Mario Onaindia (Bilbao, 1948-Vitoria, 2003) observed from the distance of his sempiternal shyness to Ramon Jauregui, Fernando Buesa and, above all, to Felipe González when together, the four of them, toured the gardens of La Moncloa palace in November 1994. Sentenced to death by a Franco court in the process of Burgos, Onaindia starred in an exciting political and vital career that, twenty years after his death, constitutes a magnet for historians and politicians. «No matter how long I live, I will never forget the figure and personality of Mario Onaindia; He belongs to that type of person who has had a very intense life, full of experiences that sometimes appear, and can be, as contradictory, but with a very strong inner coherence”, acknowledged, just months after his death, the former president and PSOE leader Felipe González.
Two decades after González’s recognition, the figure of Mario Onaindia shines again in a tense socio-political context. “Mario Onaindia’s legacy is unknown and has been discredited,” warns Eduardo ‘Teo’ Uriarte directly. Uriarte’s confession – Onaindía’s partner and friend for more than thirty years – forces reflection and complements the multiple recognitions that, like González’s, were made public after the death of the Basque intellectual. Because the same Mario Onaindia who walked with González, Jaúregui and Buesa through the gardens of La Moncloa in 1994 was also the one who posed together in September 2001 with Carmen Gurruchaga and the Minister of the Interior Angel Acebes during the presentation of the book written by the Basque journalist, Los jefes de ETA.
«The meeting of the Transition is the germ of politics and now it is discredited because it means surrender; populism is doctrinaire and nationalisms are always doctrinaire. The experience of the generation of the Transition made it easier for us to reach an agreement in the face of the no is no that marks politics now, “says Uriarte, one of the speakers who will review Onaindia’s political, literary and social trajectory next September . The Foundation chaired by Esozi Leturiondo, the widow of Onaindia, will analyze during three days the “very intense life” of the young Basque who, at just 19 years old, was a member of ETA and was sentenced to death by the terrorist group for promoting, together with Juan Maria Bandres and the minister Juan Jose Roson the dissolution of ETA politico-military.
Teo Uriarte, Roberto Lertxundi, Ramón Jáuregui, Luis R. Aizpeolea, Andrés Urrutia, Jon Juariti, Felipe Juaristi, Belén Altuna, Manu Gojenola, Juan Pablo Fusi, Txema Portillo and Carmen Iglesias, Professor of History at the Complutense University, will update the contributions of Onaindia as a Basque writer, politician and intellectual committed to freedom. A commitment that, led by Carmen Iglesias, led to her joining the Editorial Board of EL MUNDO, where she warned of the contradictions that the so-called ‘Ibarretxe plan’ for social coexistence incorporated into a strategy of yielding to the demands of ETA terrorism backed by a political and social framework led, before its outlawing, by Herri Batasuna. From these pages, Onaindía already warned in December 2002 that far-reaching sociopolitical movements such as the so-called ‘Spirit of Ermua’ opened a new space for the constitutionalist parties that suffered the terrorist persecution of their public offices with murders like the one suffered by Fernando Buesa and his escort and ertzaina Jorge Díez in February 2000. «The PSE-EE and the PP, for their part, also show themselves to be more loose every day and trust so much in their own forces that they are not afraid to discuss or even agree . The fear of ETA and the reverential respect for the ruling nationalism are being lost,” Onaindia wrote, seven years before Patxi López was appointed lehendakari with the votes of both parties and when there was still almost a decade left for ETA to stop killing.
An end to terrorism for which Onaindia worked tirelessly since he left prison in 1977 after eight years in prison that ended with the Transition amnesty law. Onaindia had been sentenced to death like Eduardo Uriarte, José María Dorronsoro, Jokin Gorostidi, Francisco Javier Izko and Javier Larenariarte in the “summary” trial in Burgos in which eight other ETA members were also punished with sentences ranging from 12 to 70 years. jail.