September 1982 Rentería attack
| 1982 Errenteria ambush | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Basque conflict | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 ETA | |||||
| Strength | |||||
| 6 | 5 | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
| 0 | 4 killed, 1 wounded | ||||
The September 1982 Rentería attack was an ambush by the
Background
ETA had already killed six people in the area around Rentería between September 1979 and March 1982.
The attack
At 11:30 in the morning, five police officers drove to the Susperregui bar in the village of Franchilla to have lunch. Three of them arrived in uniform in an official car with distinctive official markings, while the other two were wearing civilian clothes and travelling in a car without any official police identification.[3] According to the shop owner, this was the first time in about a month that the police had visited his bar. However, for around a month, five of the six members of the Donosti unit of ETA which would launch the attack, had lain in wait. They had climbed the nearby hills, the Alto de Perurena, in order to spot a suitable target. On 14 September 1982, the ETA members spotted the two vehicles leaving the bar and driving down the road linking San Sebastián and Rentería in the direction of Rentería. In the vicinity of the Landarbaso caves in Aitzbitarte, about three hundred metres from Listorreta park, the police vehicles were forced to slow down at a very steep curve, greatly reducing their speed.[3] On that corner, near a small ravine, and about half a mile from where they had lunch, the two cars were subjected to crossfire from automatic weapons.[3] The police tried to repel the attack by opening fire with their pistols, but without managing to hit any of their attackers, who were protected by the terrain. Two of the officers, Jesús Ordóñez Pérez and Juan Seronero Sacristán, were killed instantly. The other three, Alfonso López Fernández, Antonio Cedillo Toscano and Juan José Torrente Terrón, were all seriously wounded. Both police vehicles were hit by a total of nearly 100 bullets.
One of the plainclothes officers, Antonio Cedillo, despite being seriously wounded, was still able to fire at the fleeing ETA members. He then made his way on foot down the road towards Rentería, collapsing 100 metres from the attack in a large pool of blood. A civilian, Jose Elicegui, who lived in a village a few metres from the road junction linking the towns of Oyarzun, Astigarraga and Renteria, was on his way to work when he spotted the police officer and stopped to pick him up to take him to hospital.[3] However, Elicegui was pursued by three ETA members who forced him to stop. After searching his van and finding the wounded police officer, they finished Cedillo off with a shot to the neck.[3]
The other three ETA members fled on foot from the scene and hijacked a car to escape. Alfonso Lopez Fernandez, one of the two remaining policemen, died while being transported to the Red Cross hospital in San Sebastián. The remaining officer, Juan José Torrente Terrón, was operated upon arrival to the hospital and, after more than three hours in surgery, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in a coma.[3] Torrente took over nine months to recover from his wounds.
The Civil Guard conducted an intensive search of the area and collected a lot of shell casings from 9mm Parabellum, a type of ammunition commonly used by ETA. The bodies of the policemen killed remained at the scene until the arrival of forensics. ETA claimed responsibility for the attack the same evening in a statement released through the Egin newspaper.
Funerals
The funerals for those killed took place at 7:00 pm the same day in the Civil Government of Guipúzcoa. The Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, the Interior Minister Juan José Rosón, and the Inspector General of Police, Felix Alcala Galiano, travelled to San Sebastian to attend the funerals. Also present were the lehendakari, Carlos Garaikoetxea, the government delegate in the Basque Country, Jaime Mayor Oreja, civil and military governors, the mayor of San Sebastián, Jesus Maria Alcain and Deputy General Javier Aizarna. The main political parties in the area, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) and People's Alliance sent representatives to meet and console the families and victims of the dead.
Reactions
The Archbishop of San Sebastián issued a communique calling for an end to the killings in the Basque Country.
Police investigations
Police sources identified Manuel Urionabarrenechea, alias Manu, as one of the principal organisers of the attack. Manu had been born in
On 15 June 1984, Jesús María Zabarte Arregui surrendered to police after a confrontation which saw his two companions killed.[10] Zabarte admitted to participating in a number of ETA killings, among them the Rentería attack.[11] In 1985, Zabarte was sentenced to 300 years in prison for his part in various attacks, including the Rentería attack.[12]
References
- ^ a b Listado de asesinados por ETA facilitado por la Fundación Víctimas del Terrorismo, El Pais, accessed 2 June 2012
- ISBN 144434272X, 9781444342727
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cuatro policías nacionales asesinados por ETA, La Vanguardia, p3, 15 September 1982
- ^ a b c d Dejad de matar, La Vanguardia, p15, 16 September 1982
- ^ Un sargento de la policía se suicida disparándose un tiro en la cabeza, El Pais, 16 September 1982
- ^ ABC (Sevilla), 13 September 1988, p15
- ^ Detenidos en Bilbao seis presuntos colaboradores de ETA, El Pais, 3 June 1979
- ^ Dos heridos en un tiroteo en Vitoria entre la Guardia Civil y un presunto miembro de ETA, El Pais, 22 August 1989
- ^ ABC (Sevilla), 18 September 1989, p19
- ^ Dos 'etarras' muertos y otro detenido en un espectacular enfrentamiento con la Guardia Civil en Hernani El Pais, 16 June 1984
- ^ ETA planeaba matar a Barrionuevo en San Sebastián, cuando viajara al funeral de algún policía asesinado, El Pais, 13 July 1984
- ^ ABC (Madrid), 8 October 2003, p19