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Francisco Javier Echevarrieta Ortiz (Bilbao, October 14th, 1944 - Tolosa, June 7th, 1968), better known as Txabi Etxebarrieta, was a militant of the terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna(ETA) in the 1960’s. He was the perpetrator of the first assassination carried out by this organization, and he also was the first ETA militant killed in a confrontation with the Civil Guard, for which he became an icon within the inner circle of the group and the patriotic left of Basque nationalism.

Early Life
Txabi Etxebarrieta era el tercero de cuatro hermanos. Sufrió desde la infancia una bronquitis grave que condicionó toda su vida. Uno de sus hermanos mayores era José Antonio Etxebarrieta, abogado defensor de Xabier Izko de la Iglesia en el Proceso de Burgos que tuvo lugar en 1970. Se licenció en Ciencias Económicas en 1967, en la especialidad de informática por la Universidad del País Vasco.

Txabi Etxebarrieta was the third of four brothers. From childhood he suffered from a terrible case of bronchitis that affected all his life. One of his older brothers was José Antonia Etxebarrieta, a defense lawyer for Xabier Izko de la Iglesia in the Burgos Trials that took place in 1970. He graduated with an Economics degree in 1967, specializing in computing from the University of the Basque Country.

Fifth ETA Assembly
In December of 1966 and March of 1967, he presided over the fifth assembly of the ETA, which would lead to the first split within the organization. In said Assembly, that took place over two parts, tensions broke out between the workers’ current, oriented more towards communism and further away from Basque nationalism, that at the time controlled the direction of the ETA in the interior, and the other two currents, the so-called backward and race focused movement.

Etxebarrieta, his brother José Antonio and José María Eskubi from Navarre were the ones who headed the internal current that expelled the more prominent members of the workers’ current. The first part of the Assembly, held on the December 7th, 1966, in Gaztelu(Guipúzcoa), ratified the expulsion of the workers’ party member Patxi Iturrioz which was decided in advance by the Executive (leadership in exile), thus provoking the split of the workers’ current into a new organization called ETA Berri (ETA nueva, in Spanish), later Komunistak, the embryo of what would later be the Communist Movement of Spain (MCE).

The rest of the militants automatically remained a part of what would be known as the ETA Zaharra (old ETA) until 1968, until it became known as simply the ETA again.

In the second part of the assembly, held in March of 1967 in a house of prayer of the Jesuits of Guetaria, Txabi Etxebarrieta was elected a member of the Central Committee and the Executive Committee of the ETA. In that assembly, futhermore, the first steps began to be made towards the elaboration of their own revolutionary theory; from Etxebarrieta originated the concept of a “Basque working nation”, used by the patriotic left of Basque nationalism since then. Likewise the activity of the organization was divided between four separate fronts: political, military, cultural, and workers’ concerns. In the latter, Etxebarrieta would have a prominent role.

Amongst others, Etxebarrieta incorporated Mario Onaindia in the ETA, as Onaindia described in his biography.

First ETA Assassination
On June 7th, 1968, the car in which Etxebarrieta and Iñaki Sarasketa were traveling was stopped at a Civil Guard checkpoint in Aduna (Guipúzcoa). Fearing that they were discovered, Txabi Etxebarrieta got out of the car and shot the agent, José Pardines Arcay. It was the first assassination carried out by the ETA. ETA had not yet made the decision to carry out an armed struggle and because of this his partner that day, Sarasketa, years after stated:"“I guess that the civil guard noticed that the registration was false. At least, he suspected it. He asked us for the documentation and went around to check the car. Txabi told me “If he discovers it, I will kill him”...I answered him: “That’s not necessary, we will disarm him and leave”... We exited the car. The civil guard turned his back. He was squatting looking at the engine in the back…He muttered: “This doesn’t coincide…” Txabi took out the pistol and shot him. He fell face up. He returned to shoot him three or four more times in the chest. He had taken amphetamines and maybe that influenced it. In whatever case it was an ill-fated day. An error. He was an anonymous civil guard, a poor kid. There was no need for that man to die”."

The Death of Etxebarrieta
Etxebarrieta and Sarasketa fled the scene and took refuge in the house of a priest in Tolosa. After staying sheltered for some hours, they decided to abandon the parish house, being stopped immediately by agents of the Civil Guard that still did not know their identities. During the frisk they didn’t detect the pistol that Sarasketa was hiding, but they did find the pistol on Etxebarrieta, and a shootout began which resulted in the death of Txabi Etxebarrieta from two bullet wounds in Benta Haundi. Iñaki Sarasketa was able to escape the shootout by holding the driver of a car at gunpoint, making him take him to the church of Errezil, where he hid out until he was detained the next day.

Sources close to the patriotic left of the Basque nationalist movement classify this death as an execution on the part of the Civil Guard, despite the contrary claims of Sarasketa:"“In the same way that the amphetamines made him euphoric, two hours after they plunged him into a panic attack. We left the house and we were detained by a pair of the Civil Guard. We both carried a pistol in our belt. First they searched me, and they didn't notice it. I remember that the civil guard that searched Txabi let out a scream. And afterwards, a typical scene of the west, of those to see who shot first… The civil guard shot before I died and I left running… I didn’t know at that moment that Txabi had died… I stopped a car, threatened the driver and forced him to take me in the direction of Régil (near Azpeitia). He happened to be a distant relative of mine. I knew the pistol gave me away and I thought to drop it. The driver asked me not to. If they stopped us it would seem more that I was forcing him to drive. Also he realized I had no intention of harming him, so a few kilometers further he asked me to get out…And I continued walking…”"Afterwards Sarasketa was summoned to a Court Martial, the first since the Spanish Civil War, in which he was condemned to death. With the intercession of Francisco Franco before the General of the Jesuits, the father Pedro Arrupe, the death sentence was commuted to a life sentence; Sarasketa, brutally beaten, was hospitalized in prison, where he spent nine years until the amnesty of 1977.

Consequences
After the death of Txabi, ETA published political pamphlets with the following text:"“In the face of so much sensationalism and so much biased information on the part of the Fascist-Capitalist journalism apparatus, ETA comes forward to make known to the public the death of Xabier Etxebarrieta. Txabi Etxebarrieta was assassinated in Tolosa, there is no doubt. The eye witnesses, the burned holes in the shirt, and the autopsy effectively confirm it. The keepers of the capitalist order show their methods: Txabi Etebarrieta was removed from the car and without even asking for his documents he was handcuffed, put against the wall and killed with a shot to the heart, at point blank(...)”"The second of August, in retaliation for the death of Etxebarrieta and for being considered a torturer, ETA assassinated the police commander Melitón Manzanas who was controlling the state of emergency in the Basque country.

Ten years after the events of Benta Haundi, the ETA also assassinated the sergeant Acedo Panizo, one of the members of the control under which Etxebarrieta died.

During some time there was a bust of Etxebarrieta in the plaza of Urretxindorra, situated in the Bilbao neighborhood of Otxarkoaga, until it was removed by the local government of Bilbao in September of 2004, due to protests from various groups.

Family
He was the uncle of Natxo Etxebarrieata, singer of the Alavés punk rock band Cicatriz.

Literary Work
He was fundamentally a poet and writer. Although unpublished in his life, his work is collected in Poesía y otros escritos. 1961-1967.