Graham Keeley
KING Felipe and Queen Letizia on Tuesday visited a reproduction of a safe house used by the Basque separatist organisation to hold a kidnapped prison officer for nearly two years.
Jose Antonio Orega Lara, 63, was kidnapped and held for 532 days between 1996 and 1997 before he was rescued by police.
The replica of the zulo – or safe house – is part of the Memorial Center for the Victims of Terrorism in Vitoria in northern Spain.
The institution aims to reflect the history of terrorism in Spain from the Basque separatist group Eta to jihadist terrorism as well as other armed groups from the left and right wing.
Organisers consulted with centres which honour the victims of other terrorist attacks around the world including the New York centre which remembers those who died in the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
King Felipe’s father, the former monarch Juan Carlos, was at one time a target for Eta but the planned attack never came to fruition.
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