All language subtitles for The.Challenge.ETA.S01E04.WEBRip.x264-ION10

HISTORY IS THE THREAD
THAT WEAVES THE FABRIC OF TIME

IT'S A LONG THREAD FULL OF KNOTS
NO ONE CAN COMPLETELY UNTANGLE

THESE ARE THE KNOTS OF OUR HISTORY

The wave of terrorism has struck Zaragoza
for the second time this year,

and everything seems to indicate
that it has become a clear target.

This terrorist activity in Zaragoza

comes when the criminal gang of ETA
is besieged on all fronts,

its main units are disbanded...

STUDENT RESIDENCE
GROCERIES

...and its most senior leaders
are arrested.

At a time when all efforts are being made

to bring about peace
in the Basque Country.

Although, as Prime Minister
Felipe González said recently,

there will be no compromise
on violent crime.

11 DECEMBER 1987
CIVIL GUARD HEADQUARTERS, ZARAGOZA

The car bomb was loaded
with three metal cylinders

and about 250 kilos of ammonia.

The explosion practically caused
the collapse of the barracks.

Eleven people died in the attack.

TERRIBLE ATTACK BY ETA, WITH WHITE COFFINS

Five of them were girls,
the daughters of civil guards.

And approximately 88 people were wounded.

You can't suggest rehabilitation
for people who've carried out an attack,

to give an example, like Hipercor.

PRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN
(1982-1996)

Or for those who blew up
a Civil Guard car in Madrid.

It is neither possible
nor realistic to suggest this,

and the government is not considering it.

THE CHALLENGE
ETA

04
THE ROAD TO NEGOTIATION

I was nine years old,

and at 6:00 in the morning...
was the explosion.

You wake up covered in dirt,

with rocks on top of you,
not knowing what happened.

I started to shake because
I could feel the weight of the rocks,

but the duvet, the quilts,

the blankets on the bed had covered me,
had protected me.

And little by little, I pulled my legs out
and got out of the rubble.

And then, I don't know,
people were screaming...

That's when the first policemen, firemen,
civil guards and others arrived.

I even tried to move rocks away

from someone who was screaming,
asking for help.

ETA VICTIM

But I couldn't do it.

We were asleep and suddenly...

I didn't realize. I really...

I didn't know what it was.

I woke up...

I know I was on top of my husband.

I felt something, like, wet,
glass or something.

I don't know if it was some kind of...
Because it smelled.

Some perfume bottle that I would have
on my dresser or whatever.

And I didn't think about anything,
I just said to Juan...

ETA VICTIMS

That I do remember, "I hope my brother,

"if the girls cry, that he hears them."

That I do remember,

but I didn't know the magnitude
of what had happened.

-I knew what had happened, obviously.
-He did know.

I knew what had happened
and I knew what the circumstances were.

Since I had the job I had,

in explosives, I knew what it was,
that it was a bomb.

And that we were in a bad situation.

There were two bedrooms,
my sister's and my parents',

the living room in the middle
and my room on the other side of that.

So the explosion took out
the whole other part of the house.

That's why I survived.

We lay buried under the rubble
for 45 minutes.

We were trapped. I had my leg caught,

and we couldn't hear too well.
In the explosion I blew my nose

and dirt came out,
and my ears started to bleed.

After the attack,

they basically took her away
in an ambulance and I stayed there.

I started to go around the hospitals
in a Municipal Police car,

who took me and said,
"Wherever you want to go."

Well, to look for the girls, of course.

Then, soon after I found out they were
at the military hospital,

which is when they called me
to identify them.

We were going around all the hospitals,

looking for my parents,
looking for my sister,

looking to see if anyone knew anything

or if they'd been found somewhere.

And at the end, they announced

that my mother and father had died
on TV, which is how I found out.

They didn't really say anything
about my sister until later.

After going to the military hospital,
I went down to tell her.

He arrived, and that's when he told me...

Well, he told me that someone...

That someone had died. That's all he said.

So that's when I reacted
and I knew what had happened.

They died buried in the explosion.

When they went to plant the bomb, they saw
that there were clothes hanging up.

One of the judges
at Henri Parot's trial told us this,

that the terrorists had mentioned it

and said that they had noticed
that children's clothes were hanging out,

and so they put the car right underneath.

I always hoped that my sister didn't...

It hadn't been easy to recognize her,
so maybe it wasn't her.

Later, of course, I lost that hope.

They knew
that families lived in the barracks.

Then they did it again,
so they were looking for children.

Then they did it again
in the attack on the barracks in Vic.

And they did it again
in Santa Pola, and...

So they were looking for civilian victims
and, if possible, children,

because that's what they could
negotiate with.

At that time,
they were negotiating in Algeria.

THIRTY DAYS THAT WILL DETERMINE
THE HISTORY OF SPAIN

We went to the barracks
several times afterwards,

to identify valuables...

STUDENT REPORT CARD

...identify personal items...

It's pretty hard for such a small child
to handle things,

because it's so many things at once.

I would have liked

to have asked my father
for a motorbike when I was 14,

to have come home drunk one day
when I was 17 and... You know.

To have been told off, or I don't know...

