Gonzalez and Aznar paid to countries in Africa and Latin America in exchange for control of ETA deported

Danilo Albin

Público.es

The expulsions began to occur in 1984 following an agreement reached between the governments of Spain and France. Today, twenty people are in a "legal limbo", say from the Social Forum. Last weekend the situation was assessed at a meeting in Irun.

There are things that are arranged with money. For example, the fate of dozens of Basque citizens accused terrorist back in the eighties, a time when the GAL did justice into their own hands and killed the suspects. In exchange for generous "development aid", several African and Latin American countries became the target of ETA members who were deported by the agreement reached by the governments of Felipe González and François Mitterrand in 1984. Today, 44 years later, twenty of them are looking for legal ways to return to Euskadi.

Their stories were very present on Friday and Saturday in the border town of Irun, where the  Social Forum Permanente , an organization dedicated to the search for agreement on the new scenario open peace in the Basque Country, analyzed possible solutions for those still up the group of deportees.Throughout the two days, criminal lawyers, international experts and even former deportees participated in various roundtables.

"We are talking about people who have suspended their civil and political rights , " he told  Public journalist and spokesman for the Social Forum, Teresa Toda, who considered that the situation of all "has been quite invisible until now." However, things are changing in Euskadi:  more than six years ago that left ETA violence last April handed over the weapons and everything indicates that in the coming months will produce its final closure.  In this context, Toda argues that before a "totally different" situation must be sought "creative solutions" for these cases.In other words, it suggests that the Spanish government should disable "policy exception" applied against members of ETA,

To understand this matter must go back to July 1983. It was then that the GAL, in its founding charter, placed in their sights "French interests in Europe" by the refusal of his government to extradite suspects of belonging to ETA who were in their territory. "The deportations of members of ETA began in 1984, when France agreed to collaborate for the first time in the fight against terrorism in Spain. As they were not sure of recent Spanish democracy was offered the deal to the Spanish government to deport the Basques instead of extraditing, to which Spain was delighted , "says historian  Susana Panisello Sabate in a report published in the journal Current History Association in 2014.

La investigadora destaca que esa medida "fue usada de forma reiterada entre 1984 y 1990", periodo en el que fueron deportadas "unas setenta personas a diez países diferentes". Los destinos se repartieron entre América Latina (Panamá, Ecuador, República Dominicana, Cuba y Venezuela) y África (Cabo Verde, Gabón, Argelia, Sao Tomé y Togo). "El envío más numeroso se produjo como consecuencia del final de las conversaciones de paz entre ETA y el gobierno español que tuvieron lugar en 1989 en Argel", indica. A raíz del fracaso de aquel proceso de diálogo, España logró que Argelia enviara a un buen número de miembros de la organización armada –"la mayoría expulsados de Francia en 1987", recuerda Panisello- a República Dominicana y Cabo Verde.

A cambio de recibir a los deportados, los gobiernos de turno en los países de acogida recibieron varios millones en concepto de créditos del Fondo de Ayuda al Desarrollo (FAD). "Desde 1977, año en que se crearon los FAD, hasta 1985, año en que se creó la Secretaría de Estado de cooperación Internacional que regulaba las concesiones de dichos créditos, España no tuvo que dar ninguna explicación" sobre qué países recibían esas ayudas, apunta la investigadora en su informe.

His study contains another telling statistic: between 1977 and 2002, eight of the ten countries hosting deportees were part of the list of recipients of these loans. The author cites a paper by Mariano González and José María larru for the Complutense Institute of International Studies, in which the credits received by countries like Algeria (376.706 million euros), Ecuador (296,260 million) or Venezuela is encrypted (200,103,000 ) over that period.  While Spain inject that money, governments who received it were responsible for maintaining controlled ETA members who were in their respective territories.

"Legal Limbo"

However, the money has not been enough to solve the situation of a number of deportees. "Over the years they deportations enquistaron and from the various Spanish governments did not know how tosolve them . So much so that today,  there are still Basques who were expelled to third countries in the eighties remaining in their places of deportation waiting for a collective resolution that Spain has ever faced , "wrote Panisello.

While the details of the act hurries to begin Friday in Irun, All Teresa reinforces this thesis. "The deportees were in those countries in a legal limbo because they were political and administrative agreements between governments, but without a legal basis," he recalled. Today, says spokeswoman Social Forum, "there are still a dozen people who, because they had no legal status, neither has managed roles in those countries."

The return of escapees

Also in Irun meeting it was also discussed the so-called "runaway" of ETA and its possible return to Euskadi. "Some have gone back in recent years because they no longer had cases in the High Court, but there is still a group of people that continues in that situation, and must be assessed as facing this issue," Every said.

On 2 October, the Permanent Social Forum held a "preparatory meeting" with the so - called  Collective of Political Huidos Vascos (EIPK, for its acronym in Basque), whose spokesman, Jon Irazola, willparticipate in the conference this Friday and Saturday. At the previous meeting, the EIPK made a "ray of the situation": " This is a group made up ofbetween 85 and 100 people , of which 20 are in situations deportation Most have more than 60 years and enough.. they are suffering from more or less serious diseases , "he recalled from the Forum in the notice sent to the act of Irun.

They also reported that the fugitives and deportees "are in a situation of insecurity, since their lawyers can not access their legal dossiers on the Audiencia Nacional". Speaking to  Public , All forward what are some of these obstacles. "There are cases that would already be prescribed and the persons concerned could return, but the Audiencia decrees judice to hinder the work of his lawyers , " he said. The solution will not be easy.

Source:  http://www.publico.es/politica/pais-vasco-gonzalez-aznar-pagaron-millones-paises-america-latina-africa-cambio-controlar-deportados-eta.html