Free after six years, what now for Basque separatist leader Arnaldo Otegi?
... Otegi, who joined Eta as a teenager and was later imprisoned for kidnapping, is credited with playing a pivotal role in persuading the group to lay down its weapons and pursue independence by peaceful means. Among those who had called for his release were Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the former Uruguayan president José Mujica and the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, to whom Otegi has been compared for his peacebuilding efforts. He joined Adams in Dublin last weekend for the party’s annual conference and to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising...
... “It seems to me that for many years, Eta’s violence provided a way for the Spanish state to cover up all the country’s problems,” he said. “I am convinced that there are certain sectors within the Spanish state that wouldn’t mind some low-level violence that would allow them to find an enemy and cover up all the problems: them and us.”
Had Eta not renounced the armed struggle in 2011, he said, the political landscape might have looked very different now. Many of the corruption scandals currently squeezing the PP might never have come to light and the collapse of the traditional two-party model that has brought Spain to an enduring political impasse might never have occurred, he said...
... Today, Otegi recognises that he and others may have been better off adopting a more Catalan approach to independence. “They have a far more advanced independence process. I would say it’s a matter of political culture and cultural DNA. I don’t know if we Basques are more impulsive, more passionate or whether maybe our country has suffered so much that we’ve sometimes been driven by passion rather than reason...”
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/29/free-after-six-years-but-what-now-for-arnaldo-otegi
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