And then much older,
I missed them when I got a degree,

or when I got married,
or when I had my son...

My sister was very fond of children.

She probably would have liked my son

and would have... You know.

Just like my mother.
My mother also loved children.

Some friends...

looked through the rubble
and collected some photos,

ruined...

And some keepsakes,
a medal, some mementos came out...

But nothing else.
We didn't get anything else out of there.

These photographs were given to us
by a photographer.

A photographer who did
a photo essay on the girls.

Those are all that's left, really.

I just miss my daughters and my brother.

I didn't care about the rest.

To lose everything and have them there,
to have my brother there.

The rest of it I didn't care about.

The funeral service took place
in an atmosphere of tension

caused by the relatives of the deceased
and, especially,

by the father of the two twin girls
who died in the attack,

who was visibly upset
and prevented the presence of the media

inside the Basilica of Pilar
during the course of the funeral.

When ETA says it's disbanding,

you think, "Sure, they disband
now that they're not anything anymore."

As long as they've been able to do damage,
they didn't disband.

They've disbanded
now that they can no longer do anything.

FRENCH COMMANDO LEADER

We were victims...
Cheap, I don't know, acceptable, yeah.

In fact, there came a time
when ETA realized...

...that they were getting nowhere
by killing civil guards,

because we were pretty much replaceable...

CIVIL GUARD COLONEL

...and at little cost to the government.

Major criminal operations by ETA

are usually agreed upon...

...by the gang's executive committee.

JOURNALIST

And specifically in Zaragoza,

the decision was taken by Garmendia,

alias Pakito,
but with the knowledge and consent

of Josu Ternera,
who was the head of the political wing.

The cell responsible for the attack
on the Zaragoza barracks

is the Argala cell.

CIVIL GUARD LIEUTENANT GENERAL

Which is led by Henri Parot

and is also known as the French cell.

No one, not even other leaders
or other groups,

knew of its existence.

This attack,

with the death toll and its repercussions,

was to influence the government's decision
to sit down in Algiers.

There is an agreement
that under no circumstances

will any political movement, whether
terrorist or non-terrorist, in Algeria...

...be able to use it as a base of
operations under any circumstances.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN
(1982-1991)

1987 - ALGIERS NEGOTIATIONS

We started negotiating and...

BARAJAS, 9:20 P.M.

...I made several trips to Algiers

to prepare with the Chief of Staff
and the President of the Republic,

Chadli Bendjedid.

Basically, it was a regime that was
directed and controlled by the military...

...and therefore
the intelligence services there

knew how ETA moved
and had it perfectly controlled.

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SECURITY
(1986-1994)

There had been members of ETA there
who had been trained

in camps at the Algerian police school.

So we knew that they had significant
support from the point of view

of training and logistics.

With that risk,
we had to sit down with them.

In Spain, we organized meetings
with all the parliamentary

political parties and nationalist parties,
to explain to them what our objective was.

We made a contact with ETA in Algiers

to work out what would trigger
the negotiations.

The trigger was each of us
making a kind of announcement.

They would stop the terrorist activity

and we would go to Algeria
to have the first meetings.

What happened?

What happened is that Txomin
was already living in Algeria.

The Algerians gave him the rank
of colonel in the Algerian army,

with considerable financial benefits,

in order to create a sense
of a good relationship with him

and to make him feel important.

DOMINGO ITURBE ABASOLO "TXOMIN"

WAS APPOINTED TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE STATE

He went to the Souma police school
of the Algerian police.

He did physical exercises and so on,
and on maneuvers that they did there,

he fell off the edge of the roof
of one of those industrial units.

He was rappelling and killed himself.

And so we were left
with no one to talk to.

We never got to do the autopsy
on Txomin Iturbe.

No one talks about it even today. There's
a certain fear of talking about it.

PRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN
(1982-1996)

I think they just took him out.

Txomin was from the...

nationalist independence movement

and was not from the movement
that had the closest ties,

to put it bluntly, with East Germany.

I really think that cost him his life.

TXOMIN ITURBE DIED TWO DAYS
BEFORE THE 'OFFICIAL' DATE

AFTER TXOMIN'S DEATH
THE GOVERNMENT DISCOVERS

THAT TWELVE OTHER ETA MEMBERS
ARE HIDING IN ALGERIA

And everyone says that it was an accident.

I often say,
"Did anyone see Txomin fall from there?"

Nobody saw him.

FORMER LEADER OF THE PNV

Oddly enough,
he was the one pushing for a negotiation.

THE ALGIERS NEGOTIATIONS
ARE SUSPENDED

There have always been
negotiations with ETA.

There have always been negotiations.

All governments have negotiated with ETA.
All of them.

They've all put the hurdle
in the same place.

"We will not give in
or accept political negotiation."

And in all the negotiation processes,
violence was not only not ruled out...

JOURNALIST

...but it was considered
an element to be intensified

in order to have more weight
in the negotiation.

1988 - AJURIA ENEA PACT

The Ajuria Enea Pact was
the attempt to find some shared way out,

by uniting everyone
to the form of commitment.

It was the first "all together"
that we had seen in Spain for a long time.

After seeing previous failed attempts...

