Original subtitles

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

OCTOBER 17 1991 TRIPLE ATTACK IN MADRID

On the morning of October 17th, 1991...

FRANCISCO CARBALLAR MUÑOZ KILLED INSTANTLY

...I woke up feeling very happy, because I had a basketball game,

which was my passion, sport, and suddenly,

happily having breakfast with my mother and sister, we heard a bomb.

RAFAEL VILLALOBOS SERIOUSLY INJURED

I, of course, had no idea

that there were people planting bombs at the time.

The '80s and '90s were the bloodiest years in the history of terrorism.

But my sister did know, she was 15 years old,

and she was scared because my mother worked in a police station,

she said, "Something else is going to happen here.

Mom, don't go to work today."

And before I got into my mother's car,

of course, she had passed this fear on to me.

I said, "Mom, what if they put a bomb in our car, too?"

And then my mother said, "But, darling, why would they put a bomb in our car?

They do that to people who are important. But you and I are nobody,

so, come on, get in the car."

And I don't remember anything else.

THE CHALLENGE ETA

05 TOTAL WAR

One of the great debates that existed in Spanish society

was how we should deal...

ETA SPREADS TERROR AGAIN IN MADRID

...from a media point of view, with terrorist attacks.

ETA CAUSES CARNAGE IN THE VICINITY OF THREE SCHOOLS IN MADRID

Should we show it in the pictures on the front pages of the newspapers...

JOURNALIST

...in all its brutality?

Did that spread more terror?

Did that help the cause of rejecting terrorism

or did it generate more terror?

I tend to think that it depends on...

the historical phases that we are living through.

It would not be tolerable now, but there was a time when...

such images had an educational value, "This is what terrorism is.

Terrorism is the amputation of Irene Villa's legs,

her mother's arm and one of her legs."

I woke up in Gómez Ulla Hospital surrounded by tubes,

with machines everywhere and unable to move, immobile.

I could feel my legs. I thought that they were just burned.

I felt very hot.

What made me suspicious was my father's face.

That face told me that something terrible had happened,

because it was of panic and terror and fear and pain.

For a father, I think the hardest thing...

...is to have your child killed,

but in my father's case, he felt that it was even harder...

ETA VICTIM

...to see me "disabled," as he said.

"Why do I have to see you now like a broken doll?"

Well, he preferred that I stay in that eternal peace

where I wouldn't regret not being able to play that basketball game

and where I wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

The one who was going to suffer would be my father and my whole family, of course.

But thank God the doctor, when he asked for consent to operate on me,

did not listen because my father did not give it to him.

He said, "Let her die. Don't let her suffer.

Don't let her have to face this reality that is so dark

and so terrible for a 12-year-old girl,

whose only dream is to play sport, run, jump,

ice skate, and now she won't be able to. So let her go."

And then it was on that floor of the hospital,

the tenth floor, in plastic surgery,

that I discovered, when I removed the sheet, that half my body was missing.

At that moment, I remember that my father started crying, he left the room.

My neighbor stayed crying with me, holding my hand and saying...

"Yes, daughter, yes, you have no legs."

What saved me, I think,

was a very practical thought, it was my mother who said it to me

and who gave me the key that has served me all my life.

"Your daughter is alive.

Do you want to know how she is?" "I don't want to know how she is.

It's enough for me to know that she's alive."

She imagined that there would be long-term consequences, as she had, too,

but she preferred not to know until she saw me, hugged me

and looked at that gleam in my eyes that in the reunion, in fact, you see.

You see strength, you see love, you see hope,

even if our bodies are broken,

and she said to me, "Daughter... Here's the thing.

This is what we're going to have to live with for the rest of our lives,

so you have two choices."

And I'm like this with my eyes open, "Okay, Mom, what do we do?"

"You can live your whole life hating,

cursing the terrorists and being miserable,

feeling sorry for yourself and for what they've done to you.

You have every right,

but there's another way, and that's to decide that your life starts today."

Besides the trip to the hospitals,

the doctors and the treatments for infections that I have had,

also because of my passion for sport, I have had very severe injuries.

I have had to overcome a lot of things, and not only on a physical level...

PARALYMPICS

And what do I have to do with the independence of the Basque Country?

What do I care? "Let them have it," I'd say, naively.

Of course then I realized that they didn't have the key to that independence,

not all the civil guards, police, military,

politicians, judges, journalists, not even children.

Human beings can do anything. It is enough that you believe in yourself

and have the desire to overcome any situation,

to achieve what you set out to do in life.

