FUNDACIÓN VÍCTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO 96 - ENGLISH

44 MIGUEL ÁNGEL BLANCO FOUNDATION ASSOCIATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS MANIFESTO T wenty-nine years have passed. The same age Miguel Ángel Blanco was when ETA kidnapped and murde- red him. A young man from Ermua, a Po- pular Party councillor, on his way to work one 10 July when the terrorist organisation decided to place a 48-hour deadline on his life, on his future. His murderers have names: Javier Gar- cía Gaztelu, Txapote; Irantzu Gallaste- gui; and José Luis Geresta. We will not forget them. Nor will we forget what happened in the streets. Around two and a half million Spa- niards took part in demonstrations called across Spain during those days. In Bilbao, half a million people marched together: the largest demonstration against ETA in his- tory. They shouted: “Without guns, you are nothing.” They drew the most important line in our recent history: the line separating demo- crats from terrorists. And they held it with dignity, without giving in. From that civic resistance came something no terrorist had foreseen. The Spirit of Er- mua was born. And that spirit is Miguel Ángel Blanco’s legacy. A legacy that does not belong to the past. A legacy that speaks directly to every one of us today. A LEGACY THAT BINDS US It binds us to defend the truth of what ha- ppened. ETA was a terrorist organisation that, for more than fifty years, murdered, kidnapped, extorted and persecuted those who thought differently. For too many years, people in Spain lived singled out, guarded and threatened. Peo- ple who had to check beneath their cars every morning or change their children’s routines. Meanwhile, terrorists decided who deser- ved to live and who should die. ETA was defeated through the sacrifice of the state security forces, the independence of the judiciary and the civic resistance of Spanish society. But it was also defeated by thousands of anonymous people who will never make headlines or appear in history books. Peo- ple who carried on despite fear. Threa- tened councillors. Targeted journalists. Teachers, judges, businesspeople, police officers, neighbours and ordinary citi-