PEACE NOW AND ALWAYS

...to find a solution to try to go
more or less unilaterally,

the Ajuria Enea Pact was
a wonderful surprise.

And it's probably the most important blow

that the terrorist organization
has received

and which it responds to
with brutal attacks.

Especially to the Basque Nationalist Party

and the Basque government, which was
then presided over by lehendakari Ardanza,

that even his intervention
couldn't be effective

in stopping their terrorist activities.

To ask for peace
in the Basque Country today...

BABY ON BOARD

...is to tell ETA to reconsider
once and for all,

not to turn a deaf ear
to the calls of Basque society,

to accept the opinion
of the vast majority,

to reconsider the absurdity and
senselessness of its stubborn attitude,

to come to its senses

and to abandon its weapons
once and for all.

The ETA attacks were still going on,

but there was peace, calm and tranquility

and, in addition, the political parties
had taken on a commitment...

...and that was that,
every time there was an attack...

PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE GOVERNMENT
(1985-1999)

...the one who was going to protest
was the lehendakari.

I think that, whether or not
there were any other interpretations

of the Ajuria Enea Pact, they were aware
that it was doing them a lot of harm.

Because until the Ajuria Enea Pact,

the political squabbling
was at such a level

that they could act
with complete impunity,

because there was no agreed position

denouncing and condemning
what they were doing.

THE KIDNAPPING
OF EMILIANO REVILLA

24 FEBRUARY 1988

The day he was kidnapped,
I called the house

and my brother-in-law Antonio
picked up the phone.

He was very agitated, very anxious.

I said, "Antonio,
what are you doing there?"

And he said, "I can't tell you now.

"What do you want? Hurry up,
we need to leave the line free...

JOURNALIST

"...because they've kidnapped my father
and I'm waiting for a call."

And then, of course,
I just stood there with the phone,

and I looked at my wife and I said,
"They've kidnapped your father."

Emiliano Revilla was kidnapped
by a cell of the terrorist group ETA

on February 24th.

Two men and a woman
abducted the industrialist at gunpoint...

At no time did anyone contact the family.

At least, at first.

Of course, you find out later
how it works, how it is, right?

We had to find ourselves a contact

who had some connection
with the Basque nationalist groups

or with terrorist groups,
to know a little bit about what to expect

and how to get to a possible negotiation.

And all this,
with the police on top of you

so that you don't make any moves,
or that at least it's some move

that they're aware of, because you know

that if you make any move or put
the Civil Guard on alert in any situation,

you know that it can put the life
of the kidnapped person at risk.

He focused on walking,

even though it may seem absurd,
in a two-by-one space.

He took two steps forward, two steps back,
two steps forward, two steps back.

He wore out several pairs of slippers.

According to his calculations,
he walked about 2,000 or 2,500 miles

in the eight months he was there.

He had the opportunity to talk to the one
he thought was the leader...

Who later, we learned...

ARRESTED IN FRANCE ONE OF THE ETA'S
MOST WANTED LEADERS FOR 15 YEARS

...was Urrosolo Sistiaga.
I even think they played

a game of cards after lunch
or after dinner

every day, and he explained to him...

RELEASE REVILLA

...what ETA was,
what ETA intended and so on.

And my father-in-law would say,

"When this is over,
what are you going to do?

"This will end at some point,
or do you think this will last forever?"

THE FAILURE OF ALGIERS

We came to the decision
that we had to try, so we tried.

INTERIOR MINISTER
(1988-1993)

Knowing it could go wrong.

In fact, we thought it would go wrong.

CORCUERA TRAVELED TO ALGIERS AND PARIS
AFTER ETA'S ULTIMATUM

We knew beforehand
that it wasn't going to work out,

but we wanted the breakdown
to come from him.

The government decides
it needs information on the other side.

In a negotiation
where there are two parties in opposition,

and in this case
one of the parties are terrorists,

being able to know what they want

or what the limits are and where
the other party's red line is

is fundamental when it comes to getting
the best out of the negotiation.

That's why we organized
what was called Operation Messengers,

because in that negotiation,

the terrorists who were
negotiating in Algiers

had a group of advisors

who were legal members
of the abertzale left,

one a director of a newspaper,
one a lawyer.

It was known that they were
the shadow advisors.

As there were many of them,

they were distributed among all the units
of the security forces,

and each one had several objectives

so we had them under surveillance
morning, noon and night,

to try to find out

what ETA was going to say
or do in that negotiation.

THE GOVERNMENT HOLDS ITS POSITION
REGARDING THE LIMITS OF DIALOGUE WITH ETA

The aim was to reach an understanding
with the Spanish government

and to have the backing
of the government of Algiers...

FORMER LEADER OF HB

...which was quite powerful at the time.

And the government of Algiers
was very willing to participate

in that project.

And not only participate, but also give us
total support of ETA.

José Luis Elkoro was part of that group
of ETA advisors,

former members of the abertzale left,
people with a certain background,

political background,
even cultural background,

who were in the shadows

and were the ones who were going
to be able to influence the negotiators

by means of messages that were going to be
passed on to them and, above all,

that had a direct line to the terrorists.

