Two initiatives are under way to gain the institutional and judicial recognition of Txomin Letamendi
The Observatory for Human Rights in the Basque Country and the relatives of Txomin Letamendi, a PNV militant "murdered by torture" in Madrid in 1950, will promote new initiatives to restore his honour and obtain just moral satisfaction.
Txomin Letamendi Murua worked for Lehendakari Jose Antonio Agirre as an information service agent when he went into exile. He was first arrested in San Sebastian in 1946 and detained in Barcelona a year later.
According to the ECHR, "interrogations and torture at the time of the two arrests and subsequent imprisonment in Guadalajara caused serious physical and psychological damage and his release", although he died on 20 December 1950 in Madrid when he was in the custody of his brother Juan.
At present, Letamendi has no official confession whatsoever. In December 2024, his successors initiated a judicial process in San Sebastian to determine the responsibility of the two Francoist policemen involved in the interrogations.
Now, with a view to the 75th anniversary of the death, the family, with the impetus of the NGO Hunting Centre, has launched two initiatives. On the one hand, it has registered a request for the Basque Government to "make a personalized institutional recognition, to restore its honour and to achieve its fair moral satisfaction".
This recognition is supported by Act No. 9/2023 on the Historical and Democratic Memory of the Basque Country. The association acknowledges that this issue has not yet been regulated, but recalls that the lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, used this procedure to recognize the first Basque Government Councillor, Alfredo Espinosa Orive, on 1 April.
On the other hand, proceedings have also been initiated for judicial recognition through the form of voluntary jurisdiction regulated by the Democratic Memory Act 20/2022, which does not punish the perpetrators, but merely "judicial verification of the facts".
In the words of the ECHR, "this is the first time in the Basque Country that the path of voluntary jurisdiction has been opened, and we want to open that path with the aim of opening the door to so many other events that remain without judicial reaction today."
You might like
The Basque Parliament supports the maximum dissemination of EITB audiovisual content in Basque
This is an amendment by the PNV and the PSE-EE, after EH Bildu rejected a proposal by EITB for the free transfer of audio content and subtitles in Euskera to international streaming platforms. Contact with international platforms and operators will also be encouraged.
?fmt=webp-alpha&qlt=80)
Mayors of Errenteria, Lezo and Pasaia call for the transfer of port powers and a new model of governance
They stressed that the port of Pasaia "plays a strategic role in the Basque economy" and called for port areas to be "available to companies promoting innovative activities and new jobs".
The PP again sends a message to jeltzales after the search of Tubos Reunion: "The PNV will have to explain"
Following the search carried out bythe Civil Guard at the headquarters of Tubos Reunidos, the People's Party has once again looked to the PNV to ask it to clarify its position on corruption. The Deputy Secretary of Sectoral Coordination of the PP, Alma Ezcurra, has said that after one of the leading companies in the Basque Country has been punctuated by corruption, the jeltzales must give their opinion and explain to the citizens.
David Sanchez denies influencing hiring: "I have no power to do so."
During the trial in the Badajoz Provincial High Court, David Sánchez, brother of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, denied having influenced the recruitment, not in the position he obtained as coordinator of the Badajoz Conservatory, not even when his friend Luis Carrero was assigned the .
Esteban and Andueza downplay the differences between the two and praise the unity of the government
Despite the differences, the leaders of the two coalition parties in the main Basque institutions have stressed that they work together to "take this country forward."
UCO searches the headquarters of Tubos Reunion in Bilbao
The register is part of a confidential piece of the so-called 'Leire case', which is being prepared by order of the judge of the Audiencia Nacional Santiago Pedraz.
UCO cites PSOE as the "origin" of all payments for Leire Díez's network
In the report, agents of the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard detail some of the alleged payments and give several examples.
The Spanish Government has initiated the procedures for submitting the 2027 budgets
The head of the Spanish Government has called for "generosity, responsibility and commitment" to dialogue from the groups in Congress and has particularly addressed the independence and nationalist parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia.
The Paris Court of Appeal has ordered the surrender of Josu Urrutikoetxea to the Spanish authorities
According to judicial sources, the surrender of the former ETA leader "will not take place until the French proceedings under way have been completed" and is not a final decision, since an appeal in cassation may be lodged.
PSN, EH Bildu and Geroa Bai conclude that there was no corruption in the award of public works in Navarre
For UPN, however, the committee of inquiry set up in the Foral Parliament has made it even more apparent that there is evidence of corruption. All the groups have presented their conclusions today.