The lucrative business of the Basque military industry with Saudi Arabia and Israel

About 100 companies based in Euskadi focus their activities in the field of arms. Among the main executives are the current president of the Royal Society, Jokin Aperribay, or the former Defense Minister of the PP, Pedro Morenés. Also appears a former mayor of the PNV that acted as "military adviser".


Yemen is now a country destroyed. There has not been any Hurricane Irma there, but the bombs in Saudi Arabia. The Wahhabi kingdom fires from the sky and from the earth against unarmed families. Only in 2017 have more than 200 children died. Most were torn apart by shells that fell mercilessly.

The numbers are shocking, though not enough to prevent certain companies from continuing to do business with the warlords, if it can be called war to a confrontation as cruel as unequal. Among the firms that profit from this massacre are some Basque labels.

While the shipyard La Naval or the CEL wastebasket are doomed to failure, nearly 100 companies engaged in military business continue to bill millions. For them there is no crisis because there are always customers: if something is not reduced in this world are the expenditures for weapons. There is no crisis or contemplation of any kind here. Put another way, it does not matter what you want a tank for. The important thing, the priority, is that you pay for your tank.

"Although our 'self-indulged consent' allows us to be unaware of it, today in Hego Euskal Herria (Southern Basque Country) there are several thousand workers who are dedicated to manufacture armament, sector of which almost three quarters of their production is dedicated to export, also to countries in conflict (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt ...), "says the group Gasteizkoak in the book These wars are very ours, edited by Txalaparta.

Precisely in the list drawn up by this anti-militarist group are some of the most powerful companies in the military sector in Spain. One of them is currently called Oesía, but until a few years ago it was known by its founding name, IT Deusto. According to its own website, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries where this company develops "projects".

The researchers from the Delàs Center for Peace Studies and the NGO SETEM explained in a recent report what are some of their activities in that absolutist realm. "Oesia develops technology applied to the military sector, such as infrared search and tracking sensors required for automatic search and detection of targets; a system that is already fully operational on the European Typhoon fighter plane, used by the British, German, Italian, Spanish and Austrian air forces. Saudi Arabia's army has purchased 76 of these warplanes, which are most likely being used in the Saudi war offensive in Yemeni territory, "they said.

FRIEND OF THE KING

In that same report the name of SENER, the military manufacturing company founded by the millionaire entrepreneur of Opus Dei Enrique Sendagorta, appears in the same report. Its offices are at number 56 Avenida Zugazarte de Getxo, an area where very wealthy people live. With more than 60 years behind it, this company offers a varied range of services in the field of "engineering and construction". Although it does not advertise on its website, it is the "reference company in Spain in missile systems and is specialized in applications of ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance)", underlines the study of the Delàs Center for Studies for Peace and SETEM.

In 2014, Enrique Sendagorta was awarded by King Juan Carlos I with the Kingdom of Spain Award for the Entrepreneurial Trajectory. Nothing is a coincidence: if someone has helped - and continues to help - the military industry companies to find juicy business is the Royal House. In fact, the company founded by this devotee of Opus Dei was part of the retinue that accompanied King Philip VI during his official visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

In addition, several social and environmental groups in Bizkaia reported last April that Sener "has a commitment to collaborate with the Israeli armament company 'Israel Aircraft Industries LTD' for the design of 'new aeronautical materials' worth 5 million euros through of the VULCAN program ". They further assured that the collaboration also extended to the military company Rafael, "for which he designed the sensors that go on Israeli military aircraft, which serve to locate and target the target to bomb."

FROM REAL TO WEAPONS

Another of the giants of the Basque Country that does business with the war is SAPA Plasencia. It is a company dedicated mainly to military production, which brings you millions of contracts. According to various reports, it is the sixth state-owned company in the "armament" subsector.

Its product catalog includes battle tanks, cannons and armored vehicles in general, while among its most delightful customers is nothing more and nothing less than the United States Army. Thanks to SAPA's technological advances, American-flagged cars will be able to move faster when striking one of their targets anywhere on the planet.

On the board of directors of this company is one of the most famous fans of the Royal Society: nothing more and nothing less than its president, Jokin Aperribay. "It's a detail that is not always counted," says El Salto Antonio Escalante, a member of the anti-military group Alavés Gasteizkoak. In the work published by this group is added another interesting aspect: by the board of SAPA also passed the former Minister of Defense of the PP government, Pedro Morenes, as Basque as Aperribay. Another of his advisers was the historical leader of the PNV Ramon Labayen (passed away in 2013), that came to occupy the position of mayor of Donostia. At SAPA he was known for his activities as a military adviser.

MORENÉS CONTRACTS

According to Gasteizkoak, during the period of Morenés to the front of Defense were signed great contracts with Basque companies. One of them was the one subscribed with SAPA in 2015 for the "production of the propellant engine and power generation for the 8X874 vehicles". According to the work carried out by the anti-militarist Alava group, that business reported to the company 28 million euros. Another of the companies benefited was Sener, who won a 21 million euro award for the "modernization of the Augusta Bell 212 helicopters of the Spanish Navy."

In addition to accessing millionaire contracts, firms in the Basque military sector have also obtained significant subsidies from public administrations. One of the most striking examples occurred ten years ago, when a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) was approved in which the Basque Government undertook not to collaborate in any way with "those natural or legal persons engaged in the production, marketing and arms financing. " "That text was approved on December 28, 2007. Eight days later, the Official Gazette of the Basque Country collected a subsidy of three million euros to SAPA," recalls Escalante.

It does not end there. A few days ago, the lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu denied in a radio interview that there is an armament business in Euskadi, and even tried to reduce it to the "hunting weapons industry". After reviewing for the umpteenth time the names of different Basque companies, Escalante still can not give credit to the words of the president. "How can you say that when there are at least 100 companies directly linked to the military industry?" He asked. The answer will never come.