The autopsy determined the etarra "Txirrita" did not commit suicide.
- Bernardo Bidaola, a 22-year-old Estella and ETA activist, died in April or May 1976, after officially committing suicide in the framework of an operation. 201 In May 2018, it was seen that Coroner Paco Etxeberria had performed the autopsy on his body and that the official version had said it was false.
On 25 April 1976, an ETA pm command crossed the border between Sara and Etxalar, near Leizarreta. The group consisted of Iñaki Hernández, 18, and three of the ethnic groups headed for Donostia-San Sebastián: Eugenio Talavera Tala, Gregorio Garitaonandia Borda and Bernardo Bidaola Txirrita. One of the etarras suffered a sprain in the ankle, which slowed the girl's march. The fact is that the Civil Guard saw them and started shooting at the group. The first to receive a shot in which Hernandez was wounded, who was in the lead. The other three teammates managed to escape, but another bullet crossed the ankle of the Bidaola and leaked, where he was trapped by one of his legs.
Tala and Borda managed to escape and that very morning they arrived in San Juan de Luz. They saw Hernandez lying on the ground and Bidaola told them “go ahead.” It would be the last time you'd seen it. The purpose of the command was to cover a leak that was listed in the Martutene prison of Donostia-San Sebastián, but when the leak was almost ready, a member was reached in a control with material for the tunnel construction.
On the same morning of 25 April, the Civil Guard communicated the facts to the Air and Border Police of Hendaia, who had injured Hernandez and Bidaola, but the latter managed to escape. If he had escaped, how did they know his name, and even more so when he had false documents? Txirrita's friends and acquaintances carried out numerous explorations around the missing person, but they did not see any trace of his whereabouts. Hours later, the Civil Guard recorded in Tolosa the family home of the militant, without communicating to the family what happened, according to the same source.
A week later ETA pm issued a statement stating that Bidaola had been arrested by the Civil Guard and transferred to an irregular Pamplona headquarters. According to a second statement, he witnessed a CRS patrol observing how two of the wounded, detained in a Land Rover, were carried out after being arrested.
On 27 May, the family received a letter sealed with insults in Madrid saying that Bidaola had been killed for revenge and that he had not been convicted. A few days ago, in Hendaia, two countryman policemen dressed in paisano ' s clothes disappeared, and they were said to avenge themselves. The bodies of two police officers allegedly killed by ETA pm appeared buried under a bunker on a Angelu beach in 1977.
Call informing of the corpse
On May 28, a call received by Ziburu's Askatasuna magazine alerted the Ertzaintza to the exact location of the body of Bidaola, in the place known as Arondoa. Nine people approached the appointed place, including family members, and found him “seated” next to a tree and without major signs of decomposition, although he had been missing for a month; about ten meters, held on another tree, there was a shotgun from the Remington brand. According to the Spanish Government, the militant committed suicide. In the Spanish press at that time there were several versions, including the fact that he was murdered by his colleagues to “end his suffering”. According to several sources, the body had three shots, one on the head and the other on the head.
In 2016, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death, family and friends began a new investigation. The Spanish authorities had no response to the requests made, but the Baiona Prosecutor made available the full report that was produced at the time by the French police. So they looked at the pictures of the body, the police reports and the autopsy done. According to the same source, the injured only had a shot in the ankle, which caused a clean hole without hemorrhage. The report did not specify the cause of death. In 2018, Paco Etxeberria performed a second autopsy and confirmed that he had only one wound, according to the same sources. No trace of suicide.
The case remains unresolved and one of the main questions is in the air: Was Bidaola arrested in Pamplona? The report of victims prepared by the Secretariat of Peace and Coexistence of the Basque Government in 2015 included a list of issues requiring further investigation.
Oñatiarra Ander Lizarralde wrote in 2016 a book on the case. At that time, we received information about the book in this news item.
The president of the Euskal Memoria Foundation, Iñaki Egaña, also wrote on the subject in the Gara newspaper last Sunday.
The singer Urko (José Antonio Larrañaga) offered the song to Bernardo.
2008an Fernando Grande Marlaska epailearen aginduz atxilotu zutenean Ibai Azkonak pairatu zituen torturak aitortu ditu Nafarroako Gobernuak. Euskalerria Irratian, pauso honek suposatzen duena azaldu du Azkonak.
