FACTS

- In 1976, aged 23, once the trade unions were legalised, she decided to join CCOO. When her membership became known, she started to become the victim of the first attacks from the radical nationalist environment. She was verbally abused, threatened and attacked, and her house was attacked with Molotov cocktails.

- In October 2000, although didn’t hold any office, her home was attacked with Molotov cocktails. One of them fell inside starting a fire one metre from her bed.

- On June 18, 2005, the same day that ETA announced that it was suspending its attacks against elected PP and PSE-EE officials, someone rang the doorbell at her home and shouted: “Bitch, you’re not going to get away”.

- November 10, 2006, after being elected council member in Azpeitia, someone painted the wall of her house, between one and three o’clock in the afternoon, leaving a message: “Manoli, lotu zure txakurrak” (Manoli, keep your dogs on a leash), referring to her bodyguards. Twenty days later, while she was in the town hall, someone went up to one of her bodyguards and said: “you’re next”, and then added: “You, the blonde and Manoli are next.” “The Blonde” is another bodyguard that accompanies her.

- On 2 August of that year she was threatened once again.

- In May 2007, threatening messages were painted in the village where she lived.

- In December 2007, radicals threw paint at her house.

- On February 9, 2009, a target with a bull’s eye was painted on the wall of her home.

- February 23, 2009, her house was attacked with paint cans. That same day a bomb exploded at the PSE-EE headquarters in Lazkao.

- On December 5, 2009 a group of 16 hooded people, wearing T-shirts from declared terrorist organisations, kneel in front of her house and shout pro-ETA slogans, accusing her of being responsible for the arrests of ETA members. Previously, they had been marching through the town shouting accusations against her. The police did not intervene to stop this.

- On May 13, 2010 threatening massages were painted on her house.

- She is unable to remember the countless times her house has been attacked or the number of messages that have been painted on it.

CONSEQUENCES:

“I don’t know whether the problems are due to my political office. What I do know is that they started when I was 23 years old, when in my town, Azpeitia, I was branded a supporter of Spain for having joined a non-nationalist trade union. That’s when the harassment began”. “I was insulted and threatened in the town because the trade unions had just been legalised and I belonged to CCOO; and that for them was being in favour of Spain”.

“This was the cause of my first arguments with them because they said I was not Basque. I told them I had been born here. I don’t understand why only they can decide who is Basque and who isn’t”.

“When the first attacks happened I didn’t hold any type of political office. I don’t know the reason, they were never explained. When the first attack happened, I had been expecting it because I knew it would happen. You see how they look at you, how they insult you. I’ve seen how they threaten you over the years, even during the truce”.

“It’s much more convenient to pretend you have seen nothing and look the other way. I did what I thought I had to do and that caused problems with my daughter. It was difficult for my daughter, when she was 13 or 14, to understand me.  It was hard to talk to her. She didn’t understand. She was born here and since she was little they would insult her by saying that her mother was Spanish. Many things that are difficult to explain have happened, and this is something you have to go through to understand. There’s a lot to teach kids here when they’re young. Today my daughter appreciates what I am doing”.

“They have thrown Molotov cocktails at me at least six times. I’ve had loads of graffiti and, of course they also reject my guards and threaten them”.

“There are all kinds of people in the town. Some time ago things began to change a little and now, although nobody says anything, I see some glances of complicity. Even, on one of the occasions they attacked my house, a neighbour who saw the attack rebuked the perpetrators. However, I’m frightened to greet or stop to talk to those people because they may be singled out”.

“Today, my situation is very similar to that which I lived in the past. Things seem to happen again and again. The latest attack was on 5 December. Sixteen hooded people wearing T-shirts with “Independentzia” written on them knelt in front of my house, accusing me of being responsible for sending ETA members to prison. They had first walked around town chanting slogans against me. The police didn’t intervene to prevent this, but they called me to tell me not to look out of the window. Luckily, I was out of the Basque country and there was nobody at home”.

“My life is not normal. Every day I leave my house and go to a different place for a cup of coffee with my bodyguards and then to buy the newspaper. Then I have to leave my town to do the normal things in life, like shopping. And, of course, I never see my family in the town, even though we all live in the same place. We are eleven brothers and sisters, each different from the other, but we support each other”.

“When I leave the Basque Country I feel freer. But when I want to relax, it’s not very different than when I’m here; then I go with my bodyguards several miles from where I live, into the mountains, and walk along for a while”.

“We don’t have to change, they have to change. They should get rid of that hatred. I can’t understand why this generation between 20 and 30 years of age still sees us like that. And I see it, because to display hatred you don’t need to talk.  I do not know where they have got it from. That hatred frightens me, but it is also very sad, because they can’t look at you in the eye. But I still look at them in the eye when they stand in front of my house. They hate everything that is not theirs, they can’t see beyond that”.

“The situation is the same as before the truce. I feel observed, as before, and they will act as soon as they can”.

“I do not expect any acknowledgement, I only expect dignity and I just hope we are treated like people, not like a sack of potatoes. Because that’s how I feel I am being treated. We are a mere commodity and for safety reasons we have to live like this, as if we were objects”.

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