And, in fact,
when they had already proposed

that talks should be opened

in a joint declaration
that they asked us to make

jointly with the Spanish government,
putting themselves on the same level...

VERA TRIED ON SUNDAY IN ALGIERS
TO GET ETA TO EXTEND THE TRUCE

...in which we had to talk
about opening political talks,

we did not deny that he was not...

In short, he was not in the script
and he had never been.

None of the speakers
representing the State against ETA...

71.3% OF SPANIARDS BELIEVE THAT
THE GOVERNMENT MUST NOT GIVE IN TO ETA

...was prepared to give up
the fundamental values.

Which are of the unity of Spain,
the Constitution...

That, contrary to the nonsense
we hear every day...

GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF NATIONAL INDIGNITY

...was never on the table.

There was a direct threat of...

Explicitly, "If you go back to Madrid,

"then you can be targeted by ETA,
by an attack."

"Sure, yes, but that comes with the job."

When the talks
had already started in Algiers,

in 1989, the French police

arrested Josu Ternera in France.

Josu Ternera had set himself up
as the undisputed leader of the gang.

"JOSU TERNERA", ONE OF THE LEADERS OF ETA,
ARRESTED IN BAYONNE BY FRENCH POLICE

His arrest in France, then, made one fear

that they could stall,
that the talks might fail...

FRENCH POLICE TOPPLE THE LEADERSHIP OF ETA
WITH THE ARREST OF 'JOSU TERNERA'

...that had begun in Algiers.

It was an encouraging moment,

but one that was also frustrated
because there was an intervention

by economic interests.

And I understand...

that there was an offer
from the Spanish government

to bring gas from Algeria...

that was very interesting.

They were in another reality,

in another world. They were far
from what was happening in the West

and the democratic countries.

And so, we broke up.

And what happened?
Well, we were very afraid...

ALGIERS ENDS ITS MEDIATION
BETWEEN THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT AND ETA

...that the Algerians would back out
of their promise to expel them.

ETA ANNOUNCES THE END OF THE TRUCE

But they delivered.

ALGERIA

They all ended up
in a Spanish Armed Forces plane,

accompanied by
the Algerian intelligence services

and by our civil guards and police...

ETA MEMBERS DEPORTED

...with the fear, which is an anecdote,
that, when flying over Spain,

Baltasar Garzón,
who was always on the lookout

for anything that would allow him

to get on the front page
of the newspapers,

would order the plane to land

because it carried terrorists who were
being pursued by the National Court.

Waiting his turn to cross
the Suspension Bridge

from Las Arenas to Portugalete...

APRIL 12 1989
ETA BREAKS THE TRUCE

...on the other side of the Nervion
estuary, three young men armed with guns,

apparently including a woman...

CIVIL GUARD SERGEANT JOSÉ CALVO DE LA HOZ
IS MURDERED

...shot him at close range
through the left window of the car.

Hit by four bullets, one in the neck,

the non-commissioned officer
was taken away in an ambulance.

All the Basque political parties,
with the exception of Herri Batasuna,

have shown their most emphatic rejection
with this new attack,

declaring that, after it took place,

the dialogue in Algiers is closed,
despite what ETA and HB say.

I had been having dinner
with my boyfriend,

with the intention of, after dinner,
going out for a drink.

We argued, something happened,

we said, "Well, then, let's go home."

And so I left that Saturday night,
intending to go home...

...but there's a bend in the M-30,

where, without really having planned it,

at the last moment I turned...

JOURNALIST

...and then I thought,

"What if I go by Revilla's place
for a moment?

"In case there's news."

I looked up in front of me,

and something in the distance,

someone among all those who were coming,
caught my attention.

He got to the pedestrian crossing,
which I was facing,

because of the position in which
I had my car parked,

he waited, crossed over...

and passed right in front of the hood

to go to the right, to his door.

And I just went up to him, and asked...

MARÍA JOSÉ SÁEZ
FIRST WITNESS

"Hello, good evening, excuse me,

"are you related to Emiliano Revilla?"

And then he just stared at me and said,
"Who are you?"

I explained to him that I was a journalist
and that I was following the story

and immediately, I said,
"You are Emiliano, aren't you?"

And he hugged himself, he cried, and...

I'd been following that story for a while,
but I didn't even know Emiliano Revilla.

I had seen two,
three or 20 pictures in the press,

but I had never had any contact with him,

and the man who was coming
was a much thinner man.

I still remember, so many years later,
saying to myself,

"Come on, girl,
this is the scoop of your life."

And I get a phone call, right?

I get a call from a journalist,
María José Sáez,

who was one of the regulars
who stood guard at the door.

I wasn't surprised
because lots of journalists called.

"Hey, we're down here, come down here,
we'll hang out and we'll talk and stuff."

We knew each other very well,

but I had never called him at home,
especially at 2:00 in the morning,

and the truth is that I don't know
why he wasn't shocked...

When I get to the place where

I had arranged to meet María José,
I see that she's with someone else,

but not for a second did I imagine
that that person was my father-in-law.

I was behind them,

standing behind Emiliano,
I saw Jesús' face,

and all I could do was cry.

