left eye, I had stones thrown at me, I was assaulted and insulted. Even the parish priest refuses to wish us peace at events during the festivities when he gives mass.  And they have publicly stated that they refuse to allow our body-guards to enter the chapel. We cannot walk freely with our body-guards around Lizartza.”

“This poses many problems, it greatly limits ones possibilities. I’m from Zumarraga, my mother was Basque, my father was Galician. It is very sad that people who have always known you now refuse to talk to you. I understand and know that fear is free, but people who have known me all my life do not talk to me, they refuse to greet me because of what I represent, they have even come to hate me; it’s very tough. This way of living poses limits on everything.”

“This has had an adverse effect on my children, I have complicated their lives. For example, two of them were going to open a business in town, and, because of me, they have not been able to; it would have been my children’s business and they would have made their lives impossible. The youngest is the most determined; he has faced up to more than one person to defend me; he is not afraid. But I am, I don’t want him to confront that mob, I don’t want anything to happen to him because of me.”

“We are seven brothers and sisters of all ideologies in my family. But I only have trouble with my two sisters. They feel that I am a disgrace to my family for representing the Partido Popular. I have brought a lawsuit against one of them because she has said she will kill me if ETA doesn’t do it first (she breaks down crying). This is very sad. The other one told me that ETA should kill me. This has happened many times. If any other person from town who does not agree with me were to say this to me I would be hurt, but well, I assume that this is what happens here, although it is difficult to accept, and I do not think anyone deserves to be killed for what they think, nobody, whatever they believe and certainly we do not deserve this.  But it is most inhuman when your own family members say this; it is a feeling that comes from hatred as they think I am insulting the family because I represent my party. But I do not feel I am shaming my family. I do not ask them to applaud, but I do expect them to show respect. I respect them, I do not ask them to think in a certain way, I do not ask them who they vote, I believe democracy implies respecting other people. For my own sister to say she would kill me for my political beliefs while making a gesture simulating she is shooting me with a gun is something I cannot understand (crying). Hopefully she will not do it.”

“In this country the problem is the people who think that we deserve to be killed because of the ideas we have. This is evident everywhere. For example, I have experienced this during family gatherings. My sister’s former husband (the sister I am taking to court) is a man from Oñate who takes part in processions in his town with the image of Christ on his shoulders. I have had to see how this man celebrated the killing of Guardia Civiles and I have had to endure, in the middle of a dinner party, how he reproached me for not joining in the toast. How can you celebrate the killing of any person? And no-one else who was sitting at the table said anything. At best, they ask me to be patient; this is not the support you would expect. There is an understanding on both sides.”

“What happened in relation to my sister, the reason I reported her, was the latest of many things she has done to me. She did it in the middle of the crowded main square in Zumarraga.  She shouted: “I hate your f—-king party”, “ETA should kill you.“ My bodyguards got me out of there and I went straight to the police station to report her. I know that some people will say I’m a bad person for reporting my sister. But no, the thing is I’m very hurt, and it has happened too many times. “

“Occasionally, people have come to the town hall to ask a favour. I have helped them if I could.  We are at the service of the public.  Then, most times they do not answer when you greet them in the street or they even look the other way. That really hurts.”

“In Litzartza, I have not had trouble with the people; they have only insulted me but nothing else. It is also true that it would be impossible to go there without bodyguards. The most disturbing thing happened during the town festivities when we had to leave in a hurry because people were throwing stones at us. When I was trying to get into my car, a woman attacked me with a banner pole. She was subsequently taken to court and found guilty for this action. All this is caused by a group of people that prevent us from being able to move freely in Lizartza.”

“Following the sentence – two or three days later – I went to my partner’s flat in Tolosa. I went up for a minute and when I came out, someone had placed a bullet on the door. A few days later, they did the same with one of my bodyguards.”

“We know that this is the way things are, you have to live with bodyguards. But there comes a time when you need your space. I was too affected, I needed to be alone, without my bodyguards. I realise that I am playing with fire and that I am putting myself in danger, but I need to be able to take my dog for a walk alone, at least. My partner, my children disagree with me, they suffer because of this, but I need it. I have already given up too much, skating, cycling, so many things. I am a very active person and need to be able to do that at least – take my dog for a walk alone. Will something happen to me one day? Well, so be it.”

“In terms of work, this situation has had a great impact on my life. In this country, when you go looking for a job with your bodyguards, the least negative thing they can say is: “We’ll let you know.” And you know what that means.  That is in the best case scenario, when they feel sorry for you but, of course, they don’t want to have any trouble by hiring somebody who may bring attention to the company and affect its prospects. That has already happened.”

“I had problems at the jobs I had. For example, one of my latest jobs was in a refrigerator manufacturing company where I had to install the bodywork. It was unfortunate that the person who had to provide me with the parts was a young man who had been in jail for belonging to ETA. He made life impossible. I even had to quit my last job. I was working as a security guard. I worked at a number of different places without any problems until they sent me to a place where my own bodyguards warned me that I would be placing my own colleagues in danger. I had to quit that job; and I needed the money. It has been three years since that; and all this time I have been unemployed. “

“My life always includes my bodyguards, always afraid. I have sometimes gone with my children to do the shopping at the supermarket near my home. I could see they were nervous, looking around all the time. They would say:  “mum, move,” “hurry”. It’s because they live there and know the “borrokas” (radical trouble makers) – and even, sometimes, my own bodyguards would tell me: “Those are looking at you in a threatening way” and similar things). But I don’t look, I don’t want to look; I’m not going to allow fear to overcome me; that is what I tell my children. “

“I once came out of a factory, where I worked, at 6 am and found that they had called my niece’s sister in law and told her: “we know Bego travels with you, that you take her to and bring her from the factory. We know who your family is and we know hers, tell her we’re out to get her”. And when I left at 6 in the morning, they told me and I started crying like a baby. All I could say was “I want to live, I want to live.“

“I protect my children by not telling them everything. What most concerns me is the extent to which I may have affected them because I have really hurt them economically and morally. My children are very proud of their mother, but one has also told me: “you have destroyed our lives”. And I think that, in certain aspects, that is the case.”

“In one of the latest disqualifications I have suffered, they also mentioned my former husband, not my present partner. We have been separated for thirteen years; it is unfair and very sad. “

“This is what I have had to go through. This is the country where I was born, here the people are proud of being Basque. For me, it is shameful. I’m ashamed of being Basque, I have struggled for this not to be the case, but the struggle is starting to take its toll. I cannot see the fruit of so many years of struggling, fighting. But we will have to keep on struggling, we’ll see until when. As long as they allow us to and if they don’t kill us, I suppose that is how it has to be.”

Related news:

Agresora condenada (sentencia Tribunal Superior)

Muestras de apoyo a la agresora en el pueblo (sept. 2009, elmundo.es)