Career
Barrena is a translator by profession and worked at the Txalaparta publishing house in Tafalla translating Basque and English. Barrena joined Abertzale left (Ezker abertzalea) as a youth. He was a municipal councillor in Berriozar from 1984 to 1999. Barrena was first arrested in 1985 for links to the separatist Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). In 1998, he along with Arnaldo Otegi and Joseba Permach, came to public prominence after the previous leadership of Herri Batasuna (HB) were jailed for links to ETA. Barrena's language skills resulted in him representing HB on an international level. He became a member of HB's national executive in 1998 and was the party's spokesperson from 2001 to 2008. He contested the 1999 regional election in Navarre as an Euskal Herritarrok electoral alliance candidate and was elected to the Parliament of Navarre. In 2001 Barrena became a member of the national executive of the newly formed Batasuna, the successor to HB which had been dissolved. He was the lead candidate at the 2003 regional election in Navarre for the Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea (AuB) electoral alliance but the Supreme Court annulled the list as it considered AuB to be a successor to Batasuna which had been banned in March 2003.
Career
 Barrena is a translator by profession and worked at the Txalaparta publishing house in Tafalla translating Basque and English. Barrena joined Abertzale left (Ezker abertzalea) as a youth. He was a municipal councillor in Berriozar from 1984 to 1999. Barrena was first arrested in 1985 for links to the separatist Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) . In 1998, he along with Arnaldo Otegi and Joseba Permach, came to public prominence after the previous leadership of Herri Batasuna (HB) were jailed for links to ETA. Barrena's language skills resulted in him representing HB on an international level. He became a member of HB's national executive in 1998 and was the party's spokesperson from 2001 to 2008. He contested the 1999 regional election in Navarre as an Euskal Herritarrok electoral alliance candidate and was elected to the Parliament of Navarre. In 2001 Barrena became a member of the national executive of the newly formed Batasuna, the successor to HB which had been dissolved. He was the lead candidate at the 2003 regional election in Navarre for the Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea (AuB) electoral alliance but the Supreme Court annulled the list as it considered AuB to be a successor to Batasuna which had been banned in March 2003.