IRENE VILLA IS A WRITER AND JOURNALIST

SHE HAS THREE CHILDREN

The year 1992...

...was going to be a year of vulnerability for the State...

CIVIL GUARD LIEUTENANT GENERAL

...because it had to contend with the Olympics, the Seville Expo,

Madrid as European culture capital, and so on.

Throughout the construction of the Olympic buildings in Barcelona...

...we had surveillance and checks at all stages...

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SECURITY (1986-1994)

...to the point that we discovered an attempted attack

on the Palau Sant Jordi.

In the metal tubular structure of the canopy,

in one of the structures' tubes,

they were planning to put a bomb with a detonator with a clock,

that could explode even after 9,999 hours.

That is, there was more than enough time...

to cause a real tragedy there, right?

And on top of that, to do it with tremendous impact and publicity.

It didn't happen, fortunately.

Furthermore, we did not have any attacks during

the time that the Olympic Games lasted, which was one month,

but the Universal Exhibition in Seville, which was six months, half a year.

What was, I would say, the key factor? The arrest of Bidart's leadership.

The police arrived at a chalet in the town of Bidart, near Bayonne...

FRENCH BASQUE COUNTRY

...where Francisco Mujika Garmendia,

"Artapalo," was brought in shortly afterwards,

although the police did not recognize him at first.

Bringing down the leadership in '92...

was, of course, the most important operation of the time,

because above all,

apart from arresting leaders,

the ETA organization had never foreseen

that the whole leadership would fall at the same time on a single date.

That is, they had not planned to put people...

CHIEF OF OPERATIONS OF THE FRENCH INFORMATION SERVICE

...or, how can we say, a replacement leadership.

We had an ETA collaborator.

Some ETA prisoners wanted to send a bag to ETA's address.

I was going to do it through the family of this collaborator.

CIVIL GUARD COLONEL

When they gave him the bag, the collaborator let us...

inspect it, because there was something in there.

We discovered, very well hidden, a message in the bag.

We photocopied it, put it back as it was,

the bag went on its way, it arrived at the address,

but we already had the information.

It made it possible that, one day, from the many follow-ups...

TAILING TXELIS

...it was possible to discover a meeting

between the three people responsible for ETA.

After an investigation by the Civil Guard at Guipúzcoa,

the French police entered the farmhouse and arrested the people inside.

And the people inside at that time

were none other than the ETA leadership, at that time.

It was the so-called "Artapalo collective,"

which was made up of "Txelis,"

Álvarez Santacristina, as head of the political apparatus,

Francisco Mujika Garmendia, "Pakito," as head of the military apparatus,

and Erostarbe, "Fiti," who was responsible for the logistical apparatus.

It was, without a doubt, the most important operation against ETA

that had been carried out up to that point.

The State authorities carried out a spectacular operation,

which practically broke the backbone of ETA...

...and broke its leadership and achieved a dramatic result.

From then on, I believe that ETA was...

JOURNALIST

...just stumbling around one after the other,

replacing every fallen member with another one immediately behind them.

There, they showed their ability to provide backup,

but then again with people who were less skilled at the job.

That they were beginning to get less support.

Many people were leaving because of the cruelty,

and they reacted with more cruelty.

Operation Bidart was the turning point in ETA's defeat.

No matter how much time passed after that.

And why do I say that?

Because to understand ETA terrorism as it was...

...it was an entirely top-down terrorism, an entirely top-down organization.

PRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN (1982-1996)

Then, when you go into the engine room of ETA's High Command,

the whole vertical structure is compromised and weakened.

And Operation Bidart led to exactly that.

GOVERNMENT SUCCESS: ARTAPALO, ARRESTED - ETA, DECAPITATED

It got to the hard drive of the organization's leadership.

ETA never recovered from that, ever.

TWO MEMBERS OF ETA BLACKMAIL BUSINESSMAN ISIDRO USABIAGA

FIVE YEARS AFTER THIS RECORDING HE WAS KILLED

THE INFILTRATOR

Of the known infiltrators that the Civil Guard has had in ETA,

the most important for us, and for the fight against terrorism in general,

was an agent, a civil guard,

who went under the alias of "Joseph."

He attended classes at the Basque school for adults in Bayonne,

and was in touch with, of course, people who were

in ETA's circle.

And one day, someone approached him with a proposal to work with...

a militant, who I think we now know was Zorion Zamakola.

IN CHARGE OF ETA'S FINANCES

My record was what the Special Services Unit was looking for,

to infiltrate ETA and counter terrorism.

My fluency in French was very important, because our work was focused on France.

