03/08/2008
Thousands of people gathered on Saturday for the funeral of a small-town Socialist politician murdered in a shooting blamed on the armed Basque group ETA.
Isaias Carrasco, a former Socialist town councilor in Arrasate/Mondragón, was shot three times in his car on Friday as he prepared to go to his job as a clerk in a highway toll booth.
A large crowd of people, some holding wreaths, gathered at the town hall in Arrasate/Mondragón for Carrasco's funeral procession, which followed a wake for the 42-year-old father of three.
Carrasco was a well-known, popular figure in his working-class neighbourhood of Arrasate/Mondragón. He coached a children's soccer team and dabbled in construction work, according to local newspapers.
Bishop of Donostia-San Sebastián Juan María Uriarte officiated the funeral mass. Attendants included several prominent officials such as Spanish Vice President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, President of the Spanish Senate Javier Rojo; Basque PM Juan José Ibarretxe; Catalan PM José Montilla and regional presidents of Cantabria, Asturias and Andalucía Miguel Ángel Revilla, Vicente Álvarez Areces and Manuel Chaves, respectively.
Prominent political leaders present at the funeral included socialists José Blanco, Jesús Eguiguren and Patxi López; conservative Eduardo Zaplana; IU leader Gaspar Llamazares and nationalist leaders Iñigo Urkullu and Unai Ziarreta.
Carrasco was cremated after the funeral. His family, who had requested that media remain outside the church, later attended a private service and the cremation itself.
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