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José Barrionuevo

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José Barrionuevo
Barrionuevo in March 1986
Minister of Interior
In office
3 December 1982 – 12 July 1988
Prime MinisterFelipe González
Preceded byJuan José Rosón
Succeeded byJosé Luis Corcuera
Personal details
Born
José Barrionuevo Peña

(1942-03-13) 13 March 1942 (age 82)
Berja, Spain
Political partySocialist Workers' Party

José Barrionuevo (born 13 March 1942) is a Spanish politician. He was the minister of interior from 1982 to 1988. He was jailed from 1998 to 2001 due to his involvement in a dirty war against ETA members.

Early life and education

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Barrionuevo was born in Berja near Almería in 1942.[1] He obtained bachelor degrees in law and journalism.[2]

Career and activities

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Barrionuevo was a member of the pro-Franco student union where he likely met Rodolfo Martín Villa, then interior minister.[3] Barrionuevo became a member of the Socialist Workers' Party.[4] He served as deputy mayor of Madrid and was in charge of the municipal police.[3]

Barrionuevo was a member of the Parliament representing Madrid for four terms in the legislatures of III, IV, V, and VI.[2] He was appointed interior minister on 3 December 1982 in the first government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.[5] He succeeded Juan José Rosón in the post.[3] It was Rosón who advised Gonzalez to appoint Barrionuevo as interior minister.[3]

Barrionuevo followed the security policies set by his predecessor.[6] However, in early 1983 he and other security officials created a new operational strategy known as Plan Zona Especial Norte (Spanish: Plan ZEN, Plan Special Zone North) to reduce and eliminate the effects of the separatist group ETA in the Basque region.[6] Two former interior ministers, namely Rodolfo Martín Villa and Juan José Rosón, also involved in the development of the plan.[6] In addition, Barrionuevo consolidated the police forces forming a security secretariat.[6]

Barrionuevo was in office until 12 July 1988 when José Luis Corcuera replaced him as interior minister in a cabinet reshuffle.[7] Barrionuevo became the minister of transport, tourism and communications in the same reshuffle.[7] Barrionuevo was among the classical social democrats like José Maravall, Javier Solana and Joaquín Almunia who served as a minority group in the cabinets led by Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.[4]

Controversy

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Barrionuevo was unpopular during his tenure as interior minister due to his harsh and violent policies against Basque separatists.[8] In May 1994, newly appointed interior minister Juan Alberto Belloch, who was also justice minister in the cabinet of Felipe González, began to reorganize the ministry of interior.[9] A network, later called GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación), was discovered as a result of his efforts.[9] Unnamed "authorities" subsequently identified the GAL as "a front for security forces and hired assassins paid with secret government funds."[10]

In addition, on 16 December 1994, two policemen met Judge Baltasar Garzón and told him that Barrionuevo and other senior officials had links to a dirty war against separatists.[11] Based on these statements Barrionuevo and other former security officials were tried in 1996 and "accused of funding and directing more than two dozen murders" of separatists during the 1980s.[12]

On 24 January 1996, he and his former deputy Rafael Vera were found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of their involvement in a "dirty war" against ETA.[13][14][15] They were imprisoned on 29 July 1998.[13][15][16] Therefore, their memberships to the GAL was legally established.[10] However, they have denied the charges,[16] but in 2022 admitted to having ordered the release of Segundo Marey, kidnapped by GAL police operatives under his command.[17]

Barrionuevo and Vera were accompanied and hugged by González on their way to prison, where they served a three-month term.[18] They were pardoned in 2001.[19] In September 2001 Barrionuevo was again tried for his misuse of the public funds which occurred in 1993.[19][20] José Luis Corcuera, who succeeded him as interior minister, was also tried with him.[19] Both were found innocent of embezzlement charges in January 2002.[21]

Personal life

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Barrionuevo is married and has three children.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Marta Del Riego (10 August 2010). "Barrionuevo, dos metros bajo tierra". Vanity Fair (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Barrionuevo Peña, José" (in Spanish). Congress of Deputies. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Paddy Woodworth (2001). Dirty War, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL and Spanish Democracy. Cork: Cork University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-85918-276-5.
  4. ^ a b Richard Gillespie (1992). "Factionalism in the Spanish Socialist Party" (PDF). ICPS (59).
  5. ^ "Spanish Ex-Aide Indicted in Killing of Basques". The New York Times. 25 January 1996. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d Michiel de Jong (2016). "Spanish Security Forces, Anti-terrorism and the Internal and External Security of Spain, 1959–1992". In R. Beeres; et al. (eds.). NL Arms Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 2016. Nl Arms. The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press. pp. 325–349. doi:10.1007/978-94-6265-135-7_17. ISBN 978-94-6265-135-7.
  7. ^ a b "Gonzalez names new cabinet". Associated Press. 9 July 1988. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  8. ^ Edward Schumacher (27 July 1986). "Changes are few as Spain swears in cabinet". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  9. ^ a b José María Magone (2009). Contemporary Spanish Politics. London; New York: Routledge. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-415-42188-1.
  10. ^ a b "Spanish ex-minister sentenced for 'dirty war' role". CNN. Madrid. 29 July 1998. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  11. ^ José María Maravall; Adam Przeworski (2003). Democracy and the Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 288. ISBN 9780521532662.
  12. ^ "End of an Era". Time. 25 January 1996. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  13. ^ a b "Ex-minister jailed in 'dirty war' scandal". BBC. 29 July 1998. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  14. ^ "Spanish Premier Reported Clear in Basque Deaths". The New York Times. 26 April 1996. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  15. ^ a b "Chronology for Basques in Spain". MAR Data. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  16. ^ a b "'Dirty-war' ex-minister to be denied pardon". Expatica. Madrid. 17 November 2004. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  17. ^ "José Barrionuevo reconoce que dio la orden de liberar a Segundo Marey". www.publico.es. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  18. ^ Alexis Romero; et al. (9 August 2019). "Políticos condenados por su relación con el GAL pasaron menos tiempo en la cárcel que los jóvenes de Altsasu". Publico (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  19. ^ a b c Giles Tremlett (20 September 2001). "Spanish ex-ministers on trial for hush fundscandal". The Guardian. Madrid. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  20. ^ Fernando Jiménez (1998). "Political scandals and political responsibility in democratic Spain". West European Politics. 21 (4): 97. doi:10.1080/01402389808425272.
  21. ^ Ciaran Giles (22 January 2002). "Court absolves former Socialist security ministers of embezzlement charges, finds five officials guilty". AP Worldstream. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2013 – via Highbeam.
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