So that's why it was crucial to pass as a Frenchman.

There came a time when they told me, "Okay, you have to go

and start your new life now." Because it was starting a new life.

I arrived in Bayonne and I started to get things moving.

I was in a group of agitators

and of people protesting,

protesting almost every weekend from one side to the other,

anti-repression, rebellious.

I realized I was taking an important step when...

they came to my door, rang the bell, I opened the door,

and they handed me an envelope.

The assignment was to pick up Zorion at a certain location.

Zorion's role was to be treasurer.

He was active at night.

He rested by day, slept and so on.

Me, at night, it was the other way around. At night, I was sleeping, resting.

So my great fear was to talk in my sleep.

He was a cold, distrustful, controlling person,

and he watched my reaction at all times.

He used to read a piece of paper, write, tear it up.

He would tear up the paper, but he would only give it to me

when he heard the garbage truck approaching the doorway.

Then he'd give me the bag with the torn paper...

Lots of very small pieces. He'd give me the little bag

and say, "Take the trash out."

I would take the garbage down, and when I did, he would watch from the window

as that bag came to the truck.

He would check from the window that that bag would go in the truck.

So, of course, because this was a team job,

I had a team in place, competent civil guards,

so I made sure that all the garbage bags were the same brand.

I would take the trash bag down and, behind the baseboard, at the entrance,

we had a hole made.

Then I, in that hole, would make the switch.

One case I remember from a bombing that happened. They celebrated.

They made toasts. I was very hurt inside,

but I had a job to do and I celebrated with them after the attack.

On Sunday, my afternoon was a little more relaxed. The beach and stuff.

I went into a phone booth and called my parents.

They knew that I was a civil guard,

but they didn't know what I was doing,

the work I was doing, the mission I was on.

My father said to me,

"A friend of yours was here five or six days ago."

"And what was he like?"

"He had glasses, his skin was marked.

His hair was like this, he was dressed like this."

And I knew right away... With that description,

I said to myself, "It was Zorion."

And on top of some furniture in the living room,

my parents had a picture of me swearing the oath of allegiance.

ETA knew, since Monday,

and I found out on Sunday.

I think they didn't kill me

because they weren't sure if it was me.

I get on the phone with my team

and instantly the order was,

"You're going to the airport right now. Taxi, airport and the first plane out.

Wherever it goes, doesn't matter."

JOSEPH SPENT FOUR YEARS UNDERCOVER IN ETA

Hello, good evening. This morning, Madrid was once again

the scene of an ETA car bomb attack

that cost the lives of the seven occupants of a military vehicle...

21 JUNE 1993

...four lieutenant colonels, a frigate captain,

a sergeant and the driver of the van.

Their bodies, torn apart by the enormous power of the explosion,

could not be identified until mid-afternoon.

THE NEW LEADERS

After the fall of Bidart,

new members were brought to the top of ETA,

those who, at the beginning of the '80s, were young recruits.

And they are very radical and violent.

After Bidart,

there were Mikel Antza, Arizkuren Ruiz, "Kantauri,"

"Pototo," Atxurra Egurrola.

They were militants of a high level, who have all been in cells already.

They had the militancy.

The capability, too, if we can use the word "capability."

ETA's new strategy would be to carry out fewer operations,

but qualitatively more spectacular.

In other words, to seek more profitable objectives.

ETA SETS ITS SIGHTS ON NATIONAL POLITICAL PARTIES

The PP has become the leading political force in San Sebastián

with 21% of the vote.

They are the ones who make it happen. They can't stand us being the main power.

Gregorio Ordóñez is surely

one of the victims of terrorism, among politicians,

that has some unusual features.

First, his youth. He was murdered at the age of 36,

while he was a member of the Basque Parliament

and deputy mayor of San Sebastián City Hall.

But he had been a city councilor since he was 23.

He was a very brave guy. He had been a party councilor,

let's say, which made him very popular in San Sebastián,

because he was a very dynamic guy, very brave, very courageous,

daring with an unusual boldness to confront ETA.

And it was also uncomfortable, even for his own party,

because he was not a particularly disciplined man.

There is a constant threat. The ETA members are furious.

They have lost their way, if they ever had it, of course,

and what's clear is that here, they are the useless ones, not us.

The upright citizen, the honest citizen, is the one who will stay,

and those who are redundant and who we will kick out, if necessary, will be them.

He didn't want to fool anyone. He defended some ideas...

...and defended them in the best possible way, but he didn't change his speech...

PRESIDENT OF THE PP OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY (2004-2008)

...according to the audience he had.

