Basque pro-independence party EH Bildu has this Monday called for former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez to appear before the country's Congress after the CIA declassified a report claiming that the former Socialist leader gave his consent to creating the GAL terrorist group in the 1980s.
In addition, the party called for the appearance of interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, "to report to the chamber on the facts relating to state terrorism during the governments of Felipe González after learning of the declassified CIA documents".
Parliamentary request from EH Bildu asking for former PM González and current interior minister Marlaska to appear before Congress on the GAL death squads issue.
"Given the seriousness of this information, Euskal Herria Bildu will push for the Congress and the Senate to create separate commissions of inquiry to resolve the political responsibilities and shed light on the facts that confirm the recently declassified and revealed CIA documents," said a statement by the left-wing pro-independence Basque party.
The declassified report by the US intelligence agency stated that "Felipe González has agreed to create a group of mercenaries to fight terrorists outside the law." It commented that the Spanish government at the time, led by González, "seems determined to adopt an unorthodox strategy in relation to ETA."
The state-backed GAL (Antiterrorist Liberation Groups) carried out assassinations in the mid-1980s, mostly targetting suspected members of the Basque terrorist group ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty), which was itself responsible for hundreds of deaths between the 1960s and the 2000s. ETA began a ceasefire in 2010 and dissolved in 2018.
"Everything must be brought to light"
Diana Riba, MEP for the Catalan pro-independence party ERC, also called for an investigation into the actions studied by the declassified CIA reports: "The atrocities of state governments must be investigated at any time in history," she said
Speaking this Monday, Riba demanded that "everything necessary" be brought to light and that "apologies" be made. "Without historical memory, we cannot move forward democratically in this Europe that defends human rights," Riba declared.
Meanwhile, Eva Granados, spokesperson for the PSC, Catalan branch of the governing Socialists, also had a comment. "From the PSC, we don't give any credibility to this information," she said.