This police operation requires an urgent response. Therefore, we want to make public the following considerations:

First, we want to forcefully denounce the operation carried out by the Guardia Civil.

We wish to take a moment to send a warm embrace to the arrested and their families; they have our solidarity, our consideration and our respect.

This police operation is the millionth attempt of the Popular Party to asphyxiate the peace process. We have no doubt that this operation has been organized and perpetrated by those who are afraid of peace and are conscious of the weakness of their political arguments.

It is necessary to highlight who are the arrested in the police operation today. Those arrested today by the Guardia Civil are people who have taken side with determination for peace and the political solutions that this country needs.

Therefore, and without any doubt: today's operation is the response of the enemies of solutions and political normalization to the commitment for peace of the Prisoners' Collective, to those press-conference this past Saturday or the Abertzale Left's ongoing initiative.

For us it's evident that these kind of operations seek:

• The spreading of hopelessness.
• To maintain violence alive in the political context of the country, they want to make suffering our daily bread.
• And in respect to the peace process, they want to extend the feeling that it isn't possible to advance towards peace and democracy.

And facing this, we want to make clear that there is no room for despair. This is a strong Country that knows want it wants, over the will of those who don't want us to have peace. And we say it again, we are going to put an end to dispersion, we are going to put an end to this criminal prison policy, because this is what the political and social majority of this country demands; we have no doubt.

This police operation has been a direct aggression against Basque society's desires for peace, freedom and democracy. And therefore, the popular response must be up to the task.

The Spanish Minister of the Interior has said that this operation has been a continuation of the operation against Herrira. So let's give a continuation of the enormous citizens' mobilization that denounced the operation against Herrira and let's flood the streets of Bilbao this Saturday.