Solved case · 1980
The short answer
On 20 September 1980, four off-duty Spanish civil guards were shot dead by ETA gunmen in a bar near Markina in the Basque Country.
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Suggest coverage for 1980 Markina attackThe 1980 Markina attack was a mass shooting carried out by the Basque separatist organisation ETA on 20 September 1980 near the Basque town of Markina (Spanish: Marquina) in Spain. The targets were a group of off-duty civil guards who were eating lunch in a bar in the town. Four civil guards were killed. The attack was among the deadliest of 1980, the year in which ETA killed more people than in any other year.
The shooting was the first ETA attack after the Spanish government had survived a vote of confidence, and the first after the Basque Nationalist Party had agreed to return to the Spanish parliament following a short dispute. The civil guards who were killed had been responsible for guarding the Esperanza y Cía arms factory. Seven months earlier, ETA had ambushed and killed six civil guards who were guarding weapons in transit from the factory in an attack near Ispaster.
The bar normally served around twenty customers at lunchtime and was popular with civil guards, standing about 200 metres from their barracks. Its main entrance was usually closed once the bar had filled, leaving a back entrance for latecomers. At 14:40, eight people were present — two bar workers, two postal workers and the four civil guards — when a man of about 25 entered, had a drink and left. Shortly afterwards, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the bar's owners, who had been clearing tables, answered a knock at the back door. Three men then entered, moved quickly to the guards' table, produced machine guns and shot the four civil guards, who were killed instantly. The attackers escaped in a car that had been hijacked at gunpoint about an hour before the attack; its owner was later found bound and gagged near a hill in the town of Elgóibar. A forensic sweep of the bar recovered numerous parabellum shell casings, a type of ammunition that security forces associated with ETA.
One of those accused of involvement was Jose Ramón Foruria Zubialdea, alias 'Foru,' who was accused of supplying information to ETA's Eibar commando unit, including a plan of the bar. He fled from Spain to Venezuela in 1982 and was extradited back to Spain in September 2003. He admitted having supplied information to ETA but denied involvement in the Markina attack; found guilty, he was sentenced to forty years in prison and released in August 2011 on grounds of ill health. In 1984, Jaime Rementería Beotegui was found guilty of participation in the attack, fined 60 million pesetas and imprisoned; held since August 1983, he was released in January 2004. Fidel González García, who lent his car to the perpetrators and housed them for several days before and after the attack, received the same sentence. Two other defendants were acquitted at the same trial.
ETA gunmen shot dead four off-duty civil guards in a bar near Markina.
Jose Ramón Foruria Zubialdea fled from Spain to Venezuela.
Jaime Rementería Beotegui was imprisoned in connection with the attack.
Jaime Rementería Beotegui was found guilty of participation in the attack.
Jose Ramón Foruria Zubialdea was extradited from Venezuela to Spain.
Jaime Rementería Beotegui was released from prison.
Jose Ramón Foruria Zubialdea was released from prison on grounds of ill health.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Convicted after lending his car to the perpetrators and housing them for several days before and after the attack; received the same sentence.[3]
Found guilty in 1984 of participation in the attack, fined 60 million pesetas and imprisoned; released in January 2004.[3]
Accused of supplying information to ETA's Eibar commando unit, including a plan of the bar; admitted supplying information but denied involvement in the attack; found guilty and sentenced to forty years in prison, and released in August 2011 on grounds of ill health.[3]
Acquitted at the same trial.[3]
Acquitted at the same trial.[3]
From the record
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SOLVEDListenErmua, Biscay, Basque Country, Spain · 1990s
Miguel Ángel Blanco, a 29-year-old councillor in Ermua, Spain, was kidnapped by the Basque separatist group ETA on 10 July 1997 and shot two days later after the Spanish government did not meet ETA's 48-hour deadline; he died of his wounds on 13 July 1997. Two people were tried, beginning in 2006, in connection with the kidnapping and killing.
Credit: GoldorakCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenRoad near Ispaster, Biscay, Basque Country, Spain · 1980s
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A 1980 mass shooting by the Basque separatist organisation ETA at a bar in Zarautz, Spain, killed five people and led to two convictions.
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On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings housing U.S. and French peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 307 people — 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians, and two attackers — in one of the deadliest single-day losses for the U.S. military since World War II.
