Only a month ago they began to demolish Belagua's military refuge. General Garrido's barracks have not been used since 2005, and in the coming spring there will be no trace of the building. The mayor of Isaba, Carlos Anaute, insists that "although it has not been easy, it has been an important judicial route to get here".

The works began in early October by the company ErriBerri and have a period of six months to execute the work awarded by the Ministry of Defence. Now there's only rubble left. A second phase will begin in which waste, foundations and old gas oil tanks will be disposed of. In the end, they will sow grass on the hillside.

It took the Ministry of Defence ten years to return the land.

The construction of the military shelter began in 1981, when a "strategic decision" by the Spanish Army forced the General Assembly of the Roncal Valley to yield to the Army 10,500 square meters. In 2005, however, it decided that it was not of military importance and was abandoned. Since then, the neighbors and the authorities of the valley began to recover the land. In 2010, the General Assembly of the Valley launched a judicial process to obtain the demolition of the barracks for the City of Isaba to recover the land. After several appeals, in 2013 the Madrid High Court of Justice issued a ruling in favour of holding the assembly. The Ministry of Defense did not comply with it, and another ten years passed until in 2023 the court issued an order forcing the defense "in a natural state according to the environment".

“For three or four weeks we have thrown the building to the ground and we have taken the risk. What costs the least is to throw it out. We started cleaning it inside and now we are destroying the concrete and removing iron,” explains Roberto Izquierdo at the front of the work. According to the decree of the High Court of Justice of Madrid of 2023, “it must be noted in advance that these soils are not contaminated, without residues of gas oil deposits and aseptic pits that have been in a state of neglect and unfortunate preservation for many years”.

“Disaster and danger gave a bad image”

Izquierdo says trucks are missing because they are “in the asphalt campaign”. He has also explained that the location of the barracks and the orography make the execution of the works difficult. The company explains that work will have to be suspended for climatic reasons during the winter and therefore wait until the hillside has been sown, it has indicated. The mayor of Isaba has described as "good news" the demolition of the barracks, as well as the authorities, mountaineers and ecologists of the area. “The shelter looked like a bad image, it was a disaster and a danger. We had to seal doors and windows, and yet people were coming in. It was unfeasible to give another use; it is best to leave the area as it was before,” he added.