The statements by Isabel Díaz Ayuso stating that "ETA is alive and in power" and, in general, the political use of terrorism in the middle of the electoral campaign have caused outrage among a part of the victims of ETA violence. The reaction of the president of the Collective of Victims of Terrorism in the Basque Country (Covite), Consuelo Ordoñez, sister of popular councilor Gregorio Ordóñez, has been particularly eloquent: “It is trivialization in its purest form. They do not respect the dead, they will respect their relatives...".
Ordóñez's criticism of Ayuso is especially significant because it was the group he chairs that denounced that among the 283 municipal lists and general meetings of EH Bildu in Euskadi and Navarra there were 44 people who had served a sentence for their links to ETA or for having committed attacks, in the case of seven of them with crimes of blood. The cascade of reactions that this information generated ultimately triggered the announcement by these seven people, perpetrators of murders committed between 1978 and 1997, that they will not take office if elected so as not to "add more pain" to the victims.
It is the second time this week that Consuelo Ordóñez, sister of the popular politician murdered by ETA, has intervened to distance herself from the political use of this Covite complaint. This group has questioned how this matter is being used in the campaign and stresses that without her denunciation, the subsequent resignation from taking office would not have occurred. Covite has also been highlighting that his role was key to ending the ongi etorris, the public reception of ETA prisoners after they were released from prison.
It is not the first time that from Covite they blame the president of the community of Madrid for using terrorism without respecting the victims and trivializing such a delicate matter.
Last February Isabel Díaz Ayuso attacked the PSOE seeking notoriety through the proclamation "that I vote for you Txapote", which tried to go viral on social networks. Consuelo Ordóñez also responded then. "The victims deserve to be treated with respect, trivializing with a hashtag the murderer of so many innocents, including my brother Gregorio Ordóñez, shows his lack of principles and how little he cares about us," he said.
Other victims such as Maria Jauregi, daughter of the historic socialist militant Juan Mari Jauregi, have also attacked the president of the Madrid community. “Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the only one looking for a confrontation is yourself. If you really wanted to respect the memory of the victims right now you would be talking about your political project, but you neither respect it nor do you have a project. Not everything goes in politics. It is indecent ”, Jauregi has published on twitter.
Iñaki García Arrizabalaga, son of Juan Manuel García Cordero, a Telefónica delegate in Gipuzkoa assassinated in 1981, has also censored the controversial statements. “When you seek notoriety at any price, you end up trespassing the limits of decency and dignity. As a victim of terrorism, I have felt the shame of others ”, he has indicated.
Pablo Romero, son of Juan Ramón Álvarez, assassinated by ETA in 1993 in an attack in Madrid, has been very critical of the president of the Madrid community. “Dear Isabel Díaz Ayuso: stop saying barbaric things. Spare me the pain of seeing that ETA is still alive in her mouth. I ask you please, almost out of charity, if you really want to respect those affected by terrorism who fight for memory and justice”.
Gorka Landaburu, a journalist who in 2001 suffered an ETA attack that left him with serious consequences, has also pronounced: "This new outrage by Isabel Ayuso, in addition to being fallacious, is an insult not only to the victims, but also to all those of us who fight terrorism. ETA was defeated 12 years ago. Do not add more pain to the one already caused.
