The mayor of Oviedo, Alfredo Canteli, has emphasized this Thursday the importance of remembering Miguel Ángel Blanco, a councilor from the PP who was murdered by ETA 28 years ago, and has called for not forgetting «the sadness» and the «barbarity» of the event. He made these remarks after a tribute ceremony, where he lamented that «those who never apologized or did anything for reconciliation» are part of the Spanish government, referring to EH Bildu.
During the institutional event held on the Oviedo street named after the councilor murdered by ETA in July 1997, and attended by members of the municipal corporation, Canteli recalled how he felt when he heard the news: «We were leaving home to go to the beach. We all cried, many people cried.» For the mayor, this was a «very sad» crime.
In his statement to the media, Canteli added that the ETA perpetrators «never stopped killing» for decades and criticized that they «are still there, disguised through Bildu.»
28 YEARS SINCE THE MURDER OF MIGUEL ÁNGEL BLANCO
On July 10, 1997, the terrorist group ETA kidnapped Miguel Ángel Blanco, a councilor from the PP in Ermua, and issued an ultimatum to the government to move the organization’s prisoners to the Basque Country. After 48 hours of captivity, they took him from his hiding place, brought him to a wooded area in Lasarte, and shot him twice in the head. He died hours later, on July 13, at the age of 29.
His murder sparked an unprecedented wave of citizen mobilization across the country. Since then, «the social and political significance of Miguel Ángel Blanco is concrete and concentrated in the principles of civilization and the rule of law,» as stated in the manifesto of the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation, read by the deputy mayor, Mario Arias.