He always said the same thing on Basque TV or Spanish TV,

because he had clear ideas and defended what he believed he had to defend.

He was very well known for that.

In other words, you either loved him or hated him.

And suddenly, I see myself near the Town Hall, next to La Concha Beach...

...next to Gregorio Ordóñez. Nobody else was around.

And I say, "Gregorio, aren't you afraid?"

He says, "No." And I say, "Well, I am.

So, let's hurry up, because what do you want me to say?

To me, it's that feeling of silence."

He said, "Don't worry, nothing's going to happen."

Let's see, Gregorio... We are sick of you.

One more statement from you, and your family is at risk of death.

Any one of them. We've had it up to here with you.

Get out of the Basque Country, you bastard!

It's true that Gregorio was threatened.

He had threatening phone calls to his home.

In the Batasuna press, I mean, they wrote things about Gregorio.

In the ETA newspaper, in the Egin...

GREGORIO ORDÓÑEZ (PP) RECEIVES DEATH THREATS TO LEAVE SAN SEBASTIÁN

...and then the Gara, they also spoke very badly of Gregorio,

because he was a politician who hurt ETA and Batasuna very badly

because he exposed what they were like, a terrorist gang.

He wasn't afraid. I mean, he carried a gun because he was threatened,

but he was a man who didn't live with the feeling of being killed the next day.

We went out casually to bars, to restaurants.

We moved around the city without any fear.

It was quite normal that we didn't go out to eat,

because we worked so hard that many times they brought us snacks

or we ate in a hurry and on the move.

Then there was a person who owed us a meal for a story

and he took us to eat in the Old Town.

The Old Town is next to the San Sebastián Town Hall

and is an area where we used to go.

It is also true that many times we went at noon,

as we would pass groups of young people who maybe insulted Gregorio,

but Gregorio would answer them and nothing happened.

We kept going to the Old Town.

We were so unafraid that we sat down to eat in a restaurant

and didn't worry about sitting in front of the door,

which many of us haven't done since.

I was sitting here, Gregorio was here,

and I saw that they, well, they put a gun to his neck.

And it gave me enough time to think that it was a joke.

A person who never lived by half measures

has been killed today by a terrorist in a bar in San Sebastián.

ETA MURDERS PP LEADER IN GUIPÚZCOA

It was 3:25 in the afternoon when an ETA member shot mercilessly

at the PP spokesman in the Basque Country

and candidate for mayor of San Sebastián, Gregorio Ordóñez.

He was shot in the head by a man who fled the scene and died instantly.

I can't remember the face of the killer.

I'm incapable of seeing past Gregorio's head. I mean,

I have Gregorio's face perfectly imprinted,

before and after the shot, I have it imprinted,

but, I mean, I'm sure I looked up because,

by instinct, if you see someone with a gun in their hand,

you look to see who's holding the gun.

Well, it's completely gone from me. I can't tell

if he was wearing a hood, if he was barefaced, if he was white or black.

I can't remember.

I am deeply saddened by the death of Gregorio Ordóñez...

...and in this regard, I would like to express...

HB COUNCILOR

...my condolences to his family and friends.

He didn't deserve this.

I'm very proud. I've always been very proud of Gregorio

and I will continue to be.

And let it be very clear that I do not and will never forgive them.

GREGORIO ORDÓÑEZ'S WIFE AUDIO CADENA COPE 1995

So, when I said, "I condemn this action, I don't agree...

FOUNDING MEMBER OF ETA

...at all,"

I was told that it hadn't been claimed yet...

SAN SEBASTIÁN TOWN HALL, 2 P.M.

...and that, "Well, what are you going to do

if ETA claims it?"

Well, I would still say that I think it's very bad.

And if HB doesn't distance itself from this attack,

then I will publicly withdraw from the ranks of HB.

We had met a few days before,

on the day of San Sebastián, January 19th,

celebrating with José María Aznar, who had come to San Sebastián,

and we had been involved in his candidacy

for the San Sebastián City Council.

Gregorio believed that something was going to happen.

On the day of the murder, when I found out, I was in Madrid...

INTERIOR MINISTER (1996-2001)

...and went quickly to San Sebastián, I experienced a special kind of anxiety

because I had also known two weeks before...

MURDERED FOR HIS IDEAS

...the anxiety of Gregorio Ordóñez before he was killed.

SAN SEBASTIÁN TOWN HALL, LAST NIGHT

IF YOU CONTINUE TO ADMIT AND SERVE FASCISTS,

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A HARD TIME.

