FACTS:

 - On May 12, 1980, ETA murdered the businessman Ramón Baglietto in Alto de Azkarate. In 1962, Baglietto saved a person from being run over by a vehicle. Eighteen years later, that person, the terrorist Cándido Azpiazu, killed him by shooting him in the head.

– 1995: She was elected Council Member in Azkoitia. One of her husband’s murderers, Juan Ignacio Zuazolazigorraga (at that time in jail awaiting trial) was also elected for Herri Batasuna. The terrorist was transferred from prison and participated in the swearing in ceremony along with the widow. That same day he received a tribute from the town.

- 1998: in January a fellow party member who, like her, had rejected using bodyguards, was murdered. Since then, she has accepted to use bodyguards.

- 1999: the Police notified her that her data appeared in documents belonging to the terrorist group. Since then, such notifications have become so regular that it is impossible to keep track of this information. She received a parcel bomb that year.

– 2004: Azpiazu and Zuazo were released after spending 12 years in prison. The town of Azkoitia paid tribute to them and named then citizens of honour.

– 2006: Kandido Azpiazu opened a glassware shop on the ground floor of the block of flats where the widow, Pilar Elías, lives. As the widow was forced to see the murderer every day, an intense public debate arose that culminated in a decision by the High Court to order the confiscation of the business to make Azpiazu face the compensation payments for the widow and the children of the victim as he had claimed to be insolvent at the time. Due to the public rejection displayed by the widow, her neighbours organised a public apology for Aspiazu. In addition, the City Council, of which she is a member, held a Plenary Session in support of Aspiazu.

– 2008: Azpiazu y Zuazo acknowledged, in a report broadcast on television, that they felt no remorse for the murder.

– 2008: The glassware shop was auctioned and was acquired by the murderer’s wife. The price paid did not cover the entire compensation that the terrorist had to pay.

CONSEQUENCES:

“I’ve always been interested in politics, but before all this happened, I didn’t get involved. I was exclusively dedicated to my two children, who were very young then. However, when they killed my husband, everything changed. I decided to continue his work and then, later, that of his close friend, Jose Larrañaga, who was killed, after two failed attempts, in 1980″.

“Ramón was murdered by the Autonomous Anti-Capitalist Commandos, because, as stated in the communiqué after the attack, he was a close friend of Marcelino Oreja. Fortunately, two days later the two perpetrators were arrested, but the commando comprised five people. They were the ones who fired on his car when he was driving, until he crashed into a tree. Then they walked up to him and shot him again at close range”.

“Those two were Kandido Azpiazu, who shot him in the back of the head, and Juan Ignacio Zuazolazigorraga. The other three fled Spain. One of them died eventually and the other, Luis Maria Lizarralde, fled for a time to South America. Having served time in France, he was extradited to Spain. When he was arrested and waiting for the trial, Herri Batasuna put him on their list for the City Council of Azkoitia. Those were the Municipal elections of 1995. We were both elected. He was given leave from prison for the swearing-in ceremony. When that day arrived, it was awful. The victim and the executioner were sitting at the same table. In addition, the council secretary placed us literally next to each other. I was alone; no-one came with me. It was terrible. Even the stairs were crowded.  The plenary hall was packed. There were people who had come to support him. In the best scenario, some people were there out of sheer morbid curiosity, to see my reaction to that scoundrel. It was very painful and sad. No-one came to support me; I was alone because those who could have supported me were afraid to go. I was alone, all alone. Furthermore, the Council prepared a room so that he could see his father. It was awful. He was saluted and honoured in an absolutely disgraceful manner. It was shameful. Then there was a meal that he attended. I was there, too”.

“He had murdered my husband and they were paying homage to him and insulting me. It is one of the saddest things I’ve experienced”.

“Besides, I had to get used to the idea that we were going to have to see each other at council meetings. Fortunately, two days before the first meeting, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder of my husband and did not return. But now I’ve heard, through the newspapers, that he has been brought to a prison near here, and that he enjoys a number of privileges. It appears they will allow him to spend certain periods of time out of prison. What am I to do if I meet him in the street? How can they force me to continually meet my husband’s murderers in my town, near my home, without even having served their sentences or repenting? Is it not cruel enough that I have to see the person who finished off my husband every day each time I leave my house?”

