On Sunday, November 12 of last year, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets to protest against the amnesty. The major capitals of Spain hosted rallies against the PSOE pacts with the separatist parties. Squares in all cities hosted massive demonstrations but In one municipality in Spain there were only ten: the ten righteous of Leiza.
In Navarra, already close to the borders with the Basque Country, A dozen Spaniards demonstrated, leaving for history the iconic image of a small group in favor of the law in a municipality opposed to it. In the plaza of the Navarrese municipality they gathered then and these days they have done so in memory of Miguel Ángel González and David Pérez, the civil guards murdered in Barbate.
In a small corner of Leiza the ten just sang The Bridegroom of Death and with banners demanded the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Barely 2,800 inhabitants make up the town that for years has become the best fortress in EH Bildu. The nationalist party won the last municipal elections with more than 70% of the votes, and now the heirs of ETA have 9 of 11 councilors.
Leiza, however, already had a relationship with the terrorist group ETA. It was not only birthplace of some gunmen, but also starred in the murder of three of his neighbors. The ETA members killed Gregorio Hernández Corchete, a neighbor hit by a blast, in the streets of this Navarrese town; José Javier Múgica Astibia, UPN councilor murdered in 2001; and Juan Carlos Beiro, civil guard and father of two children murdered by a bomb in 2002.
Last Tuesday the ten fair ones from Leiza were eight, under the watchful eye of their neighbors in Bildu. After singing the military anthem, as a tribute to the fallen, they shouted a loud “Long live Spain!” and “Long live the Civil Guard!” in Leiza. Some deafening words in the face of the silence of the rest of the town. One of them is Silvestre Zubitur, who for decades has been a town councilor for UPN and is now just one of the ten righteous of Leiza.
Their bravery has spread across social networks and the writer Arturo Pérez Reverte himself used his personal account to defend these ten righteous people: «When a guiri asks me what the Spanish expression means “have balls”I will show you this photo of the ten men and women of Leiza, Navarra: a town of 3,000 inhabitants where half vote for Bildu.
His bravery, despite everything, is explained in every word: one of the ten righteous people of Leiza declared a few days ago the “terrible indignation” he felt at Marlaska’s silence and the complicity of the authorities after the murder of the two civil guards in Cádiz: “What happened in Barbate has been the culmination”, since “the glass is more than full”, they settled then.
Convinced that “you cannot look the other way, there is no right,” they demand better conditions for the Benemérita. The abandonment of functions of the Ministry of the Interior is scandalous to them, and precisely for this reason they ask themselves “where is the security in that job?” “They are defending us!” Outraged and full of sadness, they explain that The Civil Guard defends us all, and they know it well. Because it is not easy to be one of the ten righteous people of Leiza.
