‘Pazman’ was a poster launched by the Basque radical left in 1989. Under the slogan ‘Pazman, the peacemaker’ the figure of a Batman with a tricorn hat appeared as a parody of the superhero film. That mocking poster, one of many in the ETA environment against the Civil Guard, has inspired Colonel José Ángel, Coque, Astillero (Equatorial Guinea, 55 years old) to write ‘Pazman’ (Roca Editorial), a story between reality and fiction based on his experience as a young lieutenant of the Benemérita in the Basque Country in the early 90s, when they were derogatorily called ‘txakurras’ (dogs in Basque).
Astillero, who has dedicated a good part of his career to the fight against terrorism, intelligence and international police cooperation, is currently head of the Department of Coasts and Borders of the Civil Guard Headquarters. In ‘Pazman’ he vindicates the role of the Security Forces and Corps in the final defeat of ETA. It is his first book and he presented it this past Monday in Madrid.
-In ‘Pazman’ you tell the story of Manel Queralt, a young lieutenant of the Civil Guard in the Basque Country in the 90s, a transcript of yourself. What did you experience in Euskadi in those years?
-Certainly, it is a transcript of me, but with nuances. ‘Pazman’ is based on a reality, the arrival to the Basque Country of a young lieutenant of the Civil Guard, which is me. From there the autobiographical material becomes impregnated with fiction. If I had to get wet, I would say that ‘Pazman’ starts with 90% reality and 10% fiction and by the end those percentages have been reversed. What I experienced in those years cannot be summarized in a few lines, not even in a book. But I will tell you that I lived through hard times and met extraordinary people. And I stay with that, with the people.
-Many of the 210 civil guards murdered by ETA were in the Basque Country. Did he live in fear?
-The civil guards, the police, the military, those who simply did not think like ETA, we were all targets of the gang. Each one reacted in a different way. There were those who lived in fear, they say that fear is free, right? And there were those who didn’t. What did constitute a common denominator were precautions, daily precautions. Looking at the underside of the car, covering your back in public places, always carrying your gun… Psychologically, it burned, it was stressful.
-He says in the book that he was in an operational group to which an “indomitable handful of young civil guards who were not used to obeying, only doing what they must” belonged to. Did you disobey any orders?
-Orders were never disobeyed. In the Civil Guard we are all there because we want to, and we all know the rules of the game: orders must be followed; Although one sometimes does not share them, they are internalized and fulfilled as if they were one’s own.
“As long as the victims are not apologized for and crimes remain unsolved, we will not have turned the page”
-In the 70s and 80s, the funerals of the civil guards murdered in the Basque Country were held in the purest secrecy, almost in secret, before they were transferred to their towns in Extremadura, Castilla or Andalusia. In the 90s they began to be supported somewhat more but I don’t know if it was enough… did they feel the support or affection of Basque society?
-I attended several funerals of colleagues and I wouldn’t dare say that we received a lot of affection from society, but it was understandable; Going to the funeral of a ‘txakurra’ meant being marked, ETA informants were everywhere. However, my colleagues who had been there for more years told me that things were changing for the better, that the Basques were beginning to support us; Certainly, they had worse references from when the guards and police officers were not even given a funeral… As a sad anecdote, I will tell you that once, to celebrate the patron saint of the Civil Guard, we had to bring a priest from Santander. No priest in the region had seen fit to celebrate mass in our barracks.
-Justice ended up demonstrating the practice of torture of suspected members of ETA in the Civil Guard barracks in the Basque Country, especially in the 1980s… do you think that that slab has weighed on the image of the Benemérita, tarnishing everything that was left by the way in his fight against terrorism?
-Even though it is fiction, ‘Pazman’ does not shy away from that thorny topic. ETA had put in place a perfectly designed machinery to systematically report mistreatment; there are documents and sentences that support this. And that had an impact, no doubt, because they denounced you no matter what, it was unbearable, I went through that situation myself. Being under that constant social and media suspicion was not pleasant, but one ended up assuming it as part of his job. That that was a loss for the institution? Justice did its job and in very few cases these criminal practices were confirmed. And those responsible paid for it. Which in no way should cloud the commitment to freedom and respect for the law that the vast majority of civil guards demonstrate.
«I have returned to the Basque Country and everything exudes more freedom»
-Why were there clashes with the National Police? Did they compete in anti-terrorist operations?
-I would not talk about clashes, nor about clashes, it was more a legitimate competition between two Corps competing to catch a gang of criminals that came to put democracy in check. We pursued, therefore, the same goal, to defend the law and our framework of rights and freedoms. I would not reproach anything of what we did in that effort to stop commandos, I would rather point to the ineffectiveness of the coordination mechanisms and political interference. In any case, we closed ranks against the enemy, which was ETA, and we mourned the dead of the other Corps as if they were our own.
-Could you have written ‘Pazman’ with ETA murdering?
-‘Pazman’ would not make sense with ETA still killing. He would not have been able to write about the recent grief of people who lost loved ones so brutally. From the deepest respect for the victims, it was only when time had passed for the wounds to begin to heal that I thought it appropriate to write ‘Pazman’. But don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that the page has been turned. As long as the victims are not apologized for and crimes remain unsolved, we will not have turned the page. Without forgiveness and without justice, do we really expect widows, orphans or parents without children to overcome their traumas? There will be those who have a very thick skin and will interestedly turn the page, the rest of us will not do so until sincere reparation for the victims’ pain.
The “unwanted” son of ‘Patria’
-What encouraged you to write this book?
-I will confess something that may not be socially correct, but among my defects is practicing sincerity. When ‘Patria’ was published in 2016, I remember how everyone was talking about that novel; and from the comments I heard here and there, I seemed to understand that it was about the suffering that ETA inflicted on the Basque people. One day I asked a classmate who had read it: Don’t we go out then? ‘No, it’s just about the Basques,’ he replied. Then I told myself that it was not possible that we, those of us who had put so many dead, did not appear in those six hundred or so pages. And I decided to write a work that vindicated us. I am not at all criticizing Fernando Aramburu’s magnificent novel, he wrote the book he wanted to write. I wrote mine. So, if you were looking for a headline, you already found it: ‘Pazman’ is the unwanted son of ‘Patria’.
-Was ETA defeated by the police, politics, society… all a little bit? Why did it take so long to get them to stop killing and disband?
-It was undoubtedly a combination of factors. Society changed, as did the political class, that was a fundamental step. But, tactically, ETA was defeated by the Security Forces and Corps. Together, we achieved strategic paralysis. Txomin Iturbe Abasalo predicted it in the mid-eighties: ‘The commandos will fall, the zulos will fall, the leadership will fall and we will no longer have anything to negotiate.’ That’s exactly what happened.
-What memories do you have of the Basque Country and its people? He’s back?
-I have recently returned and I have found a very different Basque Country. You can breathe more freedom, you can feel it in the streets, in the bars, in the restaurants. And the good friends from then are still there; I don’t want to pass judgment lightly, I don’t know what your day-to-day life is like, but, from the outset, I insist that everything exudes more freedom. That’s good news.
-The Civil Guard has been one of the institutions most valued by Spaniards for years, according to the CIS. Why do you think this is so?
-That should be answered by the Spanish, but I would say that, basically, it is because we can be trusted.
-And if ETA returned to arms, what?
-I hope it never happens. But, if it happened, we would do our duty again.
#celebrate #patron #saint #bring #priest #Santander