Spanish court upholds arrest warrant for ETA fugitive found alive in Venezuela earthquake rubble

The violent earthquakes that struck Venezuela in late June, killing over 4,500 people, have led to the unexpected discovery of a long-sought fugitive. Luis María Olalde Quintela, known as 'Txistu', a former member of the Basque separatist group ETA, was pulled alive from the rubble of his residential building in the San Bernardino neighbourhood of Caracas. His wife, Alazne Solabarrieta Lecea, died in the collapse.

A decades-old attack

Olalde is suspected of participating in an ETA attack on a Spanish Civil Guard patrol on 13 January 1979, between the Gipuzkoan towns of Azpeitia and Azkoitia in the Basque Country. According to the indictment brought by victims' association Dignidad y Justicia (DyJ), two officers, Francisco Gómez Jiménez and Miguel García Bayo, were killed, and several others were wounded. Another source reports that a third guard, Francisco Mota Calvo, died later that day when a bomb was accidentally triggered while inspecting the scene. Olalde fled Spain for Venezuela later that same year.

Flight to Venezuela

Olalde arrived in Venezuela in the 1980s, along with other ETA members, under an alleged verbal asylum agreement between the Spanish government led by Felipe González and Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez. In 2003, Spanish justice requested his extradition along with five other etarras. Olalde surrendered to the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor's Office, but the Venezuelan Supreme Court granted him "full liberty" in May 2003, citing procedural errors in the extradition request.

Although it was estimated that the prescriptive period would expire on 16 May 2023, due to the passage of twenty years since the last decision of the Venezuelan Supreme Court dated 16 May 2003, the truth is that this decision did not become final, since by order of 9 June 2003 the extradition of the accused was proposed to the government.

The legal response

On 25 June, the same day Olalde's rescue became known, judge Francisco de Jorge of Spain's Audiencia Nacional rejected arguments from Olalde's defence that the crimes had prescribed and ordered that the international arrest warrant remain active. The defence had argued that the 20-year statute of limitations had expired in May 2023. The judge countered that the 2003 Venezuelan ruling never became definitive, as a subsequent order on 9 June 2003 had proposed extradition to the Venezuelan authorities. It is important to note, however, that the decision is not final and has already been appealed by Olalde's lawyer.

Victims push for action

On 7 July, judge Santiago Pedraz admitted a criminal complaint filed by DyJ, which called the discovery an "exceptional procedural opportunity" to pursue justice long frustrated by Olalde's flight. The association warned of "a certain risk of new concealment, displacement or disappearance of the accused if action is not taken urgently" and requested immediate communication of the international arrest warrant via Interpol.

His location constitutes an exceptional procedural opportunity to make effective a claim long frustrated by the flight.

Olalde is one of 14 ETA members about whom the Audiencia Nacional recently requested information from Venezuelan authorities within a case opened in 2024 on the self-styled Collective of Basque Political Fugitives (EIPK). A Guardia Civil report from September noted that Olalde is among roughly twenty ETA militants "considered fugitives from justice," and an old photograph of him still appears on the force's website seeking citizen collaboration.

The earthquake toll

According to an official report published on Telegram by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, the death toll from the quake stands at 4,561, with the number of injured remaining at 16,740. Portuguese Foreign Ministry data cited in one report indicates that at least 114 Portuguese nationals and people of Portuguese descent died, with 54 still missing.