"I want my son's death to serve some good purpose": the first victim of 17-A appears in Congress
Francisco Javier Martínez, who lost his son in the attacks, demands that all CNI documents be declassified
Madrid"You have to suffer all your life. What would my son be like now?" Francisco Javier Martínez, father of Xavi Martínez Mompart, the three-year-old boy killed in the attack on the Rambla on August 17, 2017, has been the first victim to appear before the commission of inquiry in Congress on 17-A. Martínez has denounced, seven and a half years later, that in all this time the administrations have not attended well to the victims, who have been "marked for life." "We are the broken toys of a society. We need empathy to help us get back on our feet," he said. Martínez has explained that they have lacked support, information about their rights and about the procedures they should follow. And he has denounced episodes of lack of "humanity." His testimony, he stressed, seeks to "improve" care for the future. "Do not forget that it can happen to any of you," he said.
Martínez has regretted that the Ministry of the Interior has not been sufficiently proactive in the search for people who could be recognised as victims in order to offer them assistance. In fact, she has said that officials such as the former director of support for victims of terrorism had recognised to her that the "political context" at the time of the attacks meant that assistance was not what would have been necessary. "I did not know that to appear at the National Court trial as a victim you had to make a complaint to the police saying that your son had been killed in an attack," she explained. Martínez found out three weeks before the first anniversary of 17-A. When she asked the Ministry of the Interior to extend the deadline to search for more victims, the response was that if they wanted something they should go there [in Madrid]. "Do you think that three months after the death of my son I was in a position to ask for what rights I had? I was in a position for them to come looking for me," she complained.
According to him, it would be necessary to have a group of people in charge of addressing the victims and to carry out personal, empathetic follow-up, instead of waiting for them to go to the Interior Ministry themselves. Also, attention should be decentralised with an office in Catalonia. Xavi's father has also focused on the psychological treatment that is offered to them, which only lasts a year. "I wish I was cured and there was a pill to forget everything," he stressed. He also warned of a lack of coordination not only between police forces but between security forces and justice. Another error in the protocols that Martínez has recalled is that the first time he went to testify at the National Court, they made him go into a room where all the relatives of the accused were. "The next day they asked me for forgiveness [...]. Let's prepare a little better, listen to the victims," he asked. "I want my son's death to serve for something good," he insisted, on the review of aspects that could be improved.
Request declassification
Martínez has also complained that there are still unknowns about the attacks and unanswered questions. "Be brave. Declassify the papers. Do not feed these theories that people have [...]. Why are the 17-A papers classified? We do not know. This is what feeds the theories [...]. I am not a conspiracy theorist, I am a victim," he said, and argued that we must know what we need to know. In response to Junts, Xavi's father has stated that his lawyers will consider the possibility of making a claim to the State if, when the commission of inquiry ends, it is concluded that he acted with negligence. Sumar has pointed to the possibility that the Prosecutor's Office will lead an exceptional investigation to resolve the doubts about the attacks.
The witness reproached the PP and Vox for having shown themselves against this commission of inquiry, and said that this rejection "hurts a lot." "There are first and second class victims due to the context. We Catalans feel second and third class," he said, referring to the way this political space treats cases linked to ETA. Martínez also criticized Vox for politically using the image of another of the victims, Julian Cadman, the seven-year-old Australian boy murdered on the Rambla. Despite these warnings, all parliamentary groups, including the PP and Vox, have appreciated Martínez's constructive tone. The Popular Party has replied that "if everyone came with his attitude," they would be in favor of the commission.
