José San Martín Bretón was killed on his way to work at the Guardia Civil barracks in Algorta, in the municipality of Getxo, on 26 February 1992. A contemporary report by journalist Aitor Guenaga Bidaurrazaga in El País described the attack by two ETA members: they fired two shots at close range into the Civil Guard officer’s head. More than 110 students from the University of Valladolid heard his son, Koldo San Martín, recount the case during a visit to Vitoria on Friday 6 November.
The visit, organised for students in Law and DADE, also included students of Criminology. It featured a meeting at Vitoria City Hall and a visit to the Juntas Generales de Álava. The provincial assembly approves Álava’s regional rules and budget, chooses the Diputado General and scrutinises the work of the Diputación Foral de Álava.
Professors of Legal History and Procedural Law organised the programme, with support from the Faculty of Law’s Dean’s Office and the Vice-Rectorate for Students. The final stop was the Memorial de las Víctimas del Terrorismo. Students toured the permanent exhibition before hearing San Martín’s testimony and taking part in a discussion. A public estimate cited by El Correo contributor Alberto Alonso Martín puts the number killed by ETA and organisations associated with it at about 850. That figure sits within a broader toll of nearly 1,000 deaths from political violence in Spain’s recent history.
The museum includes a recreation of the car bomb that exploded at the Zaragoza Civil Guard barracks, along with an exact replica of the small cell in which Ortega Lara was held for 532 days. The visit focused on victims, unlike the alleged crimes examined in a separate Gijón investigation.
According to the account of the killing, San Martín was approached from behind and shot twice in the head. Witnesses said one attacker shouted “¡Gora ETA!” before the assailants escaped in a car stolen the previous day.
The attackers knew his route because José Manuel Fernández Pérez de Nanclares, an ETA member who regularly travelled on the same train as San Martín from Guecho to Bilbao, passed the information to the Comando Vizcaya. The group carried out the attack.
