In 2009, twelve years after the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco and with ETA already in its final hours, a document seized in Paris from ETA leader Ekaitz Sirvent gave the main keys to the kidnapping and murder of the PP councilor in Ermua: “Del 94 From now on, with the execution of Gregorio Ordóñez and the action against José María Aznar, the Organization will make an important leap in the new political-military strategy, establishing political leaders and representatives as targets. Later, with the mobilizing dynamics in favor of the Basque prisoners and with the arrest of José Antonio Ortega Lara as well as with the execution of Miguel Ángel Blanco, the situation of the Basque political prisoners will appear in the midst of the political struggle in all its harshness”.
From 1994 onwards, ETA had launched what they called the strategy of socialization of suffering consisting of attacking the political positions of the PP and the PSOE to force these parties to give in to their claims. Gregorio Ordóñez, from the PP, and Fernando Múgica, from the PSOE, were his first two fatalities, while Aznar's life was saved by the armor plating of his vehicle and a slight delay in activating the car bomb that the terrorist group set off in Madrid at the pace of the popular leader. That was the first key that lay behind Blanco's kidnapping. The strategy of socializing suffering had been agreed upon by ETA and its political arm in response to the crisis that, in 1992, had led to the capture of the gang's leadership in Bidart (French Basque Country).
The second was the situation of the imprisoned ETA members. In January 1996, the prisoners had started a campaign of protests (hunger strikes, lockdowns in cells, etc.) to request their transfer to Basque prisons. In the street, the ETA environment carried out an intense mobilization campaign with the same objective. And the gang, also in January 1996, kidnapped prison official José Antonio Ortega Lara to pressure the government and force it to give in to the prisoners' demands.
After a year and a half the protest movement was exhausted and had had no results. The prisoners, in the spring of 1997, abandoned the protests that they had been doing in shifts until then. ETA had the advantage of Ortega Lara, but lost it on July 1 of that year when the Civil Guard arrested his kidnappers and released him. The pulse that ETA had kicked out of the Government had failed and the gang's bases were demoralized.
The ETA leadership then decided to up the ante: the head of the military apparatus, Javier Arizkuren Ruiz, Kantauri, ordered the commandos in writing to kidnap a PP councilor and give an ultimatum for the prisoners to be approached. If the executive did not comply with this demand, the order was to kill the councilman. The Vizcaya command received one of the letters with these very precise orders, a letter that was later recovered when the terrorist cell was dismantled.
“It is important to give (s) to the PP politicians. Tell you that any PP politician is objective. We repeat the importance of these actions -Kantauri's letter said-. Another thing, put all the force possible to raise (kidnap) a PP councilor. Giving an ultimatum of days for the prisoners to be in Euskadi”.
The Vizcaya commando was unable to carry out the orders received, but the Donosti commando did, which strictly followed the instructions issued by their bosses with the kidnapping of Blanco.
Kantauri's letter is the basis of the investigation against those who then formed the leadership of ETA. Judge Manuel García Castellón has opened it this week after receiving a report from the Civil Guard that identifies Kantauri, Mikel Albisu Iriarte, Mikel Antza; Ignacio Gracia Arregui, Iñaki de Rentería, and Soledad Iparraguirre, Anboto, as members of the ETA leadership at the time who would be responsible for ordering the kidnapping and murder of the Ermua PP councilor. Kantauri and Anboto are still in prison serving their sentences, but Mikel Antza and Iñaki de Rentería are free.
Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, Txapote, and Irantzu Gallastegi Sodupe, Amaia, were two of the three perpetrators of the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco. The 25th anniversary of the crime will be remembered in the Madrid VIII prison, located in the town of Estremera. The two are a sentimental couple. Since ETA announced its renunciation of terrorism in 2010, the two ETA members have maintained a critical attitude towards the band's decision and the strategy of the nationalist left, but they have not wanted to make their differences public and they have not wanted to align themselves with the dissidents.
The third member of the Donosti commando who participated in the murder was José Luis Geresta Múgica, Oker, who apparently lost his mind and committed suicide in 1999 by shooting himself in the head. For years he had a monolith in his memory in the town of Zizurkil, but the City Council removed it in 2009. The Donosti command had a collaborator, the former HB councilor in Eibar Ibón Muñoa, who housed the ETA members in his home and provided them with kidnapping aid. He served twenty years in prison and was released in 2020.
