Former ETA leader admits involvement in 1976 assassination of Basque mayor in interview

OVIEDO, Spain

Former leader in the ETA terrorist organization Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea admits to his involvement in the 1976 assassination of a Basque mayor in an upcoming documentary.

The controversial documentary called "No me llames Ternera" (Don't call me Ternera) will debut at the San Sebastian Film Festival next Friday, but producers have told Spanish media about his confession.

Urrutikoetxea, widely known as Josu Ternera, was a member of the Basque nationalist terrorist group from 1968 and worked his way up to leadership.

He is currently on probation in France, where he was arrested in 2019 after 17 years on the run. He is wanted in Spain for his involvement in the 1987 attack on police in Zaragoze that left 11 dead.

But this is the first time he publicly admitted his involvement in the assassination of Mayor Victor Legorburu Ibarreche. Three other ETA members were prosecuted for the murder but were never convicted due to Spain’s 1977 Amnesty Law.

The documentary, built around a long interview between the Basque terrorist and Spanish journalist Jordi Evole, has caused revolt even before its premiere.

More than 500 people, including prominent Basque thinkers, signed a letter urging the documentary not to be shown in San Sebastian. They said the documentary is “whitewashing” the “tragic history of terrorism in Spain.”

“These days, no one would allow a similar account, justifying other forms of violence, whether ethnic, sexual or social,” they added.

The filmmakers told El Pais that they were “surprised” that people were calling to censor the documentary before they had even seen it. The documentary is produced by Netflix.

“We’re confident in our work. This is not a documentary that whitewashes or justifies ETA,” they added. “It starts with a victim and ends with a victim.”

ETA, founded in 1958 to achieve the independence of the Basque Country and was responsible for the death of more than 800 people, announced that it had abandoned all violent actions in October 2011. In 2018, it formally disbanded.

More than 300 murders thought to have been committed by ETA in Spain remain unsolved.