A municipal website on historical memory promoted by the Galdakao City Council includes among its 509 records ETA members such as Xabier García Gaztelu, alias Txapote, or Jon Bienzobas. These names appear among victims, mainly of the Civil War and Franco's repression, within a project that, in theory, seeks to "bring together all those people from the town who have suffered and are suffering fundamental human rights violations due to the political conflict Basque". The Galdakao PSE has requested the immediate withdrawal of mentions of Txapote and Beinzobas.
The Socialists denounce the Galdakao Oroimena website "presenting them as victims and recognizing them as people who have suffered serious human rights violations", something that "twists and distorts reality". For this reason, they have asked the municipal government team, made up of EH-Bildu, Auzoak, Usansolo Herria and Podemos, for an immediate rectification.
Specifically, as can be seen in the web search engine, Txapote appears as a victim of "penitentiary policy and application of exceptional laws."
Faced with this situation, the Socialist councilor in the municipality Víctor Trimiño explained that, after learning about this situation, the Socialists sent a letter "to the mayor himself, to the Aranzadi society that has participated in the development of this website, and to the rest of the parties that make up the government team" in which they asked them to remove the names and images of ETA members that appear on the page, such as Xabier García Gaztelu 'Txapote', convicted of various murders such as that of Gregorio Ordóñez, Fernando Múgica, Miguel Ángel Blanco or José Luis López de Lacalle, or Jon Bienzobas, material author of the murder of Tomás y Valiente, among others. "To date they have done nothing to remedy this injustice," they have indicated.
"What happened is an injustice, because reality is twisted and distorted, it is an injustice because on that website, along with the victims, the names of murderers appear. It is an insult to the victims of terrorism and Francoism and it is also a lie that the members of ETA that appear there are victims," he said.
As Trimiño recalled, the Galdakao City Council presented last February the website "Galdakao Oroimena (Galdakao Memoria)" with the objective, "in principle, of reflecting all the human rights violations committed against citizens of Galdakao". .
"However, the presence on said website, together with victims of Franco's repression and terrorism, of members of ETA without any type of evidence or argument that reflects that they have been victims of human rights violations, has caused us great outrage," he criticized.
The socialist mayor has indicated that he shows them as "victims of 'police persecution, exile for fear of torture or application of exceptional prison policy'".
In his opinion, the "alleged police persecution of a confessed terrorist and the application to him of the prison legislation in force in a democratic country, prison legislation to which no international court has ever objected" cannot be considered, "under any circumstances "Human rights violations.
"Reality is twisted and distorted for the sole purpose of presenting these terrorists as victims and equating them with the victims of terrorism or Francoism, to help develop the story away from any type of empathy towards the victims." "Where is the political ethics and humanity of this mayor and his government team, where is that vaunted new feeling of rapprochement with the victims that EH Bildu talks about?"
For the socialists of Galdakao, it is "impossible" that the members of the municipal government team "can explain without being ashamed how they give shelter on a website financed with public money to people who spread pain and death in such a cruel and bloody way."
For this reason, they have once again demanded that they act "with the dignity and honesty that corresponds to those who must ensure a true and fair memory", and "rectify and exclude from the web page people who, without having been victims of any type of violation of human rights, their only merit is having sullied the name of the municipality with their murders".