CONSUELO ORDÓÑEZ (GOYITO'S LITTLE SISTER)

IT'S IN YOUR INTERESTS DENYING ENTRY TO THESE UNDESIRABLES

YOUR BAR CAN WIND UP HAVING AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT

"THE GASOLINE CHILDREN"

WE HAVE YOUR ADDRESSES, CAR AND MOTORCYCLE PLATES.

GREGORIO ORDÓÑEZ WAS THE FIRST OF 24 COUNCILORS KILLED BY ETA

19 APRIL 1995

I was...

very focused on my work

and daily reading, and then, when the explosion occurred,

I was thrown across the car seat, upside down.

AMATEUR VIDEO

I had a strong itching sensation on my face,

and I actually had many cuts and a foul smell

of material that had been used by the terrorists.

And the first thing I did was touch myself to see if I was...

...in one piece, so to speak. I was alive, but I didn't know if I was in one piece.

PRESIDENT OF SPAIN (1996-2004)

I found that out immediately and I asked the driver, who was in front of me,

if he had anything, if anything had happened to him.

And when I sat down, I tried to open my door,

the door was totally destroyed, it was impossible.

I had to climb out, go through the front of the car.

And they took me to the Maternity Hospital,

to the Maternity Clinic where I was treated.

At that time, I had two ideas in my head, two concerns.

One was to tell my family, "I am alive,"

and the other was to tell the country, "I am fine."

EL PAÍS 04.20.1995

AZNAR, "ETA WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BREAK US"

"I'M FINE, EVERYONE RELAX"

I had brought José María Aznar a letter

written by a good nationalist friend of mine...

ETA, GROWING IN THE FACE OF GOVERNMENT WEAKNESS, ATTEMPTED THE ASSASSINATION

...where he told me that he had no doubt

that ETA had decided to act against someone from the People's Party.

And he sometimes said that he thought I was the one who was going to be killed.

I didn't know that they were going to try and kill him.

When he told me,

and thinking about the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez a few months earlier,

I immediately thought it would be him.

And I told him two things.

One, go and see the minister, and second, "Take care of yourself, Jaime, please."

And he said, "You take care of yourself."

And he was right.

But the fact is that, when he went to see the minister,

the minister, half surprised and half outraged, told him...

...that there was no chance at all...

INTERIOR MINISTER (1994-1996)

...and that it could be totally ruled out

that there was the slightest danger to anyone involved in the People's Party.

And it didn't succeed, I think, because of, say, three factors.

One, because, without telling me anything...

...and without my authorization, the General Secretary of the People's Party

at the time, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos...

GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE PEOPLE'S PARTY (1989-1999)

...had decided to reinforce the car's armor.

You see, I was in an average armored car,

which had about three layers of armor,

but I was moved to one that had five layers of armor.

So, if I'd been in the car with just three layers of armor,

this interview would not be happening.

The attack on Aznar was not planned in a day or two.

It requires surveillance, it requires taking action.

It requires analyzing escape routes, which is very important.

It requires planning and waiting.

The terrorist cell tried three times

to carry out the attack by remote control.

But the car I was in had a frequency jammer, so it didn't work.

Without the remote control...

ARTURO SORIA STREET

...they had to lay cables down on the street

and they had a terrorist on one corner, another on another corner,

and another to put the cables together.

Those thousandths of a second

when you raise your arm, another one has to raise his arm

and you have to put the wires together.

That reduced some of the precision of the explosion.

And then there's another factor that you can call what you want.

Let's call it "luck."

We were lucky, and that helped,

but I feel privileged, especially considering

that in my work, in my environment, among my friends,

I have seen so many murders and suffered so much from terrorism...

I have seen so many people suffer, that I feel privileged.

José María Aznar, president of the People's Party,

declared that his party will demand, when parliamentary activity resumes,

the full completion of sentences for ETA prisoners.

I believe that the terrorists knew perfectly,

and ETA knew perfectly,

that a year later there was going to be a general election in Spain.

And everyone was almost certain

that the People's Party would win the election.

And we had been very expressive about what our attitude was going to be

towards the terrorist group and towards terrorism.

MARGARITA GONZÁLEZ MANSILLA DIED THREE MONTHS LATER

AS A RESULT OF THE ATTACK

She was just someone who lived...

right in the house where it happened, in front of where the car was parked.

A terrible shame about her.

And for the people who were injured,

which was quite a lot, as a consequence of the explosion.

She is one of those invisible victims,

overshadowed by the focus of the main attack,

and is one of tens, perhaps hundreds,

of people who are not included

on the lists of victims of terrorism.