REVILLA, RELEASED ON HIS DOORSTEP

The greatest surprise,
which I've always said,

and I stand by it, that it was possibly

the most intense hug
I've ever given in my life.

THE REVILLA FAMILY PAID ETA
AROUND 1 BILLION PESETAS FOR HIS RESCUE

Then, years later, through a program
that the Basque government ran...

REVILLA'S RELEASE WAS AGREED TO
ON THE 14TH,

BUT HE WILL CONTINUE TO PAY
PART OF THE RANSOM

...I don't know if it was for
the reintegration of ETA prisoners

or to find a way back to normality,

they contacted me
to ask me how I would feel,

if my father-in-law would feel comfortable

meeting with Urrosolo
in the Nanclares de Oca Prison.

NATIONAL IDENTITY CARD

I told my father-in-law, and he said yes,
that he had no problem with seeing him.

I don't know what they talked about.

In fact, Urrosolo...

sent us a letter asking
for forgiveness to the family

for the kidnapping

and for everything
that we had to go through.

ON THE SAME DAY
AS THE RELEASE OF EMILIANO REVILLA

ETA KILLS POLICE OFFICER CRISTÓBAL DÍAZ

1989 - THE INFORMANT

After the failure of talks in Algiers,

the Civil Guard
launches an offensive against ETA

and one of the most important operations
of that time,

because it will show
the capacity of the Civil Guard

in the fight against ETA

is precisely the dismantling
of the Éibar cell.

ÉIBAR CELL
7 CAR BOMB ATTACKS

Regarding this unit, I think...

it's worth highlighting
the participation of someone

who will later become
a Civil Guard collaborator.

Luis Casares was one of the many
collaborators from the Éibar cell.

He provided the house
and was an important part of it because,

at a certain point,

he realized
that the cell that he was housing

and for which he and his family
were risking years in prison

was not treating him well,

and he decided to collaborate
with the Civil Guard.

What happened?
That the cell, who were still

young terrorists in their 20s,

had become somewhat intimate...

with Casares' family,
his wife and daughter,

something that upset Casares to the point

that he couldn't handle it.

Luis Casares was not a Basque.

He was born in Cantabria,

so, well, it was his wife
who got him into all this trouble.

The natural reaction is to say,
"I'm going to get rid of him."

CIVIL GUARD GENERAL

Casares decides
to collaborate to stop the cell,

because it was ruining his life
and family, and he wanted to end it.

On top of that he saw the possibility
of getting some money, too.

THIS WOMAN IS A DANGEROUS BITCH

He called the civilian governor.

At first, the call doesn't seem
completely believable.

He is asked for proof,
with some material evidence

that what he says is true,

he takes a kilo of explosives
from the cell,

delivers it to the Civil Guard.
Then we realize...

that what he says is true

and we knew, because Casares told us,

that the cell was leaving for France
on a certain day,

because a truck was going to pick it up.

As we knew the collection point
through our informant,

what we did was to set up checkpoints
with uniformed units,

and we ourselves, the investigation units,

in unmarked cars,
were providing signals to warn

that the checkpoints were there.

They never suspected
that we were behind them.

From that point,
we were left with two tools,

the cell on the one hand,
and the truck driver on the other.

When we stopped the cell, we were left
with the driver and the truck,

and he allowed us to get to a later cell
by means of surveillance.

We arranged it so that Casares had time...

INFRASTRUCTURE

...to run from the law,
to run from the security forces,

and he left for France.

But from France he continued
to collaborate with the Civil Guard.

ETA never found out about the existence
of this collaborator

until he died many years later, in France.

ÉIBAR CELL

CASARES CONTINUED TO LEAK INFORMATION
FOR YEARS TO THE SPANISH CIVIL GUARD

Casares was for many years
collaborating with the Civil Guard

from France with a lot of information,

a lot of information that was used,

and others that weren't
and will never come to light,

he fell ill and he died.

ETA, as it happens always
with its militants,

paid him a public tribute

without ever knowing that he was
a Civil Guard informant,

although years later it was revealed,

to the great surprise of the world of ETA,

who never imagined they had
an infiltrator in their ranks.

THE POLITICAL WING OF ETA
ARRIVES AT CONGRESS

In a press release received
by various media in the Basque Country,

political-military ETA calls for votes
for Herri Batasuna

in the upcoming elections.

The elected members of Herri Batasuna
have stated that they do not intend

to participate in parliamentary activities
on a regular basis.

According to Iñaki Esnaola,
they will go to Congress as long

as they can make
a contribution to a dialogue

between ETA and the government.

We went to take a picture
in front of Congress.

GROUP OF ELECTED DEPUTIES AND SENATORS
OF HERRI BATASUNA

And in the afternoon
we met at the Hotel Alcalá,

to discuss where to go for dinner

and, well, we decided
to have dinner at a restaurant.

GUNMEN SHOOT JOSU MUGURUZA
DEAD IN MADRID

I was facing Josu Muguruza,

talking to him. And if that bullet
hadn't hit Josu Muguruza,

if it had been two centimeters away,
that bullet would have been for me.

Josu Muguruza had been in ETA...

...and he was in Egin.

FORMER HB LEADER

Josu was a colleague at Egin,
he was my editor-in-chief...

