EKAITZ Samaniego (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1990) was released on 5 January. Time to enjoy again with family and friends, a visit to the Gaztetxe and a visit to the bertsolaris crew that left behind. However, he wished to recall the framework of protective relations which he has maintained throughout all these years of imprisonment in order to make progress along the road. "It has been beautiful to gather the strength that they have sent us so fondly; political prisoners are lucky. I really want to make the way with those people.

What has the prison been like?

Like on the street, with good and bad streaks. But apart from all the difficult situations that can be lived there, we have robbed the prison of good times and nice relationships, we have learned a great deal with colleagues there, with the booklets we have had in our hands. There has also been time to enjoy.

The arrest took place on 14 January 2012, after two weeks of secret detention to denounce political arrests. How do you remember that moment?

With a lot of excitement. It was formidable. It was beautiful to see how our environment was organized in a situation like ours and reached so many friends. Beyond my situation, because these things go beyond the person, we can make one of these injustices visible. The dynamic of solidarity that emerged was brutal. I also have to remind the people who helped me to keep those two weeks, with what affection and with what goodwill they helped me. And also the end of the demonstration. It might be ugly to say, but it wasn't the worst way to get into jail. I walked in with strength, full of illusion and convinced that we had done something strong. Then I was told that I had left a trail and that I had also given them illusion and strength, so even more convinced that we did something nice.

What political and social value did this initiative have?

In the face of such injustices and attacks, it will always be good to open up gaps in power. Contradicting and demonstrating that the beams that are made do not occur normally, and spoiling a little the photos that you want to get from above. As in everyday life, like people who work on countless issues, winning spaces and creating cracks will always be nice. I think the dynamics of that time also managed to create the picture we wanted and make the complaint.

Then came the walls of Ondarroa, San Sebastian, Pamplona and Vitoria, among others.

It was an encouragement that they should continue to do so through the newspaper. In the face of aggression, see again the people organizing and creating such nice dynamics. It was the slut of these kinds of dynamics that was then seen to lead those friends, but that path and that dynamic probably gave strength to those people, and among all of them it was possible that the photo didn't go unnoticed; it certainly has also served to create links between the people who participated in the dynamics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They put on the table the need for civil disobedience.

Yes, of course. I believe that in the society in which we live, disobedience can be a valuable means. Normality breaks with disobedience, confronts injustice and, in addition to the current situation, generates some salt in people. I think beyond a given moment, it's a very productive path.

In these eight years the political situation in Euskal Herria has changed. How do you see it?

In jail you lose many pieces of the puzzle, although we have followed well inside. When I come back to Gasteiz, I've seen that a lot of people are still working on 11 issues, and it's been nice to see that in the face of a difficult landscape, there's a lot of people doing things with a lot of encouragement. Then, how one and the other have raised the work and the struggle -- before I speak too much, I want to meet you in the first person.

How have you experienced the policy of prison dispersal? From Zaballa prison to Murcia and Zaragoza.

It has touched me to live, although many others have made much longer journeys than I did. All prisons have their peculiarities, and perhaps we adapt in one way or another, but the situation presented to family and friends is the most difficult. It is a very burdensome situation, anismically, economically ... And fortunately, people have been putting this problem on the table for a long time.

Can we envisage changes in prison policy with the new Spanish Government?

Any change that could improve would surprise me with surprise, because the attitude of this state with the Basque political prisoners and with our movement is painful and exhausting; it is hard to imagine... As long as there is a reaction and a desire for freedom on the part of the Basques, they will always act against it. If there are changes with the new government, I hope that will be the case, but I will not applaud it when the state does; it has been implementing that policy for 30 years to erode the Basque liberation movement. If you start to comply with your law, I won't applaud.

You're not optimistic about the new political cycle.

The atmosphere is different and it is noted that the cycle has changed, but just as the armed phase of the conflict was closed, I think it was quite difficult for, for example, to unleash a knot like that of the prisoners. The conditions may one day come to change big things, but that's going to catch us working. I do not believe that this phase brings tremendous new opportunities. From a rupturistic point of view, I see that there are things that are becoming very dangerous, because it is very difficult to maintain the balance between the effectiveness and legitimacy of what you are criticizing. Perhaps the struggle pulse of national freedom is not as large as it was before, and I think it is difficult to feed it through the path of normalization. Among those of us who wish to see a further breakdown in any subject, normalisation is not the way forward. Standardisation is something that breaks and not something that feeds.

What is the peace process?

For me there is no peace process. There has been an attempt to launch it, but it has not come out, because the objective of the Spanish State is on the path of its very closed identity. They work with a model of being a very closed Spanish, and those who put it in question are going to attack it over and over again. That is why it gives them so much rage that political prisoners receive protection in the hall. Someone may feel offended, but it's not about people feeling offended, and the political use of that issue is terrible ... It is one thing to build bridges, to create new complicities, and it is another thing that this people cannot express pride or joy on the street, wherever and whenever they want. For me, too, the procession of the Rosario de la Aurora is insulting, but I'm not going to ask you not to go out into the street. We went into a dangerous loop.

For the future, what steps should be taken?

The only thing we have left is to keep working from each other, and that is what eleven people are working on. And, among other things, I would like to think about political prisoners. It is true that a great deal has been said about the issue of punishment or human rights, and I will not say that this should not be the case because it is a painful situation, but I would like to see the issue of political prisoners, which is unfortunately going to last for many years, at least generate some questions in the political sense. Why are these people there? Why did they commit? Why is the state sold?

Have these thoughts been set aside?

A little bit yes. I understand that in order to create complicity and build majorities on certain issues, things cannot be brought to terms with the people who were opposed to those expressions of conflict, but I do not need all of this to be used to ask profound political questions.

Have you reflected on the same prison?

Jail is a building and a way of thinking that needs to be demolished, and I think there are alternatives. I would invite the reader to ask questions about the existence of the same prison. Jail is often a model on the street; many of the problems on the street are even more evident in jail, and if we really start questioning prison, it can be a good step to question the dynamics of this society. Many of the people who know each other don't see them on the street, even though we come across them; I've realized the privileges that we have, although we already knew it before. I have clearly seen how prison can destroy a person.

Zaballa has been sued in the past year for the incidents and deaths that have occurred on the spot.

Death in jail is something everyday, in any prison. You often see that one has died in I don't know how, another in nursing... People are in jail in a very harsh situation; if you get a serious illness or suffer a great dependency, care is scarce and waits are endless. It seems cold to say so, but it's true; people who are in a difficult situation don't form it, prison, most of the time, makes it worse.

Rubén Sánchez includes in his book 'Zabor' several passages about life in prison...

I read it very willingly, and you can see it was documented very well. He has gathered some moments and reflections from the prisoners I have also had, and I found it a very interesting reading; a book that offers in a very quick way Hondas about what a political prisoner can live.