“When the one in France finishes his prison term, he will return to Spain. He has not yet been tried for this murder. When it happens, I’ll be sure to ask for him to go to a prison far away from here. I don’t want my children to be able to meet him in the street. Enough is enough”.

“But it’s not fair, and neither is the fact that no-one has notified me. It hurts when the victims do not receive information.  This is a small town, as Aspiazu said: “I see her all the time”. And now, not only do I have to see him, I also have him on the ground floor of the block of flats where I live”.

“The day they killed my husband, someone commented in the company where Kandido Aspiazu’s father worked: “Have you heard that they’ve killed Baglietto?” and he said: “But he saved my son’s life. It can’t be, it can’t be. Who could have done such a thing?”. Two days later he found out that his son had done it. A few years later he died of cancer, without being able to understand what his son had done. This is a very small town where everybody knows each other. On top of everything, another blow was that my husband’s own cousin, Eugenio Etxebeste, “Antxon”, gave the order to murder him”.

“When he was released from prison he went to work as a carpenter in Azpeitia, but lived here in Azkoitia. During an interview for the newspaper, El País, he was asked: “Do you know Pilar Elías?” And he said: “I see her every day”. I, however, did not know who he was and I didn’t want to know; it was easier to live without knowing. Until he bought the glassware store on the ground floor of by block. I remember it was Easter. I had gone away for a few days. When I got back, some neighbours told me. My world fell to pieces. I didn’t know what to do that day. I knocked on doors, I called all the places, institutions, all the people that I could think of to see if this could be. I couldn’t believe what was happening to me, it nearly drove me crazy. That was how I saw my husband’s murderer for the first time”.

“When that happened, the town had a go at me. They prepared a great event to support him and against me as I was trying to prevent him from establishing his business under my house. Furthermore, the town council controlled by PNV held a plenary session to support this murderer. Some people did come to that plenary session to support me. My colleagues came also. However, I was insulted by other councillors and had to witness the aggressiveness of the people gathered there. My own town was insulting me in my face. All I wanted was not to have to see the person who had murdered my husband every day”.

“He has never shown any remorse. In 1962, Ramon was in a street in Azkoitia when he saw a woman with a baby in her arms desperately running after a child who was chasing a ball, without realising that she was going to be run over by a lorry. My husband managed to pull the baby from the woman’s arms but was unable to save the mother and her eldest son. That eleven month old baby was Candido”.

“That is one more event in the story of this cruel man. He was sentenced to 52 years in prison, but was released after 10 years because, among other things, he said he felt remorse. I found out about his release because a neighbour told me that she had heard it on the radio. I was desperate, I wasn’t ready for that. Nobody had warned me that this was going to happen. They released him and Zuazolazigorraga. They received a hero’s welcome in the town and the Town Council appointed them citizens of honour”.

“No tribute or any other form of recognition was ever paid to my husband. That was something else that affected the family deeply. We never talk about it because it is very painful. Especially for my children”.

“Having to see him every day is a daily irritation, but I am getting over it. The worst is how it has affected me and what it has made me lose in relation to my children. When he opened the shop downstairs, my children didn’t want to come here any more.  They left, they couldn’t stand coming near here. I recently had to make some alterations to my home and my son told me: “Mum, I’ll do the work but on a Sunday, when the shop is closed”. I always try to protect my children by not telling them anything”.

“I don’t want them to know anything. They don’t know how he tries to provoke me. His wife says I provoke because I walk with my head held high. But, what do they expect? On top of everything, I should bow to them? When my children heard what was happening in relation to Azpiazu, they said they didn’t want to have to see him all day and they left. They left home because they didn’t want to see their father’s murderer. I was left alone”.

“Two years after he had opened the business, a television channel, Telecinco, broadcast an interview recorded with a hidden camera in which he and Zuazolazigorraga quite clearly stated that they were not at all sorry for the murder, and he and his wife even insulted me. All Spain saw it. Is it fair that I have to live like this?”