SOCIALIZE THE PAIN

Changing the subject, Interior Minister Juan Alberto Belloch

has informed leaders of the PP of the kidnapping of prison officer

José Antonio Ortega Lara, for which ETA has claimed responsibility.

It was 2:50. Fernando Múgica Herzog,

alongside his son, José María, had left the court of San Sebastián

and was heading to his office.

Suddenly, two men, with their faces exposed,

approached him from the back and shot him in the back of the head.

Múgica Herzog was lying in a big pool of blood.

His son, José Mari...

Former Constitutional Court President Francisco Tomás y Valiente

was murdered this morning in his office at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

A gunman from the terrorist group ETA

is said to have entered the Faculty of Law as a student

and fired three shots at point-blank range against...

Firstly, I want to say that my father's time has come,

that he has died, but they will live without dignity,

and that the aim of these murderers is simply to kill

and that is what they have achieved. Just that, but nothing more.

Evening, everybody.

The People's Party has won the election.

The former head of the fight against terrorism in Guipúzcoa,

the 36-year-old ertzaina Ramón Doral, was killed this morning

as a military vehicle passed by in Córdoba.

Engineer sergeant Miguel Ángel Ayllon, 27 years old...

Isidro Usabiaga Esnaola was shot dead by the terrorist group ETA this morning.

Prison officer José Antonio Ortega Lara

is today marking the 230th day of his abduction.

Basque businessman Cosme Delclaux was kidnapped today after finishing work

at the Zamudio Technology Park in Biscay.

Ten months after Ortega Lara's kidnapping,

the terrorist group is once again challenging the State security forces...

ETA WISHES YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

...by holding the businessman for ransom in the next few hours.

They all proved to be deceptive tricks, all of them.

They were all attempts to gain ground

and they were all an attempt to show the Spanish people

two things...

that had permeated deep into Spanish society.

One, that ETA was unstoppable.

And two, in being unstoppable, at best,

a stalemate was produced, which some called "the infinite stalemate."

And therefore,

there was no choice, but to reach a political negotiation.

And that's why a lot of what came out of it, from attempts at talks,

attempts at negotiations,

all of what were called "temperature taking,"

was establishing lines of contact with ETA that only favored the world of ETA.

When the limits of conscience are exceeded,

when killing and assassination are justified,

dialogue and negotiation cannot take place with these people.

ARREST OF POTOTO

Once we had freedom of movement in France...

...of course always with our colleagues...

CIVIL GUARD COLONEL

...and brothers in the French police,

one of the targets was Julian Atxurra Egurrola, "Pototo."

Pototo had been one of the cruelest killers of the Biscayan cell.

He had been promoted on merit.

Pototo was the head of logistics for the logistics team.

We arrested him at the Lasseube, near Pau, in '96.

We worked on this project with the CESID of the time as well.

CESID and the Civil Guard.

The logistical apparatus is one of the three pillars of ETA.

There is the military apparatus, which are the troops.

There is the political apparatus, which marks the political strategy,

and then there are those who provide the weapons, the explosives,

the false documentation, the license plates.

The logistical apparatus is vital.

Among other things, the arrest of Pototo, of Julián Atxurra,

was going to provide a piece of information, an element,

that would be useful later on

in the search for the location

of the kidnapped victims' hideouts,

primarily those of Cosme Delclaux and Ortega Lara.

When Cosme Delclaux was kidnapped,

Ortega Lara had already been kidnapped for 300 days.

So, one of the working hypotheses, among others,

is that the two may be sharing the same hideout,

that they may be kidnapped in the same place.

In Pototo's papers, we found an inscription,

"BOL," B-O-L, "BOL,"

and in brackets it says "Ortega."

You could see that he had had a contact,

but that it was a beach in Tarnos.

But "BOL," what did "BOL" mean?

We thought about it a million times, everyone thought,

analyzed, searched, searched again and looked.

And crosschecking lots of information,

a hell of a lot, by working hard, especially the Civil Guard,

in order to eventually identify "Bolinaga."

He led us to a group of three friends...

...who were all of the same profile, the same age...

...who took a lot of precautions during surveillance

and who had a warehouse, an industrial warehouse,

where we saw no industrial activity.

Every day he brought a loaf of bread.

In fact, we examined the garbage and saw that they were cooking in the warehouse.

So, it didn't make sense

that Bolinaga would go to the warehouse for lunch or dinner every day.

There was someone there.

Today marks the 500th day since the kidnapping of prison officer

José Antonio Ortega Lara.

