Last December we published in the first part of the book –Conversion of the military industry in the Basque Country. In order not to manufacture more wars (Adaptation of the arms industry in the Basque Country so as not to create more wars) – we carry out an analysis of the performance of the European and American lobbies of the military industry. How they have been able to infiltrate slowly until the current military policies of the European Union and the United States have been completely conditioned. How they are shaking the fear of a full-scale war as a way to secure multi-million dollar incomes. Later in the book, when addressing the reality of the so-called Basque Arms Industry or, as we designate it, Production for Waste and War (EHXGE) in the Basque Country, we stated the following: "Currently we do not have solid data to say that the arms lobby in the South Basque Country has carried out the process of attracting organizations."

Well, it seems that some of them have now decided to appear in public, taking advantage of the last report of the Cedars association, and using Eneko Landaburu as a special guest. The latter is not surprising; indeed, twenty years ago Landaburu said: "We cannot limit American hegemony without putting in place research and development policies in the arms industry that require a lot of public money and benefit the industry as a whole, as the Americans do."1

Companies and non-governmental organizations

The “strategic decisions” of the organization are made by the group called Cedarios Foro, as can be read on its website. It is a group of fifteen people: Ignacio Martín San Vicente, Amaia Gorostiza Tellería, Iñaki López Gandásegui, Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal, Javier Ormazabal Echevarría, Antón Pradera Jauregui, Ainhoa Lete Núñez, María Luisa Guibert Ucú, Consuelo Crespo Bobobbi, Sharif Artur Fill, Antón Pradera Jauregui, Ainhoa Lete Núñez. In addition to these, we have Pedro Luis Uriarte Santamarina, the only advisor of the Consejo Asesores: “People who, after a few years at the Forum, have passed the witness but have decided to continue accompanying their network of experiences and relationships.”

There are two very different profiles between these sixteen people. Most of them are linked to business interests and, in many cases, they have attended the boards of directors of the same companies or technology centers (CIE Automotive, Dominon, Innobasque, University of Deusto and Deusto Bussines School, Mediaset, Alba financial corporation... plus those linked to EHXGE, which we will see later). Other individuals include those associated with non-governmental organizations (Save The Children or Oxfam Intermon) or culture. Some operate in both camps. In this article we will focus on people related to companies.

The following paragraphs are intended to demonstrate the interests and implications of these individuals within the Cedars group for EHXGE. It is clear that they also favour other interests, as in the final report the group is clearly in favour of nuclear energy, for example.

One by one, the members of Zedarria who have ties to the armory

Let's start with the most obvious. Iñaki López Gandasegi, a member of Zedarria, is the President of one of the main EHXGE companies in the Basque Country: Assisted by Aernnova. Aernnova has hired staff in Brussels to lobby the military industry and President López has participated in the IK4 Strategic Committee. IK4 is an alliance of six technology centres, at least four of which are members of EHXGE (CEIT, Ideko, Lortek and Tekniker). IK4 López collaborated with three other members of the Cedars group in this Strategic Committee: Pedro Luis Uriarte, Pilar Calciada and Guillermo Torreonsoro.

Another of the participants of the Cedarias group is Cristina Garmendia. The former minister of the Spanish government, as we recently denounced, is the driving force behind the company Satlantis (we named Satlantis the “brightest star in EHXGE startups”). Everis has also been a member of the company’s governing bodies on several occasions, a major international arms company. In these governing bodies, he also collaborated with the former Minister of Defense of Spain, Eduardo Serra, and another member of Zedárales, Pedro Luis Uriarte.

Pedro Luis Uriarte has been present not only in Everis, but also in the governing bodies of other arms companies in Spain and the Southern Basque Country (e.g. Tecnicas Reunidas in Spain, and Tubacex and Multiverse Computing in the Basque Country). And we have already mentioned his participation in the IK4 Strategic Committee.

