In 1976, Colombian journalist Héctor Mora conducted the first Latin American interview with ETA members, but the report never aired due to censorship ordered by Colombia's presidency, influenced by Spain. The recording was lost over time, with only soundless fragments remaining. The story resurfaces now, 50 years after Franco's death.
On December 20, 1973, ETA carried out Operation Ogro, assassinating Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco by exploding his Dodge Dart vehicle onto a terrace. This killing boosted the global fame of the Basque separatist armed group. Three years later, in 1976, Colombian journalist Héctor Mora, host of the program Cámara Viajera, interviewed one of the attackers along with other hooded members.
The interview took place in a border locality between Spain and France, between Bayonne and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in French Basque Country. Mora arrived hooded at the house where the meeting occurred, and the cameraman was an ETA member. The team recorded the conversation, in which ETA justified their actions as a result of Francoist oppression, with a desire for independence and the imposition of Euskera as the national language.
Scheduled to air on Colombia's state channel, the interview was canceled five minutes before broadcast 'por orden de Palacio,' that is, by order of President Alfonso López Michelsen's office, on grounds of 'apología al delito.' Mora, close to the president from his days in the Movimiento Revolucionario Liberal, attributed the censorship to Spanish diplomacy. In 1996, in a commemorative episode of his program, Mora stated: “No pudo salir al aire porque la diplomacia española logró que nos aplicaran la censura oficial cinco minutos antes de iniciar la transmisión”.
Historian Felipe Arias Escobar, from Señal Memoria, found soundless fragments and a pre-air promo where Mora claimed: “Tuvimos la satisfacción de ser el primer equipo periodístico de Latinoamérica que entrevistó a los guerrilleros que dieron muerte al presidente de España”. Spain was then in transition after Franco's death on November 20, 1975, with Juan Carlos I as king and Adolfo Suárez as president from mid-1976. The full recording was lost due to poor conservation practices when changing producers.
Héctor Mora, son of the journalist who died in 2017, recalls he was four years old and staying in Brussels with his mother during the trip. This historic exclusive, partially recovered, illustrates journalistic tensions in a turbulent period.