Beñat’s Abuse by His Father

Beñat’s abuse by his father is presented through a painful mismatch between what the officers can see and what Beñat is willing to say. His bruises, his reaction to touch, and his father’s conduct make the suspicion of violence difficult to ignore; when asked directly, however, Beñat says he fell. The silence leaves the abuse legible to others but not, at this point, something they can get him to acknowledge.

The Injuries and the Visit

Beñat comes to the police station with his father after an appointment to discuss Beñat’s blog and its treatment of the agotes. Seen close up, the boy is strikingly pale, with black hair falling over his eyes and a bruise encircling one cheekbone. His hands remain in his pockets as he looks down the corridor. His father offers a sweaty hand and mumbles a greeting; the smell of alcohol accompanies him.

Deputy Inspector Zabalza notices that Beñat has another injury, apparently at the shoulder. A light touch makes the boy tremble with pain, and Zabalza reports that he nearly fainted. These physical signs turn what was meant to be a conversation about a blog into an encounter with a possible safeguarding emergency. Inspector Iriarte closes his computer, takes the gun from his desk, and joins them.

The Father’s Attempt to Take Him Away

When Inspector Iriarte asks Beñat to stand, remove his jacket, and lift his shirt, his father springs up and insists that Beñat is a minor and that he is taking him away. The gesture that follows sharpens the officers’ concern: the father puts a hand on the boy’s shoulder, and Beñat cries out in pain. Deputy Inspector Zabalza immediately twists the man’s wrist and pins him against the wall. The violence Beñat has not named is now visible in the way his body reacts, while his father’s attempt to end the questioning risks making the injuries harder to conceal.

Zabalza explains the consequences of the father’s conduct in concrete terms. The man appears to have been drinking, Zabalza says, and the entrance cameras recorded him arriving by car; the officers can administer a breath test and arrest him if he refuses. If he insists on taking Beñat away or prevents the conversation, the police can involve social services. Because Beñat is a minor, social services can take him for a medical examination, where a forensic doctor can assess whether he has been abused even if he says nothing. Faced with this choice, the father gives in. His remaining concern is how he will get home without his car—a practical question that leaves the original alarm unresolved but shows that Zabalza’s warning has stopped him from simply removing Beñat from police protection.

A Denial Under Pressure

Beñat speaks for twenty minutes about the history of the agotes of Arizkun, arguing that old injustice does not cease to matter simply because time has passed. News fades quickly, he says, and injustices return when people stop treating them as urgent. His forceful account gives Inspector Iriarte a different measure of the boy: the blog’s author is not merely an angry adolescent but an organized, intelligent thinker. Iriarte also reads that eloquence against Beñat’s visible injuries and isolation, understanding his public passion for justice alongside the private injustice of his father’s contempt and the loss of his mother.

As Beñat speaks, Iriarte listens more than he takes notes; his pen fills the paper with the habitual doodles he makes while thinking. Deputy Inspector Zabalza, who has come in and stands quietly by the door, eventually asks whether Beñat’s father hits him. The question breaks the connection Beñat’s speech had briefly created. He folds in on himself, withdrawing like a flower in severe cold, and the officers’ offer of help cannot make him disclose what they suspect.

Iriarte makes the practical obstacle explicit: unless Beñat admits the abuse, the officers may be unable to act on his behalf. Beñat answers in a barely audible voice that he fell. Zabalza’s audible indignation draws a reproachful look from Iriarte, who accepts the boy’s account without treating it as a reason to dismiss the injuries; even if Beñat fell, a doctor must examine him. The encounter therefore ends with the abuse still unacknowledged by its suspected victim, while the physical evidence and the officers’ concern remain unresolved.

Public Justice and Private Silence

Beñat’s encounter with the officers makes his arguments about historical injustice painfully personal without making him ready to speak about the harm nearest to him. He can describe how forgotten wrongs return when society ceases to attend to them, yet when the question turns to his own safety, he retreats behind the explanation that he fell. That contrast is not proof that he lacks conviction; it shows how little public eloquence can undo the isolation Iriarte recognizes in him. The scene leaves a gap between seeing injury and securing help: the adults can recognize the danger and offer routes to an examination, but Beñat’s refusal to name what happened limits what they can do immediately.