...at the time, and he was
also a personal friend.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AT EGIN
(1992-1998)

And, well, there...

What happened, happened.

Some armed people,
some gunmen, opened fire,

they shot Josu,
they shot at Iñaki Esnaola.

Iñaki Esnaola was a significant figure.

And Jon Idígoras...

who was also a leading figure
in Herri Batasuna.

And Josu. I think they were the three
targets that the police went after.

With Josu, they hit the target,
with Iñaki Esnaola,

well, he was left seriously injured,

and then Jon was... He got away...
But he was also a target.

We always condemn terrorist attacks,
wherever they come from,

and we view them with the same concern,
from the point of view of moral legitimacy

as being against violence, I can tell you
that for us the investigation

of this incident
has the same priority as any ETA murder.

Long live military ETA!

THE ONLY CONVICTION FOR THE CRIME
WAS POLICE OFFICER ÁNGEL DUCE

THE RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST
RICARDO SÁENZ DE YNESTRILLAS WAS ACQUITTED

THREE YEARS EARLIER
ETA HAD MURDERED HIS FATHER

HIS FATHER WAS INVOLVED
IN AN ATTEMPTED COUP

Ángel Alkalde was the next on the list,
he was in jail at the time,

they released him to go to Parliament
and they all swore in Congress.

Well, they "swore," they promised,
as required by law.

Do you swear or promise
to abide by the Constitution?

As required by law, I do promise.

Mrs. Itziar Aizpurua Egaña,

Mr. Ángel Alkalde Linares and
Mr. Juan Cruz Idígoras de Gerrikabeitia,

not having used the standard wording,

have not acquired full status
as members of Parliament.

Please leave the Chamber.

Mr. President, before we leave...

Mr. Idígoras, there is no opportunity
for a statement of any kind at this time.

-Please leave the Chamber.
-We will not cause any incident...

So what happened?
We were dismissed from the Chamber

and, after a day or two...

one of the lawyers said to me...

"They've issued
an arrest warrant for you."

CONVICTED OF COLLABORATION WITH ETA

ÁNGEL ALCALDE, FORMER DEPUTY OF HB,

ARRESTED FOR BELONGING
TO THE "RECRUITMENT TEAM" FOR ETA

I was inclined to run away,

either as a refugee or a fugitive,

depending on who is
interpreting the situation,

I was facing between 14 and 15 years.

ARABA CELL FALLS

At that time, it was one of the most
bloodthirsty and one that...

had to be broken up
and dealt with whatever it took.

FIRST CORPORAL

The Araba cell was slaughtering us.

It moved as it pleased,
quickly, across the three provinces.

The Civil Guard was already working
on three lines of investigation.

One of them, the first, was the tire,
a tire imprint that was left

after the attack, which they committed,
the attack on the Llodio barracks.

Furthermore, when Santi Potros
was arrested in '87,

a series of documents were intercepted.

"LETTER FROM ARABA CELL"
SENT TO "SANTI POTROS"

But there were two letters in particular
that were signed by the Araba cell.

And the other line of investigation
was a thread that was left hanging

when the Éibar cell was dismantled.

There was a truck driver who was going
to make the delivery to France.

The truck driver, which was
a common means of transport

for the cells to go from Spain to France
and from France to Spain.

And of all the leads we had,
that was the best.

José Antonio Mujika Huizi
was the driver of the truck

that tried to transfer to France
the members of the Éibar cell.

They put technology of the time into it.

A homing beacon. Now there are
others much more sophisticated

and easier to put in place,
because it was quite difficult.

But, well, we did follow
the truck's journey.

It rang alarm bells, first of all,

the fact that he drives the truck
on a Saturday morning.

He usually made the deliveries
on a school day,

not on a Saturday morning,
at 9:00 in the morning.

So, now that totally
throws us off balance,

and that's when we say,
"We have to contact Intxaurrondo."

The truck takes a very strange route

and picks up some people,
we couldn't see who,

but we did see that the canvas
in the front is moved.

And he gets out of the truck,

goes over to the bar,
but doesn't go inside.

We think that's a little strange.

So, after two or three minutes
two guys show up.

I find myself, all of a sudden,
at the bar,

in front of me, with three guys.

Three guys and, in the middle, Paterra.

JUAN CARLOS
ARRUTI AZPITARTE "PATERRA"

14 MURDERS
1200 YEARS IN PRISON

So I went to the bathroom

and contacted my team leader
on the radio and said,

"I'm sure it's Paterra."

Then they leave the bar
and go for a walk in the hills,

the walk was for safety,

because Manu and Txiribita
suspect something.

God arranged things
so that we didn't go after them,

because if we had,

today I wouldn't be able to tell you
what I'm telling you right now.

And then they got in the truck.

The truck was one
that usually transported wood,

so with the wood,

the truck driver, who was obviously
collaborating with ETA,

had developed a system,

so that to anyone looking,
the truck seemed full of wood,

but inside, there were two compartments,
a vertical one to stand or sit,

and a horizontal one,
where three or four people could hide.

We began a very drawn-out tail.

