ETA (separatist group)

For other uses, see ETA (separatist group) (disambiguation).

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, (ETA)
File:ETAlogo.jpg ETA symbol
Leader	Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina "Txeroki" {cn}
Dates of operation	1959–present
Motives	The creation of an independent socialist Basque Country (Euskal Herria) in Basque-inhabited regions of Spain and France
Active regions	Spain and France (Basque Country)
Ideology	Basque nationalism Marxism-Leninism
Status	Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department Designated as Proscribed Group by the UK Home Office Designated as terrorist group by EU Common Foreign and Security Policy

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA (Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom"; IPA pronunciation: [ˈɛːta]), is an armed Basque nationalist separatist organization.

Founded in 1959, it evolved rapidly from a group advocating traditional cultural ways to an armed group demanding Basque independence. Its ideology is Marxist-Leninist.

All formulations of ETA's goals have centered on sovereignty and self-determination for the Basque Country. ETA's motto is [Bietan jarrai] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("Keep up on both"). This refers to the two figures in the ETA symbol, a snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed fight).

ETA has committed approximately 900 murders and dozens of kidnappings. More than 500 ETA militants are held in prison in Spain and France.

ETA is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by both the Spanish and French authorities as well as the European Union as a whole, the United States, and the United Nations.

Structure

ETA is organized in different talde ("groups"), whose objective is to conduct armed operations in a specific geographic zone; collectively, they are coordinated by the cúpula militar ("military cupola"). To supply the taldes, they maintain safe houses and zulos, small rooms concealed in forests or house attics, used to store arms, explosives or, sometimes, kidnapped people (the Basque word zulo literally means "hole"). Currently the most common commandos are the itinerant ones, not linked to any specific area, and thus, more difficult to capture.

Among its members, ETA distinguishes between legales/legalak ("legal ones"), those members who do not have police records; liberados ("liberated"), exiled to France and on ETA's payroll ; prisoners, serving time scattered across Spain and France; quemados ("burned out"), freed after having been imprisoned; and deportees, expelled by the French government to remote countries where they live free.

The internal organ of ETA is Zutabe ("Column"), replacing the earlier (1962) Zutik.

ETA also promotes the kale borroka ("street fight"), that is, violent acts against public transportation, other political groups and bank's offices, graffiti of political mottos, menaces and general rioting, usually using Molotov cocktails. These groups are made up mostly of young people, who are directed through youth organizations (such as Jarrai, Haika and Segi). Many of the present-day members of ETA started their collaborations with the organization as participants in the kale borroka.

Political support

The political party Batasuna (formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and "Herri Batasuna", banned today by the Spanish Law as a non-democratic organization (Ley de Partidos Políticos), pursues the same political goals as ETA. It generally receives 8 to 15% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community [16].

Batasuna's political status has been a very controversial issue. It is considered by some, including the Spanish courts, to be the political wing of ETA, although the party itself denies that this is the case. The Spanish Cortes (General Courts) began the process of declaring the party illegal in August 2002 by issuing a bill entitled the Ley de Partidos Políticos which bars political parties which may be based on a hatred ideology or which advocate political violence. Many within Basque nationalism strongly disputed this move, which they felt was too draconian or even unlawful: they alleged that any party could be made illegal almost by choice, simply for not clearly stating their opposition to an attack. Defenders of the new law argue that the Ley de Partidos does not necessarily require responses to individual acts of violence, but rather a declaration of principles explicitly rejecting violence as a means of achieving political goals anathema to the state. Batasuna has failed to produce such a statement as of June 2007.

In a parallel trial, the Judge Baltasar Garzón suspended the activities of Batasuna and its headquarters were shut down by police as the nature of the relationship between the political party and ETA were investigated. The Supreme Court of Spain finally declared Batasuna illegal on March 18, 2003. The court considered proven that Batasuna had links with ETA and that it constituted in fact part of ETA's structure.

A new party called Aukera Guztiak (All the Options) was formed ex profeso for the elections to the Basque Parliament of April 2005. Its supporters claimed no heritage from Batasuna, asserting that their aim was to allow Basque citizens to freely express their political ideas, even those of independence. On the matter of political violence, Aukera Guztiak stated their right not to condemn some kind of violence more than other if they did not see it fit (in this regard, the MLNV regards violent police action as violence, which the law does not). Nevertheless, most of their members and certainly most of their leadership were former Batasuna supporters or affiliates. The Spanish Supreme Court unanimously considered the party to be a sequel to Batasuna and declared a ban on it.

