Zaragoza has commemorated this Monday the figure of Miguel Ángel Blanco on the 29th anniversary of his kidnapping and murder at the hands of the terrorist group ETA. A crime that, as the President of the Government of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, has underlined, left a legacy that "transformed fear and silence into a force to confront the murderers".
The head of the Aragonese Executive spoke at an institutional event in San Francisco square, which was joined by the president of the Cortes of Aragon, María Navarro, the mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca, representatives of the main Aragonese institutions, associations of victims of terrorism, and members of the municipal corporation.
The ceremony took place next to the monolith in memory of all victims of terrorism, a space that served to remember who, after his murder in July 1997, became one of the great references for the defense of freedom and democracy in Spain. During the event, the manifesto of the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation was read, whose motto this year is "Your legacy commits us", and subsequently a floral offering was carried out.
"The murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco did not intimidate society. On the contrary. It transformed fear and silence into strength to confront the murderers. It shed light on how to overcome hatred with peaceful resistance. And it concentrated under the power of democracy a society that believed more than ever in freedom against barbarism," Azcón maintained during his speech.
In the same vein, the mayor Natalia Chueca underlined that "Miguel Ángel Blanco became a symbol of the freedom of an entire nation" and stressed that his kidnapping and murder "marked a before and after in the recent history of our country".
Azcón recalled that ETA murdered 852 people —16 of them in Aragon—, left more than 2,600 injured, and caused irreparable damage to thousands of Spanish families.
Likewise, he emphasized that "from the Government of Aragon we will do everything possible so that the memory of Miguel Ángel and that of the rest of the victims continues to be present. So that no one forgets them and so that new generations know their history and their legacy".
In that same direction, Chueca has insisted that this message implies a shared responsibility to safeguard the memory of the victims of terrorism. "It commits us. It obliges us not to look the other way. It demands that we remain vigilant against lies and forgetfulness," she stated, emphasizing that "what happened in that July of 1997 was not an inevitable tragedy, but a crime of infinite cruelty," after the 48 hours of kidnapping with which ETA tried to break the Spanish democracy.
The mayoress has reiterated that the priority of institutions must be to prevent the passage of time from erasing the memory of the victims. For this reason, she has made a special appeal to young people so that they know who Miguel Ángel Blanco was and why he was murdered.
"He was a normal 29-year-old boy, a hardworking and family man whose future ETA snatched away simply for thinking differently and wanting to work for his town," she recalled. For this reason, she has argued that new generations must understand that Miguel Ángel Blanco was murdered for defending the freedom and democratic values that Spanish society enjoys today.
In this institutional event, at which representatives from PSOE and Vox were also present, both Azcón and Chueca took advantage of their speeches to launch political reproaches to the Government of Spain for relying on Bildu and to the socialists for endorsing that agreement.
Azcón has warned that "we must not tolerate those who continue to justify the ETA barbarity conditioning decisions in our institutions, putting at risk the principles and values on which our democracy is based, or trying to intimidate the victims again."
For her part, Natalia Chueca has rejected any attempt to whitewash terrorism or relegate its victims to oblivion. In her speech, she censured that those who have never condemned ETA's crimes maintain a key role in national politics and has described it as "a political and moral indignity" that EH Bildu continues to be a preferred partner of the Government of Spain, also lamenting the silence of the Socialist Party in the face of this situation.
"Zaragoza knows the cruel claw of terrorism well"
The mayoress has also stressed that Zaragoza knows "the cruel claw of terrorism well" and has reiterated the city's commitment to the truth, memory, justice, and dignity of all victims.
The president has recalled that more than 300 murders committed by ETA remain unclarified and has reiterated the obligation to advance in the clarification of those crimes out of respect for the victims and their families.
In the final part of his speech, he has conveyed the City Council's support for the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation and has assured that "Zaragoza does not forget the victims of terrorism." "Our city suffered and cried for Miguel Ángel Blanco as one cries for a loved one, and that memory is passed down from generation to generation in an non-negotiable way," he pointed out.
Chueca has closed the event by vindicating the civic movement that emerged after the murder of the councilman from Ermua: "The Spirit of Ermua was not a fad, but a commitment to justice, to freedom, and to the dignity of the victims of terrorism." A commitment that, he has emphasized, remains fully alive almost three decades later because, as the manifesto read during the ceremony states, "your legacy commits us."