Until he got to the highway toll.
He stopped there, the driver was asked

to take down the tarp
and they asked him who was inside.

At first he said
he wasn't carrying anything,

but then he started to back out.

You could see the reaction
and, as soon as he took the tarp down,

you could hear shots,

even from above
they were trying to throw a grenade.

Manu goes to grab another grenade
to throw again,

and he's shot, and the grenade
just explodes in his hand.

In the crossfire,
the border was full of cars.

It was 10:00 at night.

People were standing around
and thinking it was a movie.

Eight or ten minutes
of continuous shooting

until there comes a moment when,
once they run out of ammunition,

one of them comes out shaking

with a gun in his hand, saying,
"I surrender, I surrender, I surrender."

TWO DEAD AND THREE INJURED
IN THE DISMANTLING OF THE CELL "ARABA"

As a result of the dismantling
of the Araba cell and especially

because of the testimony of Paterra,
who was the most outspoken,

two cells were busted... Trusted ones,
which were the Laudio and the Aizarotz.

About 40 collaborators were arrested,

they raised nine weapons caches,
found about 30 apartments

as well as a lot of documentation,
which was used in other operations.

IN 1996 THE ARABA CELL REORGANIZES ITSELF

THIS WIRETAP OF ETA IS THE ONLY ONE
CAUGHT BY THE CIVIL GUARD IN ITS HISTORY

-Hello?
-It's Alberti.

-Right. Good afternoon.
-Listen.

THEY NEGOTIATE THE RENT OF A SAFE HOUSE

-I've got the money for the promo.
-Right. For the album.

When do you want me
to give it to you or what?

Weren't you with him yesterday?

-Yes.
-I thought you'd be with them.

Yeah, but since we had the money and...
Hey, there's no rush.

-I'm telling you for... for you.
-Right, I just thought that you...

1990 - HENRI PAROT GOES DOWN

One day, the head of the counter-terrorism
services arrived at my office

and told me that the attacks
that were taking place in Spain,

like the one
in the Plaza de la República Dominicana,

the one in the Plaza
de la República Argentina,

the one in Juan Bravo Street,

were not carried out by the Madrid cell,
which surprised us a lot.

The Argala cell was
a surprise to everyone,

and in ETA, too.

Because that cell,
created in Txomin's era,

and thereafter only the military chiefs
who knew that...

...that to do terrorism
you don't need to have an army.

They would take the car,
they would have...

CHIEF OF OPERATIONS
OF THE FRENCH INFORMATION SERVICE

...a small space in the car
to put the gun,

they would come to Madrid,

do some surveillance,
kill and leave. Period.

They were working for a long time,
but ETA made the mistake of,

since more and more cells
were going down...

KEY ETA CELL KNOCKED OUT

...and more and more pressure...

ETA SUFFERS ONE OF THE HEAVIEST STRIKES
IN THE LAST YEARS WITH THE FALL OF "ARABA"

...was needed on the government,
in the run-up to 1992,

the Expo and the Olympic Games,

that cell that they had taken care of
and packed in cotton wool,

forced them to make more and more attacks.

And it just so happens
that at one of the checkpoints...

Because there were many police checks
on highways at that time,

we stopped a car
with the members of that mobile cell,

who were French and Algerian nationals.

SEVILLE

He went up to the checkpoint,
and we saw the guys waving at him to stop,

and he didn't stop.
And the corporal placed a spike strip,

we punctured three tires.

The car was carrying
310 kilos of explosives...

CIVIL GUARD

...and had three flat tires,
so it stopped.

And when we got to where the car was,

he opened the windows and shot at us.

He ran out of ammunition for the gun.

I had the machine gun,

and I put it in his chest, but...

From the instinct of... I don't know,
I grabbed it and I threw it back,

and then we threw him to the ground.

And I grabbed his hand and put my foot
on his chest and I pinned him down.

A FRENCH ETA MEMBER, ARRESTED IN
SEVILLE WITH 330 KILOS OF EXPLOSIVES

He was speaking to me in French
and telling me not to hit him,

because, of course,
I, after catching him...

I was so nervous when I had him,

and I gave him a...
I beat him a little bit.

I hit him.

And then he began
to speak to me in Spanish

and told me he was an ETA activist.

82 MURDERS
SENTENCED TO 4800 YEARS IN PRISON

The bomb squad had already arrived.

They lifted the hood, and I don't know

if it was four or five butane bottles
it was carrying,

and those were full of bags of Rubber-Two.

ABC
03.04.1990

I think, without a doubt,

he was the smartest terrorist
I've ever seen.

He was cold, he was calculating,
he was smart, he knew us very well.

He was very experienced,
he had over ten years of killings.

He was a killing machine.

FOZ DE LUMBIER

ETB NEWS
26.06.1990

Juan María Lizarralde Urreta, alias Heavy,
one of the two ETA members

who were found dead this morning
in the Foz de Lumbier,

was born in San Sebastián
and joined ETA in 1979.

The police attribute to him, among others,
the murder of General Atarés

and the kidnapping of Adolfo Villoslada.

María José Faustcu Echenagusía
was a native of Régil, Guipúzcoa,

and acted as a collaborator
of the Goierri cell

until its dismantling in November of 1987.