After Aukera Guztiak had been banned, and less than two weeks before the election, another political group born as a schism from Herri Batasuna, the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK/PCTV, Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista / Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas) a formerly unknown political party which had no representation in the Autonomous Basque Parliament. PCTV made the announcement that they would apply the votes they obtained to the programme of the now banned Aukera Guztiak platform. This move left no time for the Spanish courts to investigate the PCTV in compliance with the Ley de Partidos before the elections were to be held, which eventually allowed the programme of the illegalized Batasuna to keep being represented without having condemned violence as required by the Ley de Partidos. The bulk of Batasuna supporters voted in this election for PCTV, a virtually unknown political formation until then. PCTV obtained 9 seats (12.44% of votes) at the Basque Parliament [17].

Social support

The roots of ETA's support lie in attempts of the Spanish state under Francisco Franco to destroy Basque nationalism. Since some Basque nationalists had sided with the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, Franco restricted virtually any public expressions of Basque culture and banned all expressions of Basque nationalism, including public display of the nationalist flag (the Ikurriña), the celebration of nationalist holidays, speaking the Basque language in public or teaching the language in schools and even baptizing children with non-Spanish names. However, the territories which were deemed as "loyal" during the Civil War to the Franco uprising were allowed after his victory to keep their limited self-government. These were Álava and Navarre, where Franco supporters (mostly Carlists) sided with Franco from the start, seeing Franco as a leader who would end anticlericalism and violence against the Catholic Church. Conversely, Biscay and Guipuscoa were considered "rebellious" for having sided with Republican Spain during the Civil War. These regions therefore saw their fueros (local councils) abrogated by the Francoist regime.

During Franco's era, ETA had considerable public support beyond the Basque populace, reaching its peak after the 'Burgos Trials' of 1970—which drew international attention to the organization's cause and highlighted the repressive nature of the Franco regime—and their assassination of Almirante Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973 (Carrero Blanco was appointed by Franco as Prime Minister and "strong-man" in the rule of Spain after his death). Spain's transition to democracy from 1975 on and ETA's progressive radicalization have resulted in a steady loss of support, which became especially apparent at the time of their 1997 kidnapping and countdown assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco. Their loss of sympathizers has been reflected in an erosion of support for the political parties identified with the MLNV.

Opinion polls

A more recent poll by the Basque Autonomous Government (December 2006) shows that 88% of the Basques think that it is necessary for all political parties to launch a dialogue, including a debate on the political framework for the Basque Country (86%). 69% support the idea of ratifying the results of this hypothetical multitipartite dialogue through a referendum. This poll also reveals that the hope of a peaceful resolution to the Basque terrorist problem has fallen to 78% (from 90% in April).

These polls did not cover Navarre, where support for Basque nationalist electoral options is weaker (around 25% of population) or the Northern Basque Country where support is even weaker (around 15% of population).

History

During Franco's dictatorship

ETA was founded by young nationalists, who were for a time affiliated with the PNV. Started in 1952 as a student discussion group at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, an offshoot of the PNV's youth group EGI, it was originally called EKIN, from the Basque-language verb meaning "to act"; the name had the meaning "get busy". [18], [19] On July 31, 1959 it reconstituted itself as ETA. Their split from the PNV was apparently because they considered the PNV too moderate in its opposition to Franco's dictatorship. They disagreed with the PNV's rejection of violent tactics and advocated a Basque resistance movement using direct action. This was an era of wars of national liberation such as the anti-colonial war in Algeria.

In their platform, formed at their first assembly in Bayonne, France in 1962, ETA called for "historical regenerationism", considering Basque history as a process of construction of a nation. They declared that Basque nationality is defined by the Basque language, Euskara; this was in contrast to the PNV's definition of Basque nationality in terms of ethnicity. In contrast with the explicit Catholicism of the PNV, ETA defined itself as "aconfessional"—meaning ETA does not recognize a special state religion—although using Catholic doctrine to elaborate its social program. They called for socialism and for "independence for Euskadi, compatible with European federalism".

