José Luis Caso Cortines (Comillas April 15, 1933 – Irun December 11, 1997) was a Spanish politician, a victim of ETA.[1]
Biography
editJosé Luis Caso Cortines was born in Comillas in a large family. Even though he was born in Cantabria, he moved to the Basque Country at the age of 22 in the 50s. He was the founder of Alianza Popular in the Basque country in 1982.[2] Later, he was President of the People's Party of Irun as well as Councillor there, where he was living.[3]
Jose Luis was retired and had been working as a councillor for the People's Party (PP) in Renteria ( Guipuzcoa) since 1995.[4] The attack took place at the end of 1997. He also belonged to the Board of Directors of Guipuzcoa's PP and the Board of Directors of PP of the Basque Country. He was a married man with two children and a granddaughter. At the time of the murder, he was 64 years old of age.
His successor in office, Manuel Zamarreño Villoria, was murdered a few months later, in June 1998.
Murder
editIn December 1997, ETA members Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, alias Txapote, Irantzu Gallastegui Sodupe, alias Amaya, Sebastián Lara Mendiaraz, Alfonso Sebastian Iriarte, Jesus Maria Lombide Lorente, Maria Cristina Gete Echevarria and Ana Belén Egües Gurruchaga formed part of the Donosti command. They had intended to attack PP[5] and Spanish Socialist Workers' Party councillors in the Basque Country.[6] On December 11, 1997, José Luis Caso was in Trinche bar in Irun.[7] He used to go there every day. He was located at the back of the bar having a drink. At 22:54, Jose Luis was approached by an individual who fired at him, reaching the right parieto-temporo-occipital.[8][9] José Luis died instantly from this shot.[10]
The shooter, whose identity was not identified, threatened five customers and the owner of the bar with a revolver to ensure they would not follow him.[11] After the police officers arrived, the judge of guard ordered the lifting of the corpse around 0:30 p.m. The following day, thousands of people marched in San Sebastian in protest against this murder.[12][13]
The Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court issued the judgment nº 44/2006,[14] dating back to June 30, 2006. The accused were acquitted of the crime of murder, which they were accused of by the public prosecutor, due to lack of proof.
After this attack, there was no claim of responsibility by ETA in the following days. However, the judgement was that they were responsible.[15]
Bibliography
edit- MERINO, A., CHAPA, A., Raíces de Libertad. pp. 139–151. FPEV (2011). ISBN 978-84-615-0648-4 (in spanish)
References
edit- ^ "José Luis Caso (in english)". www.fpev.es. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Memoria de vida". www.rtve.es. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Prefiero que el tiro me lo peguen a mí que a un escolta". El País (in Spanish). 1997-12-13. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "José Luis Caso Cortines". Partido Popular (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "ABC (Madrid) - 12/12/1997, p. 1 - ABC.es Hemeroteca". hemeroteca.abc.es. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "ETA asesina de un tiro en la cabeza a un concejal del Partido Popular de Rentería". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "ABC (Madrid) - 13/12/1997, p. 26 - ABC.es Hemeroteca". hemeroteca.abc.es. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "ETA asesina a un concejal del PP de Rentería". El País (in Spanish). 1997-12-12. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "ABC SEVILLA (Sevilla) - 12/12/1997, p. 19 - ABC.es Hemeroteca". hemeroteca.sevilla.abc.es. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Las masacres de Zaragoza y Vallecas, el concejal del PP José Luis Caso y dos víctimas más - In Memoriam". Libertad Digital (in European Spanish). 11 December 2011. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "José Luis Caso Cortines : Mapa del terror" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Clamor en San Sebastián: "Así, siempre unidos"". El País (in Spanish). 1997-12-14. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Irún se vuelca en la despedida de Caso". El País (in Spanish). 1997-12-14. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ Sentencia 44/2006. "Asesinato José Luis Caso" (PDF).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Condena de 30 años de prisión para 'Txapote' por ordenar el asesinato de José Luis López de Lacalle". El Correo (in European Spanish). 2009-01-22. Retrieved 2019-03-03.