Filipe Bidart was the most notable leader of Iparretarrak, the small but brave guerrilla organization that faced the might of the French state between 1973 and 2000.
Iparretarrak, meaning The Northerners, was founded by Bidart and others in 1973, hoping to extend the armed struggle for the liberation of the Basque Country to the much smaller Northern regions under French occupation. They were specially active in the 1980s. Most actions were victimless but in 1982 they killed a gendarme (French military police).
Instead several Iparetarrak activists died in action, while another one, Popo, remains disappeared since 1983.
Filipe Bidart was captured in 1988 in Bokale, near Baiona (Bayonne) and was jailed until 2007, when he obtained conditional freedom. He was however forbidden from entering the Basque Country until 2014 but that limitation has been removed now.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please, be reasonably respectful when making comments. I do not tolerate in particular sexism, racism nor homophobia. The author reserves the right to delete any abusive comment.
Comment moderation before publishing is... ON