In 1965, ETA adopted a Marxist-Leninist position; its precise political line has varied with time, although they have always advocated some type of socialism.

In its early years, ETA's activity seems to have consisted mostly of theorizing and of protesting by destroying infrastructure and Spanish symbols and by hanging forbidden Basque flags.

It is not clear when exactly ETA first began a policy of assassination, nor is it clear who committed the first assassinations identified with ETA. There are sources that single out a failed 1961 attempt to derail a train carrying war veterans; others point to the unpremeditated June 7, 1968 killing of a Guardia Civil, José Pardines Arcay by ETA member Txabi Etxebarrieta: the policeman had halted Etxebarrieta's car for a road check. Etxebarrieta was soon killed by the police, leading to retaliation in the form of the first official ETA assassination, that of Melitón Manzanas, chief of the secret police in San Sebastián and an alleged torturer. In 1970, several members of ETA were condemned to death in the Proceso de Burgos ("Trial of Burgos"), but international pressure resulted in commutation of the sentences, which, however, had by that time already been applied to some other members of ETA. The most consequential assassination performed by ETA during Franco's dictatorship was Operación Ogro, the December 1973 assassination by bomb in Madrid of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's chosen successor and president of the government (a position roughly equivalent to being a prime minister). The assassination had been planned for months and was executed by placing a bomb in the sewer below the street where Blanco's car passed every day. The bomb blew up just in time and threw the politician and his car three floors into the air and over the top of a nearby building; the car landed on a balcony in a courtyard the other side from the road.

This killing was not condemned and in some cases was even applauded by the Spanish opposition in exile. For some Carrero Blanco's death was an instrumental step for the posterior establishment of democracy, by eliminating Franco's choice of successor. In regard to Carrero's death, the former ETA member now turned anti-nationalist author Jon Juaristi contends that ETA's goal with this particular killing was not democratization but a spiral of violence as an attempt to fully destabilize Spain, increase Franco's repression against Basque nationalism and subsequently put the average citizen in the Basque country in the situation where they would have had to accept the lesser evil in the form of ETA's reaction against Franco's unleashed repression.

During the transition

After Franco's death, during the Spanish transition to democracy, ETA split into two separate organizations: one faction became ETA political-military or ETA(pm), and another ETA military or ETA(m).

Both ETA(m) and ETA(pm) refused offers of amnesty, instead continuing and intensifying their violent struggle. The years 1978–80 were to prove ETA's most deadly, with 68, 76, and 91 fatalities, respectively. [Martinez-Herrera 2002]

During the Francoist dictatorship, ETA was able to take advantage of tolerance by the French government, which allowed its members to move freely through French territory, believing that in this manner they were contributing to the end of Franco's regime. There is much controversy over the degree to which this policy of "sanctuary" continued even after the transition to democracy, but it is generally agreed that currently the French authorities collaborate closely with the Spanish government against ETA.

In the 80s, ETA(pm) accepted the Spanish government's offer of individual pardons to all ETA prisoners, even those who had committed violent crimes, who publicly abandoned the policy of violence. This caused a new division in ETA(pm) between the VI and VII assemblies. ETA VII accepted this partial amnesty granted by the now democratic Spanish government and integrated into the political party Euskadiko Ezkerra ("Left of the Basque Country").

ETA VI, after a brief period of independent activity, eventually integrated in ETA(m), possibly influencing ETA(m) into adopting even more radical and violent positions. With no factions existing anymore, ETA(m) revamped the original name of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna.

Under democracy

File:Hipercor.jpg

Child victim of ETA's 1987 Hipercor bomb attack in Barcelona Template:Puic

ETA performed their first car bomb assassination in Madrid in September 1985, resulting in one death (American citizen Eugene Kent Brown, Johnson&Johnson employee) and sixteen injuries; another bomb in July 1986 killed twelve members of the Guardia Civil and injured 50; on July 19, 1987 the Hipercor bombing was an attack in a shopping center in Barcelona, killing twenty one and injuring forty five; in the last case, entire families were killed. The horror caused then was so striking that ETA felt compelled to issue a communiqué stating that they had given advance warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to evacuate the area. The police claim that the warning came only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.