The bodies of both were found at 10:00
in the morning in the Foz de Lumbier,

one kilometer from the place
where a shooting took place yesterday.

During the funeral for the Civil Guard
sergeant José Luis Hervás,

who lost his life in the shooting,

the Minister of the Interior,
José Luis Corcuera,

said that the two ETA members
had taken their own lives

when they were surrounded
by Civil Guard troops.

The cell was there, we don't know if they
were resting, gathering information,

and the Civil Guard patrolling the area,

as part of their normal activities,

saw two boys and a girl
who seemed strange,

they went to identify them,
but without knowing

and of course without realizing
that they were terrorists,

they think that they are
coming after them,

so what happens is
that a shooting takes place,

the terrorists kill the sergeant,

the other guard has time to take cover...

CIVIL GUARD SHOT DEAD
AND ANOTHER WOUNDED AT LA FOZ DE LUMBIER

...and the terrorists flee.

Each side gave totally
and utterly contradictory versions,

just the same as always.

They had committed suicide,
which was illogical.

INTERIOR EXPLAINS HOW DEATH
OF TWO ETA MEMBERS IN NAVARRA WAS SUICIDE

The version of the ETA members...

...or the lawyers was that they
had been tortured and then killed.

PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE GOVERNMENT
(1985-1999)

If we look at history,

there are quite a few cases
in which people have been killed

in terrorist arrests.

None of them
have really been settled in full.

And in the case of the Foz de Lumbier,

where there is talk of suicides...

TWO DUTCHMEN SAW THE THREE ETA MEMBERS
ALIVE AFTER THE SHOOTING

...I would include it with all these cases
that are never resolved.

Even with those accounts...
Those of the Civil Guard have obviously

always been hard for me to believe.

And those of the ETA members have often
been difficult to believe, too.

The truth is that the statements
of the prisoner,

even in front of the judge,
although he later withdrew,

supported this version,

and the autopsies
that were performed on the bodies

also supported the testimony
of the Civil Guard.

ETA TUTORIAL
FOR TERRORIST CELL TRAINING

BASQUE COUNTRY AND FREEDOM
E.T.A.

THE MASSACRE AT VIC

ETA would try to reproduce the massacre

at the Zaragoza barracks in Barcelona.

The Barcelona cell prepares a car bomb

that is loaded with more than
200 kilos of ammonia

and that, after researching
and planning the attack,

is released down the access ramp

to the courtyard
of the Civil Guard barracks

at 7:00 in the evening,

when the courtyard
is full of children playing there.

The explosion of the car bomb
causes the death of nine people,

five of them children,

two civil guards and two women.

I started to pick up
the wounded and whatever was there

and then do the task of surveying,
of identifying one by one of the corpses.

That's what I had to do.

I knew them all.
And I had to identify them one by one.

CIVIL GUARD

Sala, his mother-in-law,
the baby's partner, Pakito,

Rosita, Ana, Maripili...

My wife was at the window of the pavilion,

then she saw the car going down
and started telling the kids to move,

but, of course, when it got to the wall,

it exploded and the two or three girls
who were closest were the ones who...

We got there and...

Of course, I...
I felt it intensely, because...

CIVIL GUARD

...only five years before,

I was in a barracks like that
playing in the courtyard.

It's like you've had your own son
killed there, even if he wasn't.

It creates a very strong family feeling,

so that attack, apart from living it,

half an hour or 45 minutes later,

after feeling the smell, the smoke...

The ambulances, the screams...
Apart from that...

It touches you very deeply
because it was very cruel.

All attacks are cruel,
but this one in particular.

Releasing a car bomb
when you can see children playing...

Because ETA was obsessed with children.

Because if they had any balls,
they would have come to get us.

Sons of bitches.

ETA VALUES AN ETA LIFE "A HUNDRED TIMES
MORE" THAN A CHILD OF A POLICE OFFICER

The cell fled.

ARMED CRIMINALS
HIGHLY DANGEROUS ETA MEMBERS

During the getaway,
someone saw the license plate.

The license plate reached us
at the Civil Guard.

That morning we arrested
the cell's collaborators,

who told us where the cell was hiding,

because they had rented a house from them.

From that point on,

the cell's arrest was inevitable.

On entering the house, the terrorists
opened fire, as did the response unit,

and the two terrorists were killed.

And the man who was cleaning the car,
who was arrested, was the one who gave us

all the information about the life
and activity of the Barcelona cell.

MURDERED BY THE CIVIL GUARD

MEMORIAL SERVICE IN GERNIKA

FOR THE TWO ETA MEMBERS
OF THE BARCELONA CELL

Well, I, as you will understand,

I would never say anything
against the organization.

Absolutely nothing.

FROM 1988 TO 1991
ETA ENDED THE LIVES OF 107 PEOPLE

SERIES BASED ON THE BOOK
"HISTORIA DE UN DESAFÍO:

CINCO DÉCADAS DE LA LUCHA SIN CUARTEL
DE LA GUARDIA CIVIL CONTRA ETA"

WRITTEN BY MANUEL SÁNCHEZ CORBÍ
AND MANUELA SIMÓN