Another member of Zedarria is Javier Ormazabal Echevarría, President of the Velatia Group (formerly Ormazabal). Your connection to EHXGE should be more popular. At least five companies belonging to the Veletia group participate in EHXGE (Idistek and Smarmec in military vehicles; Supsonic in military vessels; and Velatia and Wec in military aeronautics). Ormazabal is also a member of the Venus Foundation, which funds other EHXGE companies such as the aforementioned Multiverse Computing.

Ignacio Martín San Vicente de Zedárales is also a member of the Venus Foundation. San Vicente has held positions in two other large Spanish companies with military production (Alcatel and Indra) and in the international GKN Driveline. He is also the corporate president of the CEIT research centre and a member of its Strategic Committee.

María Luisa Guibert, a member of Ucín Zedázquez, also participates in the CEIT Strategic Committee. Several EHXGE companies are represented on this committee, such as: ITP, Sener, Tecnum and Tubacex.

Another member of the Cedarriake de Tubacex has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation: Assisted by Consuelo Crespo Bofill. Crespo took the place of Pedro Luis Uriarte in the council of Tubacex.

Also linked to the military production companies is Guillermo Torreonsoro Artabe, who made the presentation of the final report of Zedables as director of the group. For example, he has been an executive at Ibermática and Accenture (the Armed Banking initiative denounced Accenture as "one of the nine companies related to the militarization of borders and countries"). He is currently an advisor to the Board of Directors of Zabala Innovation. This Navarrese company has received funding from several European Defence Fund programmes. Torreonsoro has also been a member of the IK4 Strategic Committee.

Finally, we have Antonio María Pradera Jauregi ‘Antón’, promoter and president of the business group CIE Automotive. One of the main shareholders of CIE Automotive is the company Shriprakash Shukla. The company is the chairman of the board of directors of Mahindra Defence Systems. In this business group, to date, four other members of the Cedars group have been: Ignacio Martín San Vicente, Pilar Calciada, Guillermo Torreonsoro and Amaia Gorostiza.

In summary, of the sixteen individuals we have studied, at least ten are related to EHXGE in one way or another: Iñaki López Gandasegi, Pilar Calciada, Cristina Garmendia, Pedro Luis Uriarte, Javier Ormazabal Echevarría, Ignacio Martín San Vicente, María Luisa Guibert Ucín, Consuelo Crespo Bofill, Guillermo Torreonsoro Artabe, Antonio María Pradera Jauregi ‘Antón’

Clarified interests and unanswered questions

In view of what has been observed in the previous paragraphs, and considering that it is probably only part of what exists, it seems obvious that Zedable is interested in proposing the impetus of the military industry. That's what lobbies in this area do.

With this important issue clarified, two more remain to be clarified. On the one hand, how is it possible that people linked to NGOs or culture are willing to whitewash the image of the lobby? Because that's what they do with being a member of the Cedars Forum, "monitoring activity" and "making strategic decisions". And, on the other hand, how is it possible that none of the representatives of the Basque administrations and political parties present at the presentation of the Zedarria group criticized the proposal? The answer to these questions will have to be given by those mentioned or their complicity with this lobby will be exposed.

Adapting the Armory to Avoid War and Capitalism

I’d like to finish with a thought. Pedro Luis Uriarte, who usually appears as the guru of the association Cedarras, recommends that instead of talking about wealth, use the term prosperity, which does not seem so bad. The problem is that Uriarte’s concept of prosperity is limited to money, cumulative capital, and this dynamic has led us to the current situation where the future of humanity and ecosystems is at risk. Uriarte, an expert in innovation, offers us highly outdated solutions: the arms race. We know perfectly well where this leads us.

For our part, we believe that what Basque society and the world need today is exactly the opposite: a Basque Country that will not participate in the manufacture of more wars. To this end, we propose a “transformative adaptation” of the EHXGE, which replaces military production by civilian production, and compromises the current capitalist production system itself. New products and the ways in which they are produced must provide solutions to the serious problems that affect us as a society: environmental and energy crises, care work, health deficiencies or the growing gap between rich and impoverished people. The world we live in demands of us.

For this, social participation is essential, because only in this way will we be able to face the interests of the merchants of death, who are represented by the Cedarría lobby with their proposals.