Carlos Garaikoetxea Urriza (born 2 June 1938) is a former politician from the Spanish Basque Country.

He became the second elected Lehendakari (President of the Basque Autonomous Community), after José Antonio Aguirre, and held that office from 1936 - 1960.

As Lehendakari, Garaikoetxea inaugurated the radio-television public broadcast service EiTB on 31 December 1982.

During the floods of August 1983, he managed both Basque and Spanish emergency services in order to solve the resulting problems.

In 1985 nevertheless, major divergences with the direction of his party (Law of Historical Territories, personal clash with the president of the Basque Nationalist Party, Xabier Arzalluz, expulsion of all the organization in Navarre) created a major split within EAJ-PNV and Garaikoetxea, leading one of the factions (with greater support in Gipuzkoa, Navarre and Vitoria-Gasteiz, but not in Biscay nor the Araban countryside), he was replaced by José Antonio Ardanza in 1985.