Santiago Brouard or Santi Brouard (1919 in Lekeitio – 20 November 1984 in

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) was a doctor and Basque politician. He was one of the leaders of Herri Batasuna, and deputy mayor of Bilbao. He was killed by the Spanish government's

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are ...

, the

Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación GAL (an acronym for ''Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación'', "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups") were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government to fight against ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant gro ...

(GAL), in one of its highest-profile acts. Broaurd was shot by GAL gunmen Luis Morcillo and Rafael López Ocaña as he left his paediatric clinic in Bilbao.Rafael Lopez Ocana
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Early years

Born in the town of Lekeitio, he studied medicine in the university of

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

. After finishing his studies, he went back to the Basque Country and specialized in paediatrics in Basurtu hospital. He married

Teresa Aldamiz Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Classical Greek, Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') " ...

, with whom he had three children. He helped create the first

ikastola An (, plural ) is a type of primary and secondary school in the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and (to a much lesser extent) the French Basque Country (see Basque Country) in which pupils are taught either entirely or predominantly in the ...

s (schools where lessons were given in Basque language) in Bizkaia.

Joining politics

In 1974, Brouard had to escape to the Northern Basque Country (French side of the Basque Country) after he treated an

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, ...

member who had been shot by the Spanish police. There he met leading ETA members, such as Argala. He took part in the creation of the KAS alternatiba when Franco's regime was about to end. Brouard was one of the creators of EHAS, the group that after 1977 would be known as

HASI People's Socialist Revolutionary Party ( eu, Herri Alderdi Sozialista Iraultzailea; HASI) was a non-legal Basque political party, considered commonly to be the political branch of ETA. It always ran as part of the coalition of the Basque National ...

. Brouard was named president of HASI and when Herri Batasuna was created, he became a member of that party. He always saw himself as Basque nationalist and socialist. When he returned from exile, he resumed work as a doctor and remained active in politics. He was sent to prison in 1983 together with other Herri Batasuna members accused of singing the Basque fighters' song

Eusko Gudariak ''Eusko Gudariak'' (originally spelt ''Euzko Gudariak'', "Basque Soldiers") was the republican anthem of the Eusko Gudarostea, the army of the Basque Autonomous Government during the Spanish Civil War. The song used to refer to the defense of the ...

when the Spanish King

Juan Carlos I Juan Carlos I (;, * ca, Joan Carles I, * gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...

went to

Gernika Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

. They interrupted his speech and all members who were singing had to be led out of the building, amid protests. He became a member of the National Executive of Herri Batasuna, and later became a deputy in the Spanish parliament in Madrid. At the same time, he was a deputy mayor of Bilbao.

Death

Santi Brouard had been warned that right-wing Spanish paramilitary groups had targeted him, but he said he would not flee and that he would not lock his office door because of it. On 20 November 1984 Luis Morcillo and Rafael López Ocaña shot him dead at his workplace. The day on which they killed Brouard was the anniversary of the deaths of both José Antonio Primo de Rivera and

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

. The police investigation identified and accused Morcillo and López Ocaña of killing Brouard, but a judge in the

Audiencia Nacional of Spain The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...

released them from prison in 1999. In 2013, Morcillo stated that the killing was ordered by Guardia Civil commander Rafael Masa, probably at the instigation of Julián Sancristóbal, then a State Security official. The killers were paid 7.5 m pesetas by the Ministry of the Interior.Antonio Rubio, "Yo asesiné a Brouard", '' El Mundo'', 15 April 2013

Recognitions

* The mayor of

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

named a street after Brouard in the neighbourhood of Ametzola. * The mayor of Lekeitio named the public sportsfield of the town after him.

References

External links

Santi Brouard. Euskal Herria osagai. Duingastuna omen
Documentary made by the popular movement 'Euskal Herria osagai' in Lekeitio. *
With Santi Brouard after Hasi's congress
Interview in the magazine

Argia ''Argia'' is a genus of damselflies of the family Coenagrionidae and of the subfamily Argiinae. It is a diverse genus which contains about 114 species and many more to be described. It is also the largest genus in Argiinae. They are found in th ...