Zabaleta, the climber who carried the ETA emblem on Everest, kicks off to the applause of The Athletic

As was announced by Bilbao Athletic Clubthis Saturday, the mountaineer Martine Zabaleta and the sherpa Pasang Temba“the heroes who brought the ikurriña to the top of the world” by crowning the Everest in 1980 they kicked off in Saint Mamesduring the Basque club’s match against Spanish.

This tribute was surrounded by controversy since its announcement. Several groups of victims of terrorism have warned that the climber from Gipuzkoa took a photo during this expedition on the highest peak on the planet with a flag that contained symbols of ETA. More precisely, the ax and the snake, emblem of the terrorist group.

According to sources close to Athletic, told EL ESPAÑOL, the club was not aware of this gesture by Zabaleta, who at the time went so far as to say that he “personally took responsibility for the slogan” – which was accompanied by an anti-nuclear motto.

Despite this, the sports institution refused to cancel the tribute and carried it out this Saturday in front of the thousands of supporters who filled the San Mamés stadium.

The mountaineers, “escorted” by José Ángel Iribaremblem of Athletic, were applauded by the footballers and a standing audience. The match did not show footage or commentary at the time on television.

Athletic has decided to pay “a well-deserved tribute” – as announced in a press release – to Zabaleta and Sherpa on the occasion of the centenary of the Basque-Navarre Mountaineering Federation. Both “made the Basque flag the sixteenth flag to fly at the summit of Everest; without a doubt an incontestable success which filled with pride a society lacking positive news”, indicated the red and white club in its note .

THE Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) And Ego Nota citizen platform focused on the fight against the apology of the terrorist group, quickly displayed its rejection of the tribute by echoing the news on social networks. However, Athletic decided to continue its tribute to Zabaleta, a character he described in his note as a “legend”.

It was on May 14, 1980 that Zabaleta, with Temba and a group made up of eleven other Basque and Navarrese mountaineers, climbed Everest, the highest mountain on the planet with an altitude of 8,848 meters above sea level. the sea. That same year, 1980, was the bloodiest and cruelest for the ETA gang, with up to 98 assassinations carried out by the terrorist organization.

The tribute also coincides with a sensitive date, since this Saturday morning it was published in the Official State Gazette the reform of the law which benefits ETA detainees. This is a bill of Government which transposes a European directive and which has received the unanimous support of all Congress of Deputies. Without realizing it, the PP and Vox approved an amendment of the Add so that ETA prisoners can deduct the years in prison they have served France.