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Four ETA chiefs were able to prevent the assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco


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Four ETA leaders had it in their hands to prevent the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco and they didn’t because in 1997 the priority of the terrorist group was to hunt down PP councillors. It was an operation articulated from above, “not a motu proprio decision” by the three ETA members of the Donosti commando who carried it out to “force the Spanish state to bow to their demands.”

This is the conclusion reached by the Civil Guard in a report submitted to the National High Court that supports the thesis that there was intellectual authorship of the crime that has not yet been rendered accountable. Whether it was giving the order directly, which is presumed given the strong hierarchy within ETA, or omitting its ability to prevent barbarism.

This is, precisely, one of the crimes that Judge Manuel García Castellón is pursuing based on the complaint about Blanco’s murder that was promoted by the victims’ association Dignidad y Justicia. The one that punishes whoever has created “an opportunity of risk for the legally protected property by means of a action or omission».

Throughout 216 pages and with thousands of pages of attached documentation, the Civil Guard names that “who”. José Javier Arizcuren, alias ‘Kantauri’; Mikel Albisu, ‘Mikel Antza’; Ignacio Gracia Arregui, ‘Iñaki de Rentería’; and María Soledad Iparraguirre, ‘Anboto’. His career in the gang and the collection of sentences that weigh on them prove that that July 1997 they were at the head of ETA. For this reason, the investigators consider that “they could have participated in making the decision to carry out the terrorist action in their capacity as leaders with full control within the band». And they have no doubt that “they could have prevented it” because “all of them had full control” over the Donosti commando, which kidnapped and murdered Blanco. They would not have done it “unless beforehand” the leadership told them to.

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According to the Civil Guard, “for the executive committee of ETA, the act of attacking politicians and councilors began to be a priority objective of the terrorist group from July 1993″ when, after “a thoughtful debate”, he decided to “directly attack political representatives”. Hence, the report opens the door to imputing to these same four terrorists the intellectual authorship, if not the omission of having done something about it, in all the attacks on politicians at that time.

The report opens the door to imputing to these same four terrorists the intellectual authorship, if not the omission of having done something about it, in all the attacks on politicians at that time

Kantauri has already been sentenced for ordering the murders of the socialist Fernando Múgica (1996) and the popular Alberto Jiménez Becerril (1998). Another cause investigates if he did the same with Gregorio Ordóñez (1995), also from the PP. In all those cases of the 90s, as in the attempts to assassinate the King, kidnap a PP mayor in Nerja or kill the Basque Minister of the Interior Juan María Atutxa, the Civil Guard shows a modus operandi. And this happens because nothing moves in ETA without the dome. To the point that “there are no cases of spontaneous creation of commands that act independently.” This opens the door for them to answer for more crimes of the time.

Kantauri, Anboto, Mikel Antza and Iñaki de Rentería
Kantauri, Anboto, Mikel Antza and Iñaki de Rentería – ABC

In this context, two letters dated “possibly” in July 1997 –the Civil Guard does not specify the date– and September of the same year, intervened in Kantauri when the Vizcaya command fell and which ABC reproduces, acquire value. In both, the one who was head of the ‘illegal’ commandos addresses the faithful with clear instructions: “The importance of giving directly to politicians and the issue of kidnappings”, “give to PP politicians”says the first letter, which already speaks of “councilors.”

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In his own handwriting and in Spanish, the second takes up this issue: «Put all your strength, desire and militancy in raising [secuestrar] a PP councilor». Immediately afterwards, he proposes to take advantage of the funerals to shoot politicians. The researchers’ thesis is that the leadership gave the order to “hunt” PP councilors for all the ‘illegal’ commandos, but only Donosti, with Miguel Ángel Blanco, succeeded.

Handwritten letters from Kantauri with instructions to the commandos, dated July and September 1997. The priority, kidnapping and killing PP councilors
Handwritten letters from Kantauri with instructions to the commandos, dated July and September 1997. The priority, kidnap and kill PP councilors – ABC

Letters and sentences

To understand the report of the Civil Guard it is necessary to consider that up to 35 final sentences for terrorist crimes of ETA indicate direction orders. The very condemnation of the three ETA members who carried out Blanco’s murder is expressed in those terms. The first accredited commissioned attack reviewed in the report was that of the construction businessman José Legasa Ubiria and his brother, in Irún, in 1978. The Criminal Chamber of the National High Court concluded that Henri Parot had received “orders” from the then ETA leader Domingo Iturbe Abasolo, ‘Txomin’.

But there is more. The condemnation of the Urola commando for the death of three civil guards in 1979 states that “they carried out violent actions following the guidelines of the dome.” A similar phrase appears in the conviction for the murder in 1980 of Eugenio Lázaro Valle, head of the Local Police of Vitoria, in the one related to the attempt to kill the journalist Gerardo Lluezo in 1981 or in which the court signed on the attack in Villafranca de Ordicia (Gipúzcoa), who killed a civil guard, the kidnapping of Diego Prado and Colón de Carvajal in Madrid in 1983… So up to 35.

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The jurisprudence on ETA has a common denominator: it was a well structured organizationwhere each of its components had a mission, and was subject to the discipline and orders that the ‘Executive Committee’ dictated.

Other evidence

In addition, this comprehensive report is supported by much other evidence, such as confessions of ETA members or seized documents in France and Spain. In them it is credited that Mikel Antza directed the ‘political apparatus’ and propaganda, in addition to the front of ‘makos’ (prisons) to control ETA prisoners. Anboto was in charge of the ‘financial’ for the collection of extortions under the euphemism of the ‘revolutionary tax’ and the ‘legal’ commandos. Iñaki de Rentería had responsibilities in the ‘military and logistical apparatus’, in addition to directing the Gohierri commando, who kidnapped Ortega Lara for 532 days between 1996 and 1997. And Kantauri directed the ‘illegal’ commandos or put ETA members in contact who did not know each other from the ‘military apparatus’.

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