The dissidence challenges Otegi with an 'ongi etorri' to the last released ETA inmate

The leader of Sortu, Arnaldo Otegi, upon his arrival at the EH Bildu headquarters in San Sebastián for a press conference held this Friday.Nagore Iraola (Europa Press)

The gesture less than a month ago by the ETA prisoner collective (EPPK, in its Basque acronym) to demand the end of the public tributes that the inmates of the terrorist gang receive when they are released, known as

, received on Thursday a jug of cold water with the diffusion of the images of the reception that dozens of people gave in Pamplona to Ignacio Etxeberria Martín, alias

, convicted of six murders. Etxeberria is, in fact, the first member of the organization to leave prison after that statement, in which the EPPK recognized that this type of act causes "pain" to victims of terrorism. In the document he asked that, "henceforth", they be done only in private spaces and "between relatives."

The reactions to the images have not been long in coming. The Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) has denounced the celebration of the

: “We did not

their words when they announced the end of the tributes to ETA. Time has proved us right. Not a month have they endured without humiliating the victims, "AVT pointed out on its Twitter profile. Sortu, the party led by Arnaldo Otegi and part of EH Bildu, has released a statement in which it stands apart from the act and accuses its promoters of acting "against the will" of the EPPK. Basque political sources agree that to dissent from the left

and, specifically, to ATA (Amnesty and Freedom, in Basque), one of the groups that emerged after the announcement of the terrorist organization to end the violence, as the organizers of the reception.

The broadcast images of the

, which takes place in the old town of the Navarran capital, last just over a minute and show the arrival of Etxeberria accompanied by flares and firecrackers.

Several of the attendees carry flags with the ATA symbol and the slogan "A

(total amnesty), which Sortu has not used in his mobilizations for a long time.

The ETA man himself carries one of these flags, along with one from Navarra, which he leaves to embrace a woman who hands him a bouquet of flowers amid applause and shouts of encouragement from the attendees.

Etxeberria, who had left the El Dueso (Cantabria) prison a few hours earlier, was part of the EPPK and, therefore, had participated in the internal debate that, over two years, had led to the November statement.

Of the 204 inmates in the gang, fewer than a dozen openly opposed it.

The sources agree that the use of this symbolism reveals that after the

is dissent on the left

, formed by a multitude of heterogeneous groups that arise, merge, split and disappear or survive with little impact, among which are, in addition to ATA, Ibil, GKS or Jardun. These groups often use prisoners as their main argument to attract those who disagree with ETA's decision to disband. In fact, the biggest spike in street violence since the dissolution of ETA occurred in May last year, encouraged by these groups during the hunger strike of prisoner Patxi Ruiz, one of the ETA inmates opposed to the end of the violence. Then, there were graffiti at the headquarters of the PNV and the PSE, the burning of an ATM and the throwing of paint at the home of the socialist leader Idoia Mendia.

Mortadelo, who until now was not considered aligned with the toughest sector of ETA prisoners, was convicted as the material author of both the attack committed on February 6, 1992 in Madrid against an Army van in which five people died Like the placement of the limpet bomb that a month later cost the life of the son of a military man. For both attacks, he accumulated sentences totaling 487 years in prison. Arrested in France in February 1996, the Paris authorities handed him over to the Spanish courts five years later after serving a sentence in that country for belonging to a terrorist organization. Last January, and within the policy of the Ministry of the Interior to bring ETA inmates to prisons closer to the Basque Country,Penitentiary Institutions transferred him from Topas prison (Salamanca) to the Cantabrian prison of El Dueso, from which he was released on Thursday.