Five hundred days without freedom and in the hands of a murderous gang.

On the 30th, Monday, in '97,

the Civil Guard comes to talk to me, along with the delegate

of the Civil Guard of the National Court.

And they tell me that Ortega Lara was kidnapped...

NATIONAL COURT JUDGE (1988-2012)

...and that they may have some indications of where he might be.

Well, then I spoke to the prosecutor and said, "Well, let's go ahead."

The Executive Committee of the People's Party is meeting,

and Jaime Mayor, the Minister of the Interior, asks me

to go out with him for a moment, and he tells me...

that the Civil Guard is now totally convinced of where Ortega Lara is

and that the operation is going to be launched that night,

and that it is going to be led by Judge Baltasar Garzón,

who was in charge of these cases at the time, in the National Court.

Of course, that night, I got a call at 2:00 in the morning,

when the operation started,

from the Basque government's Minister of the Interior, who congratulated me,

and I thought, "What are you congratulating me about,

if we haven't taken action yet?"

I called the minister and said, "Congratulations."

"Why are you saying that?" "Because one of them has been released."

"Who are you talking about, Juan Mari?" he said. "Cosme Delclaux."

And Atutxa didn't know anything about the operation

we were carrying out to free Ortega Lara,

but he told me about the release of Cosme Delclaux.

But the first call I get at 2:00 a.m. is to announce

the release of another kidnapping, of Cosme Delclaux.

And then the minister tells me, "They've... they've released him."

And I thought they had released Ortega Lara.

And he says, "No, they've released Cosme Delclaux."

So, it was a huge mix-up.

And that made me a little unhappy...

...because absolutely nothing had been said or announced

about the upcoming operation of the Civil Guard...

INTERIOR ADVISOR OF THE BASQUE GOVERNMENT (1991-1999)

...at the hideout where Ortega Lara was held.

That was the starting point

for the growing distrust

I had for Jaime Mayor Oreja.

The operation had already begun in that industrial building in Mondragón.

ARRASATE / MONDRAGÓN

I went to the sandbox near Bolinaga's warehouse,

near Mondragón. Meanwhile, all the other teams

were there arresting everyone who was targeted for arrest.

We watched all movements at the warehouse

because, although it was more or less obvious, we didn't know which of them,

if there were more, if there were less, with arrests,

if anyone could make a move. Finally, Bolinaga arrived.

So that he could record it at the scene,

I gave the order to enter the warehouse then.

The search began with Mr. Bolinaga up front,

and we began, the Civil Guard began,

we turned, turned the place upside down.

I was there, checking objects as well,

turning one over, turning another over and another.

It was two agonizing hours, thinking we had failed.

That the Civil Guard had failed when I had been told the day before

that there was a 99.5% chance that Ortega Lara was there.

There was a moment of crisis, in the sense that

we'd looked everywhere,

and I have to say, the Civil Guard was saying,

"He's here, he's got to be here."

Of course the situation at the time, I have to admit

that the certainty that the Civil Guard had was right,

but even so, I was thinking, "You have to go to Madrid now."

And there was a moment, at 6:00 in the morning,

when the minister called me and said, "We are going to abandon the search

because the judge, Mr. Garzón, has decided

that there is no point in staying here any longer."

And then, for whatever reason,

because of determination, perseverance and prudence...

ORIGINAL VIDEO AND AUDIO

...by pure chance, if you like, I said, "I just want half an hour more, please.

Please let me have another half hour."

And they granted it to me.

And in that same half hour...

...is exactly when the physical collapse of an ETA member happened...

ETA MEMBER

...on top of the place where they had Ortega Lara.

-Hold on, Vicente... -It's okay.

Come on.

Thanks to the tenacity of a captain of the Civil Guard,

who, somehow, without getting into too many details,

but there was nervousness in the atmosphere

that said, "We can't stay here much longer."

Yet at that moment, the tenacity of that civil guard,

the insistence of the Civil Guard, made them

stay in that spot until they found that machine

that was concealing the hideout.

That captain was me. And that's when...

one of the guards I was looking for saw

that two identical machines had a different floor anchorage.

We're recording.

What's this structure?

-It's an elevator. -An elevator?

Pulling it up, how far does it go?

-A meter high. -A meter?

Then let's try...

-Let's try to lift it. -But...

But?

I see a gun.

Okay, okay.

It's under control.

The desperation was, what's inside?

I ran to the outhouse where Bolinaga was,

to say, "Come over here."

Because until that moment, he had been absolutely passive.

