Ignacio Echeverría.
The Diplomat. 08/06/2017
The Executive of Mariano Rajoy decided yesterday to send the director general for Support to Victims of Terrorism, Sonia Ramos, to London to accompany Ignacio Echeverría’s family in the identification and repatriation of his mortal remains, according to information provided to The Diplomat by reliable sources.
The Spanish Government is discontented with the delay of the Executive of Theresa May in confirming Echeverría’s death four days after London attacks, as well as with the fact that it has not informed of the moment to hand over the body of the Spanish man.
Finally, Echevarría’s family will be able to see his body at 9:00 hrs today thanks to the intense work carried out yesterday by the Moncloa Palace and the Foreign Ministry with Downing Street and the Foreign Office, but the body’s repatriation can still take several days.
During yesterday, both Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis and Interior Minister Ignacio Zoido raised the tone of criticism over the lack of news from London. “We do not believe that any protocol can justify a treatment that is already really touching inhumanity,” said the former from Moscow. According to the head of the Spanish Diplomacy, once confirmed the death, “can not be that they have to wait so long”.
Dastis expressed his “deep dismay and sadness at the confirmation of the death” of Echeverría and paid tribute to his “courage”, since “he played his life running to try to help innocent people.” For that reason, he advanced that the president of the Government had asked that to recognize that bravery is granted the silver medal to the Civil Merit.
Of the rest of political parties, it emphasized the reaction of Albert Rivera (Ciudadanos). “What they have made happen to this family is inhumano”, he said referring to the action of the British Government. In this regard, he considered that such behavior deserves “some type of action, at least a diplomatic complaint” by the Government of Rajoy or the Spanish Embassy in London.
