Many, many Spaniards, mainly for reasons of age, do not know who he is Mikel LejarzaThe wolf.
Basque from head to toe with no relation to the militia, the Police or the Civil Guard, Mikel Lejarza was and continues to be a bravewho had the audacity to infiltrate the terrorist group ETA in 1973, climb to the heights of its logistical infrastructure and deceive the organization’s fanatical leaders and their minions for a long, tense and dangerous year.
An anonymous hero of flesh and blooda man without a familiar face, who risked his life day after day inside an authentic cage of beasts, to fight in his own way against the scourge that ETA posed for national coexistence, freedom and the consolidation of the newborn Spanish democracy from the mid 70’s.
Born in a farmhouse in Vizcaya, the professional activity of the young Mikel Lejarza was interior decoration and he earned a good living. But everything changed overnight. With very clear ideas, with four lessons in which he learned the ABC’s of information techniques and his high self-taught capacity, he knew how to internalize the role that he had to play in order to become a supposed fan of Basque independence.
A person in appearance like any other who, thanks to his overwhelming personality, self-confidence and high doses of cold blood, He knew how to gain the trust of the ETA caciques in order to blow up a large part of his hidden structure of murderers and prevent numerous deaths of innocent people..
The pawn that had ETA in check
Miquel Lejarza was given the alias of The wolf the heads of the Central Documentation Service of the Presidency of the Government (SECED), a remote antecedent of the current National Intelligence Center (CNI). It was the name they chose because their work as a mole within ETA had to be done alone to thwart the gang’s murderous commandos.
And he got it. For this reason, for half a century, he has been a human being sentenced to death by ETA, who keeps a bullet to serve his sentence. A communiqué from the terrorist organization dated December 15, 1975 blames him for the death of three ETA members, for having facilitated the capture of five assassins and their support teams in Madrid and Barcelona, and for the failure of the escape of prisoners from jail. from Segovia projected by the band.
Now, when it is 50 years since the beginning of the most dangerous of the espionage operations mounted by the Spanish secret services against the murderous gang, Mikel Lejarza himself has decided to reveal and delve into the secrets that he kept in his mind under lock and key.
has done it in “Secrets of Confession”a recently published book by Roca Editorial, at the presentation of which he himself has been present under strict security measures, with his face somewhat less than uncovered, with a false beard, wig and dark glasses, answering all the questions he has been asked about his past and present, such as the fact that he is now a director of the Wolf Group, a cybersecurity company.
“Secrets of Confession” catch from the front lines. It is the second volume ‒the first was the bestseller “I confess”, Roca Editorial, 2019‒ of which Mikel and Fernando Rueda, the main Spanish journalist specializing in espionage and intelligence services, are also co-authors.
It is another one-on-one in which, for the first time, Fernando Rueda has managed to gather the memories, testimonies and evaluations of the former bosses, former agents of the Spanish intelligence and information services, collaborators, direct relatives and closest friends of El Lobo .
There has never been another like it
All of them, each in their own way, offer a personal or intimate vision of the spy who emerged spontaneously from the bowels of Vizcaya.. They tell in first person the experiences and risk situations they shared during the time they battled against the scourge of the murderous gang.
This is the case of Fernando San Agustín, a soldier from the secret services, who emphasizes that El Lobo “He was the perfect mole and there has never been another like him.” A character “worth studying”, because people who have infiltrated a terrorist organization “have lasted one or two months and not the years they endured.”
During his time as an infiltrator in ETA, Mikel Lejarza has been what in the field of international intelligence services is called a “black agent”. A full-time collaborator, but not part of the staff, excluded from the salary list and without an official document that allows him to identify himself as a member of a secret service.
At the family level, “I confess” tells how Mikel’s sisters discovered with terror when one day in 1975, when they went out into the street, they were horrified to see their brother’s face on numerous posters pasted on the walls of the streets with the laconic text “Wanted”. They were unaware of the very risky work that their brother was doing.
A believing and devoted man, he assures that “I have always felt sheltered, protected”. One of the people with whom he maintains a friendly relationship, the auxiliary bishop of Valencia, Arturo Ros, highlights Mikel that “he has a deep spirituality, which has kept him alive and which at this stage of his life emerges with spontaneity”.
In Fernando Rueda’s long talks with Mikel Lejarza to bring out what is already “Secrets of Confession”Taking stock of the successes he has obtained, the mistakes he has made, the satisfactions he has received and the troubles he has suffered, he tells the journalist: “If you ask me if I have regretted it, I will say no.” .
Meet El Lobo, the Basque who put the terrorist group ETA in check