“Kaixo, sincere greetings. It is not easy to do it in writing, but we would like to take one more step on the path we have walked a long time ago. With these words in 2011, Carmen Guisasola, the former leader of ETA, led a letter addressed to Rose Rodero, the widow of Major Ertzaintz and PNV militant Josebo Goikoetxea, murdered by ETA in 1993. Guisasola had nothing to do with it. Attack. Shortly after sending the letter, the two women attended the first restorative meeting in 2013 between the victim and the gang member in a public square, in Bilbao’s Plaza de la Convivencia, next to the Isozaki Towers. Barely two years had passed since the end of the violence, and five years remained until the dissolution of ETA. Ten years later, Rodero and Guisasola embraced again on the same stage at an event marking the 30th anniversary of Goikoetxea’s murder.
Guisasola was one of the members of the “via nanclares”, a group of prisoners who rebelled against the directives of the management and opened the way to try to alleviate the indescribable pain caused to the families of the victims. These efforts to meet Roder, the widow of Goikoetxea and another victim, Cristina Sagarzazu, the widow of Montxo Doral, also of Ertzaina, were attended by a tribute to Santiago Brouard, politician and HB activist murdered by GAL.
This gesture motivated Guisasola to write the letter from prison. In the letter, he acknowledged the importance of the step the two brave women had taken. “Your attitude seemed very important to us. It moved us and at the same time reaffirmed the necessity of concrete steps. We have to contribute something to close a stage that has been very painful” and that has left “such sectarian mentalities that are a problem in the restoration of normalized coexistence”. Guisasola was expelled from the band in 1998.
“Historical Encounter”
The victim and the perpetrator met in public two years later, in 2013, in Bilbao’s Plaza de la Convivencia. The meeting had a huge symbolic value. “Ten years ago, a historic meeting was held in the same place,” Nerea Melgosa, head of the Basque Government’s Memory, recalled Saturday’s tribute. “For the first time in a public space, the victim – Rosa Rodero – and the perpetrator – Carmen Guisasola – joined in an embrace as a symbol of reconciliation for a future based on coexistence and respect. “We are pleased that this meeting has been renewed on the occasion of this 30th anniversary of the murder of Joseba Goikoetxea,” the leader said.
The event was organized by relatives of Goikoetxea. In addition to Guisasolo, Joseba Urrusolo Sistiaga, an ETA prisoner and also a recognized member of the ‘via nanclares’, also took part. The event was also attended by the Deputy Minister for Human Rights, Memory and Cooperation José Antonio Rodríguez Ranz; Counselor for Victim Care, Enrike Ullibarriaran; and Minister of Public Administration and Self-Government of the Basque Government, Olatz Garamendi. Among others, EBB President Andoni Ortuzar took part.