Joaquín Beltrán is one of the two workers affected by the rubble of the Zaldibar landfill (Bizkaia). The search facility for the body of Beltrán, launched since February 2020, has been completed today, Friday, as reported by the Basque Government. Lehendakari met with the Beltran family on Thursday to inform him of the decision and on Friday the members Josu Erkoreka and Arantxa Tapia announced the news. The opinion of the Basque Government is that all the possibilities of locating the body of Joaquín Caparrós have already been exhausted. "For 15 months, a large device has made a great effort in the search for the two missing persons. In the case of Sololuze, it has been successful, but the same has not happened with Beltrán. May God be Above," Erkoreka said at a press conference after the meeting. Stabilisation of the area where 2.5 million tonnes of waste have been dumped is maintained.

Councillor Arantxa Tapia explained that more than 400,000 meters of waste have been moved, which has been a "huge effort" in economic, technical and human resources. "The operation has had a staff of between 80 and 100 professionals, every day," he said.

The body of Alberto Sololuze, the other worker who was trapped next to Beltrán among the rubble of Zaldibar, was located in August after more than a year of search.

"We don't want to bring flowers to a landfill."

Regarding the mobilizations and events held on the first anniversary of the Zaldibar disaster, the relatives of Joanquin Beltrán pointed out that they did not want the body to be lost between the rubble so that the landfill would not become a graveyard for their relative. In an interview at ETB in February, family spokeswoman Marta Álvarez said they had never thought they were going to be in the same situation a year after the break-up. In this sense, he criticized the management of the Basque Government, considering that "not enough was being done" and that there was "lack of coordination" in the rescue work.

The citizen platform Zaldibar Argitu has stated that this is "one more chapter of sadness" in the "regrettable initial management" that is taking place. "Not finding Joaquín Beltrán is a great failure, either for his family, friends or for the people in the area." In this regard, they have stressed that "it is not possible to remain without political responsibility for a person to remain underground". Following the decision of the Basque Government to suspend the search, they considered it to be the right time to "assume the consequences and assume the responsibilities with the resignations and interruptions that are necessary". In the afternoon of this Friday, demonstrations were organized in Zalla, Zaldibar, Eibar, Ermua and Elgeta.

The ELA trade union has found it unacceptable to paralyse the search for the body of Beltrán and the Zaldibar City Council has asked the Basque Government to resume its search.