Enrique Rodríguez Galindo
Enrique Rodríguez Galindo was a Spanish brigadier general of the Civil Guard, who was sentenced to 71 years in prison in 2000 for the kidnapping and murder of the alleged ETA members José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala in the so-called Antiterrorist Liberation Groups case.
Enrique Rodriguez Galindo was born on 5 February 1939 in Granada, Andalusia, Spain, to a non-commissioned officer in the Civil Guard. In 1958, he entered the Military Academy of the Civil Guard of Úbeda, Province of Jaén. After graduating second in his cohort, he joined the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, where he graduated as a lieutenant in 1965. Upon graduation, Galindo went through various assignments at various localities, first at Cantavieja, then at the former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea. Subsequently, he was assigned to the now defunct Traffic Subsector of Guipúzcoa, in San Sebastián. On 25 May 1980, after having obtained the job of commander, he was required to find out if he was a volunteer to fill a vacancy in the San Sebastián Command – Intxaurrondo Barracks, then in full growth and expansion.[failed verification] After the departure of the various chiefs and second chiefs of the command, he was assuming the competences and sometimes carrying out the accidental or interim leadership of the Intxaurrondo Command, enhancing the work of the Information Service, beginning to achieve results – detention of different commands legal and released, both from the Autonomous Anticapitalist Commandos, as well as from ETA political-military and ETA.[citation needed] During that time, he participated in the arrest of Jesús María Zabarte, and José Antonio López Ruiz alias Kubati, both operations, thanks to the information obtained through the surveillance of the targets.[failed verification]
Member of the paramilitary organization GAL
On 20 March 1995, the remains of two people were discovered in the municipality of Busot, province of Alicante. Chief Inspector Jesús García García identified them as José Ignacio Zabala and José Antonio Lasa, ETA members who had disappeared in Bayonne, France. Being covered with quicklime, he sensed that they could be victims of the GAL. The judicial procedure was opened by the National Audience. After the statements of several witnesses, Rodríguez Galindo was charged by the Audience of belonging to an armed gang on 19 March 1998, for ordering the kidnapping and death of the ETA members. He was in preventive detention between 22 May and 2 August 1996, due to well-founded suspicions of his possible criminal responsibility, and again between September 1997 and June 1998. He testified in court as a defendant on 16 December 1999.
Drug trafficking and trafficking in women
During his career, he was accused by different media — Diario 16, Egin and Egunkaria — of being linked to drug trafficking networks and trafficking in women. He was denounced but the case was closed by the San Sebastián Investigating Court, which considered that the accusations were "simple rumors that have not been proven". Galindo denounced the Diario 16 and Egin newspapers for publishing these news, but lost the respective trials in 1999 and 2000, both by the Supreme Court. He also denounced the Basque group Negu Gorriak for the lyrics of the song Ustelkeria ("Rottenness"), in which the group echoed the news published in Egunkaria, although the Civil Guard ended up losing the lawsuit on 9 June 2000.
Tortures
The filmmaker Ion Arretxe accused him in El País of having twisted his testicles when he was detained in 1985 with Mikel Zabalza at the Intxaurrondo barracks: '"They took me to a river, they put two plastic bags on me that they closed with electrical tape and for hours they submerged me in the water. They transferred me unconscious to the Intxaurrondo barracks and for three days they tortured me in various ways. I was naked, with a hood covering my head, in an empty apartment where they wouldn't let me sleep and they kept beating me. Galindo even appeared, who took off my hood, asked me if I knew him, to say what he knew and he twisted my testicles".
On 2 February 2021 it was reported that Rodríguez Galindo was in ICU with a serious condition affected by COVID-19 and his wife was also infected. He died on 13 February 2021, in Zaragoza eight days after his 82nd birthday amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.
