José Luis Caso Cortines (

Comillas Comillas is a small township and municipality in the northern reaches of Spain, in the autonomous community of Cantabria. The Marquessate of Comillas, a fiefdom of Spanish nobility, holds ceremonial office in the seat of power at a small castle ...

April 15, 1933 –

Irun Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as a Roman-Vasconic town. During the Span ...

December 11, 1997) was a Spanish politician, a victim of

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

Biography

José Luis Caso Cortines was born in

in a large family. Even though he was born in

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

, 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. Later, he was President of the People's Party of

as well as

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

there, where he was living. Jose Luis was retired and had been working as a councillor for the People's Party (PP) in Renteria (

Guipuzcoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

) since 1995. 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

In December 1997,

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 and

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...

councillors in the Basque Country. On December 11, 1997, José Luis Caso was in ''Trinche'' bar in

. 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. José Luis died instantly from this shot. 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. After the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

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. The Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court issued the judgment nº 44/2006, 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.

Bibliography

* MERINO, A., CHAPA, A., ''Raíces de Libertad''. pp. 139–151. FPEV (2011). (''in spanish'')

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caso Cortines, José Luis People's Party (Spain) politicians People killed by ETA (separatist group) Assassinated Spanish politicians 1933 births 1997 deaths People from Cantabria 1990s assassinated politicians in Europe Assassinated politicians in 1997