When I asked him who was in there before he went in, he said,

"The dog,"

like he didn't care at all, with incredible cynicism.

And at that moment, I said,

"This is a tense moment, and someone may forget

that we have to do things right."

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Is there a gun inside?

-Yes. -Yes. There's a gun you can see.

Apart from that gun, is there another weapon inside?

There are other guns.

There are other guns?

Is there anyone inside, apart from the hostage?

-No. -Are you sure?

I'm sure.

What weapons are there?

Take it easy.

Hold it.

-No, don't tape it, don't film this. -Let's get him out.

No, no, no.

No camera, please.

He had a beard, he was very weak, very sensitive.

So I said, "Please turn off the lights."

Because of course, a person who has been immersed

in almost total darkness

would go outside and see a lot of light because it would blind him.

At the moment of bringing him out, Ortega Lara is a disoriented,

confused lost soul who did not understand what was happening.

He has the courage to say, "Just kill me already, damn it."

I think it gives a feeling of sadness,

of disbelief, to keep someone like that for so long.

When he went down inside the prison, as they say,

it was a disgrace.

If we hadn't found Ortega Lara...

"HOW WE KIDNAPPED ORTEGA LARA"

...we wouldn't have been able to present evidence to the judge,

the cell wouldn't have gone to jail,

and Ortega Lara would probably have died of starvation

because the cell wouldn't have risked returning to the warehouse for weeks.

It was the first time a kidnapping had been resolved

without payment of a ransom.

But also because it was a kidnapping

that was either resolved this way or the kidnapped person would be killed.

No third option.

Because what was put forward for his release

was unacceptable to the State. It was blackmail of the State, not of the person.

What the gang was asking for were issues related

to prison policy, prisoner outreach, etc.

It was immediately after the release

of José Antonio Ortega Lara that the whole building came to life,

all the fixtures came to life.

And then we saw that a round container was for making bombs,

that some tubes that were hollow were grenade launchers.

Absolutely all the material that was in the warehouse

was used as a logistical base for ETA, for the construction

of explosive devices, grenade launchers, as I said,

and other equipment for kidnapping.

KIDNAPPED FOR 532 DAYS

I want to send a heartfelt hug

to my fellow hole-dweller, José Antonio Ortega...

...and all his family.

The fact that I got home and then I found out...

KIDNAPPED FOR 232 DAYS

...that José Antonio has also been released has really made me even happier.

The sensation was oppressive, terribly oppressive.

One of the things that struck me most was the smell.

There was a smell that was still thick.

You could see the canvas bed where he slept.

And then it was impossible not to notice the inscriptions...

that Ortega Lara himself had made...

on the walls of the dungeon.

And there was a moment when I felt, I must admit,

a certain sense of panic.

The cruelty towards Ortega Lara seems so impossible to me to imagine,

especially when I see that it's done by people

from my town, from my age, from my world...

Seems to me to be clear proof that there's been a very serious sickness

that cannot otherwise be understood.

How can you talk about subjugation of an oppressed people?

How dare you speak of an oppressed people

in our town, which is a paradise of vital prosperity?

You, who would go with your friends

to a dinner party, to a wonderful dinner, to go up to the city.

How could you be treating a human being like a dog,

without any kind of mercy,

to save your oppressed people? I mean, I thought it was just so awful.

There's a terrible Egin front page, when the next day

they say that Ortega Lara is going back to prison...

ORTEGA GOES BACK TO JAIL

...saying that he's going back to prison.

It was the most vile, the most miserable, the most vicious

of anything I've read

in more than 40 years of professional journalistic life.

It was such a defeat for ETA.

And for terrorism.

And Spanish society began to change its attitudes,

and we knew that this would cause a reaction.

There is a call...

to the Ministry of Interior

with a threat,

where they say, "Long live to Basque Country free!

You are going to pay for the release of Ortega Lara."

We would like to give you a warning. Be careful...

...with such repressive intoxication.

Because drunkenness is always followed by hangover.

MEMBER OF HERRI BATASUNA

And the reaction came a few days later.

We had seen the reality of the situation, the success of the Civil Guard.

We had stopped the blackmailing of the State,

which was exactly what it was.

And that July 10th, when I was meeting with a group of journalists,

the news came pouring out,

saying that something was going on with a councilor from Ermua.

What's going on?

Any statement?

Are you related to Miguel Ángel?

-Yes. -Who are you?

What's happened?

It seems he's been kidnapped.

It seems he's been kidnapped. He's been kidnapped.

You didn't know?

FROM 1992 TO 1997 ETA TOOK THE LIVES OF 89 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