Fernando Aristizábal

Fernando Aristizábal, Irun, 1917

Fernando Aristizábal was a member of the Basque Nationalist Party from the age of fifteen.

At the beginning of the (Spanish Civil) war, he enlisted in the militia of the PNV and participated in the defence of Irún and San Sebastian, armed with a private shotgun and nothing like a military uniform but his beret. Later, the battalion fought in Vizcaya and Santander.

When the Basque troops had to surrender to Franco, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death (but the sentence was commuted). He was released in 1943.

That same year he joined the clandestine paramilitary organization Euzko Naia, aimed at maintaining order in Euskadi (the Basque Country within Spain) once disposed of Franco. He lived underground until 1953.

From 1979 till 1983, Aristizábal was a deputy of the parliamentary group in the Madrid Basque Congress. 

Aristizabal among other prisoners sentenced to death in the Central Prison