Irunberri, 1990

On June 25, 1990, at 12:00, Jon Lizarralde, Susana Arregi and German Rubenach went down to bathe in the Irati river, in the Irunberri Gorge. They were ETA militants, part of the Navarre commando, and they had been in a tent for a week, receiving information for an action against the Civil Guard. At that moment, a Nissan Patrol passed by and Sergeant Jose Luis Hervás got down to identify them. The activists shot and killed the officer. Then they ran away. In the following twenty hours, the Civil Guard closed the two exits of the canyon, and it was not known what was happening inside. The consequences were dire: at 20:45 German Rubenach was found shot in the head; took him to the hospital, and saved his life. The next day, at 08:45, the bodies of Jon Lizarralde and Susana Arregi were found. Susana was shot twice in the head, Jon was shot in the head and water from the river in his lungs. The Spanish Ministry of the Interior said they had committed suicide and closed the case. But the official version was not given much credibility on the street, neither by ordinary people, nor by politicians, nor by many organizations. The incident caused a scandal, and many protests, even internationally. The case of Irunberri became a black hole in the contemporary history of the Basque Country. Until today This book is the result of a thorough research. The research team has interviewed new witnesses, analyzed the summary, analyzed the periodical archives and drawn clear conclusions, preparing a new narrative, accurate and convincing. This book is the chronicle of that criminal investigation, written in the lively style of a report and reads like a novel.