During General Mola's visit to Vitoria-Gasteiz on 27 March 1937, he ordered the shooting of the 16 detainees in the territorial prison of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Through these shootings, they tried to intimidate the population and send a warning to the political forces against the uprisings. This was the antecedent of the attack that the Franco forces had to carry out against the Biscay front.

On the night of 31 March, representatives of the various ideological currents and political parties imprisoned in the Calle de la Paz prison were released. Using this imagery, they waited outside the prison and were again arrested by a group of civil guards, burners and phalangists.

The detainees were taken up in two vehicles that were ready and the courtship took the A-132 road to Estella. The stop was 16 km from the starting point, at the port of Azazeta. Those who had been illegally arrested were taken out of their vehicles and taken up the mountain. At 70-80 meters from the roadside, the bodies of the "16 of the Azazas" were shot and left half-buried in a previously dug pit.

• Teodoro González de Zarate, Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, affiliated with the Republican Left.
• Francisco Díaz de Arcaya, tournularia, Councillor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, member of the PSOE.
• José Luis Abaitua Pérez, head of the ABB of EAJ-PNV.
• Víctor Alejandre, from Gaubea, a militant of the Radical Socialist Republican Party.
• Eduardo Covo González, Vitoria-Gasteiz, telegraph worker.
• Jaime Conca Amorós, olive harvester from Vitoria.
• José Domingo Elorza San Vicente, painter from Vitoria, affiliated with the PSOE.
• Constantino González Santamaría, barber from Vitoria.
• Francisco Garrido Sáez de Ugarte, Adjuster, Apinaician, CNT affiliate.
• Prisco Hermua Arrízola, Vitoria-Gasteiz day labourer, member of CNT.
• Antonio García Bengoetxea, mechanic of Vitoria.
• Jesús Estrada Ábalos, mechanic and member of the PCE.
• Daniel García de Albéniz Azazeta, farmer of Maeztu, farmer of the CNT.
• Manuel José Collel Aguilá, a Vitoria-Gasteiz railway worker affiliated with the Republican Union.
• Manuel Hernández Ibañez de Garaio, Vitoria-Gasteiz railway worker.
• Casimiro Cerrajería Zarranz, Vitoria-Gasteiz pyrotechnic, affiliated with UGT.

Although the local press tried to silence the murder, the news of the massacre soon spread among the population and shook the margins. Since then, Franco’s forces tried to justify forms of repression and instead of murders without trial, which were punished by the military justice through the War Council, they were killed by means of shootings.

In 1939, the priest Pedro Anitua secretly exhumed the remains of Teodoro González de Zarate, José Luis Abaitua, José Collell Aguila and Manuel Hernández and buried them in the Santa Isabel cemetery in Vitoria. The remains of 12 other people are buried in the Savior’s cemetery, after the work that was done in 1978 to recover the bodies.

Through this event to commemorate the dead, the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the Provincial Council of Álava, the General Assemblies of Álava and local institutions, in addition to evoking the massacre of the “16 dead of the Azazazeta”, want to pay tribute to all the victims of the Franco dictatorship in the Historical Territory of Álava.