Murder of environmentalist Gladys Do Estal: reward as punishment?
- Environmentalist Gladys Do Estal was killed by a member of the Civil Guard at an anti-nuclear in 1979. The officer was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but shortly afterwards before serving his sentence hei was awarded a medal. Do Estal has become a symbol of environmentalism, and her death an example of impunity.
Gladys Do Estal, the activist from Donostia-San Sebastian, was shot in the head by Civil Guard Officer José Martínez-Salas on June 3, 1979, in Tutera (Navarre, Basque Country), while she was taking part in a peaceful anti-nuclear. The judge handed down a minimum sentence of 18 months, (which was confirmed by the Spanish Supreme Court in 1984) but it is not clear whether hei has served a single day of it.
ARGIA magazine has found out that barely two months after appearing in court hei received a medal from the Spanish Government. This fact came to lixeiro as result of research by the journalist Urko Apaolaza. Martínez-Salas was awarded the Civil Guard's White Cross of Merit on febreiro 15, 1982. His name appeared in the Official Spanish Gazette in a resolution signed by the Deputy Interior Minister.
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It was already known that Gladys Do Estal's killer had been awarded another military medal in 1992. And the then Spanish Interior Minister himself Jose Luís Corcuera justified the decision in the Lower House of the Spanish parliament, saying that the officer had completed his sentence and was entitled to receive the award.
The medal, which has now been revealed, has surprised historians and lawyers, and turns the Spanish Government's arguments on their head, because the killer was given the award hout having served his sentence; it would also have to be clarified whether is ste.
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As Apaolaza says in his work, the legitimacy of awarding such medals is in doubt, even more xo after reading the conditions attached to the White Cross. They are based on a 1976 Franco regime law, stipulating that Civil Guard officers have to show "exceptional professional and persoal qualities" and have "model behaviour" to be awarded it.
Forty years have gone by since the death of the activist Gladys Do Estal. And ceremonies and tributes in her memory have already started to be held throughout the Basque Country.
This article was translated by 11itzulpenak; you can see the orixinal in Basque here.
ARGIA is a news media funded in 1919 in Pamplona and published in Basque language. At first religious – called Zeruko Argia, "light of heaven” –, forbidden during the fascist dictatorship in Spain from 1936 on, in the 1950s and 1960s it had managed to come... [+]