“The terrorist network is fully present in my environment. For example, two of my brothers, who are businessmen, have had problems because they wanted to extort so-called “revolutionary” payments from them. On the side of my husband’s family, besides the case of his cousin Antxon, there are others who belong to that environment, such as a lawyer who defends ETA members, Ainhoa Baglietto.

“I have need bodyguards since the murder of my colleague and friend, Iruretagoiena, in January 1998. Both he and I had refused to have them before. We had both lived in our town always, we always spoke in the Basque Language. We used to say: “You and I can’t be more Basque if we tried, we only speak to each other in Basque – nothing will happen to us”. His funeral was the first place I went to with bodyguards. It could have been me”.

“There are some good people in town who support me; the problem is that they dare not stop to talk to me in the street because, if they did, they would be singled out. For example, there is a woman who is a friend of mine and who always helps me at election time because, given the situation, I can’t go out on an electoral campaign and I have to distribute our election programme and ballot papers in secret. Well, because she helped me, they planted a home-made bomb on her door five years ago designed to explode when she opened the front door.  The police told her it was a miracle she was still alive. They planted it because she was my friend, for helping me”.

“People are afraid; things have changed institutionally, but in these small towns where ETA originated and finds support, the people have not changed. There are still banners, graffiti, threats, my escorts are still called txakurras (dogs).. This is happening now”.

“I occasionally spend some time in Zarautz to avoid problems. My sister has had to leave due to this situation. I don’t tell my family everything, I have to be careful so as not to cause them problems with that group, so that they will not confront that group because we, the victims, are not like them. I hate it when I have to avoid places in order to avoid problems. It is unfair that the victims have to try to prevent confrontations”.

“For example, today I was going to go to the beach with my family, my grandchildren. I couldn’t go because the relatives of prisoners were walking around with their photographs on the beach. I should be there with my head held high and say something when they pass in front of me with the photographs of murderers. But no, I have to avoid them. How sad that the victims always have to give in!”

“I will carry on as long as I can, I’ll keep soldiering on. I can’t stand so much injustice. I wish people would realise that this can not be, that they have caused and are still causing us a lot of pain and that the indifference of the people hurts even more. I believe that if you the situation I lived at the town hall of Lizarralde happened again today, I would be alone again due to the fear that exists. I think there are people with my beliefs and with other beliefs that are sick and tired, but they are afraid and can’t show it. There is a member of ETA or someone from that environment in every house in Azkoitia. Very few families are clean and that weighs heavily, and it is very damaging”.

“I have been placed on many lists by ETA. The first time I found out was in 1999, I think, when I was going to stand for the second time. In addition, the day before this happened, the placed threatening photographs of me all over the town. A person who knew me and supported me a lot went around town pulling them down and I had to tell him not to. I did not want anything to happen to him because of me. On another occasion, during a summer vacation, I was in Alicante with my sister and someone called to tell me new information that had appeared about me.  I lied to my sister, I said it was a call from work”.

“I have never told anyone anything that I was told or, in general, that happened to me. On one occasion I was called from a police station in a town in Guipúzcoa. They told me something serious. I told them that I just wanted one thing – I didn’t want my kids to know about it. I’ve always had that concern, to avoid my children from finding out so that they will not suffer. “

“My kids asked me to drop everything when I got a parcel bomb during the first truce in 1999. They put it in the mailbox. My bodyguards discovered it and took it to a police station. They took a long time in coming back and the president of my party, Carlos Iturgaiz, called me. He told me it was a parcel bomb. It would be on the news. I was outraged because it would affect my family very much and I would have preferred they hadn’t found out. My children, my brothers and sisters were at work, my father was still alive.

I had to call them all immediately before they heard about it on television. The came to my house and there they met the mayor, the Civil Guard … That was when my children got frightened and they said: “Mum, please give all this up, but I said “I can’t give up. Your father gave his life and I am going to carry on with what he did. Don’t worry, I am going to continue.” They have never said anything again. But they were really frightened. I never told them anything else. They didn’t know that, prior to this, they had been planting a large pot next to my letter box every day to frighten me”.