In a "dirty war" against ETA, Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups"), a government-sponsored and supposedly counter-terrorist organization active 1983–87 committed assassinations, kidnappings and torture, not only of ETA members but of civilians supposedly related to those, some of whom turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with ETA. In 1997 a Spanish court convicted and imprisoned several individuals involved in GAL, not only mercenaries and low-level police officials but politicians up to the highest levels of the PSOE government of prime minister Felipe González, including a former Homeland Minister. Although González had been quoted as saying that the government would defend itself in the "sewers of the state" (las cloacas del estado), his role in GAL was never proven. No major cases of foul play on the part of the Spanish government after 1987 (when GAL ceased to operate) have been proven in court, although ETA supporters still routinely claim human rights violations and torture by security forces; international human rights organizations like Amnesty International have backed some of these claims. ETA's manuals had been found telling its members and supporters to claim routinely that they had been tortured while detained.

In 1986 Gesto por la Paz (known in English as Association for Peace in the Basque Country) was founded; they began to convene silent demonstrations in communities throughout the Basque Country the day after any violent killing, whether by ETA or by GAL. These were the first systematic demonstrations in the Basque Country against terrorist violence. Also in 1986, in Ordizia, ETA shot down María Dolores Katarain, known as "Yoyes", while she was walking with her infant son. Yoyes was a former member of ETA who had abandoned the armed struggle and rejoined civil society: they accused her of "desertion" because of her taking advantage of the Spanish reinserción policy which granted amnesty to those prisoners who publicly refused political violence (see below).

On January 12, 1988 all Basque political parties except ETA-affiliated Herri Batasuna signed the Ajuria-Enea pact with the intent of ending ETA's violence. Weeks later on January 28, ETA announced a 60-day "ceasefire", later prolonged several times. Negotiations known as the Mesa de Argel ("Algiers Table") took place between the ETA representative Eugenio Etxebeste, ("Antxon") and the then PSOE government of Spain but no successful conclusion was reached, and ETA eventually resumed the use of violence.

During this period, the Spanish government had a policy referred to as "reinsertion", under which imprisoned ETA members whom the government believed had genuinely abandoned violence could be freed and allowed to rejoin society. Claiming a need to prevent ETA from coercively impeding this reinsertion, the PSOE government decided that imprisoned ETA members, who previously had all been imprisoned within the Basque Country, would instead be dispersed to prisons throughout Spain, some as far from their families as in the Salto del Negro prison in the Canary Islands. France has taken a similar approach. In the event, the only clear effect of this policy was to incite social protest, especially from nationalists and families of the prisoners, claiming cruelty of separating family members from the insurgents. Much of the protest against this policy runs under the slogan "Euskal presoak - Euskal Herrira" (Basque prisoners to the Basque Country, by "Basque prisoners" only ETA members are meant). It has to be noted that almost in any Spanish jail there is a group of ETA prisoners, as the number of ETA prisoners makes it difficult to disperse them. The families are given some money by the group.

During the ETA ceasefire of the late 1990s, the PSOE government brought back to the mainland the prisoners on the islands and in Africa. Since the end of the ceasefire, ETA prisoners have not been sent back to overseas prisons. Some Basque authorities have established grants for the expenses of visiting families.

Another Spanish "counter-terrorist" law puts suspected terrorist cases under the central tribunal Audiencia Nacional in Madrid, due to the threats by the group over the Basque courts. Under Article 509 suspected terrorists are subject to being held "incommunicado" for up to thirteen days, during which they have no contact with the outside world, including informing their family of their arrest, consultation with private lawyers or examination by a physician other than the coroners.

In 1992, ETA's three top leaders — "military" leader Francisco Mujika Garmendia ("Pakito"), political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina ("Txelis") and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe ("Fiti"), often referred to collectively as the "cupola" of ETA or as the Artapalo collective [20] — were arrested in the northern Basque town of Bidart, which led to changes in ETA's leadership and direction. After a two-month truce, ETA adopted even more radical positions. The principal consequence of the change appears to have been the creation of the "Y Groups", young people (generally minors) dedicated to so-called "kale borroka" — street struggle — and whose activities included burning buses, street lamps, benches, ATMs, garbage containers, etc. and throwing Molotov cocktails. The appearance of these groups was attributed by many to the supposed weakness of ETA, which obliged them to resort to minors to maintain or augment their impact on society after arrests of leading militants, including the "cupola". ETA also began to menace leaders of other parties besides rival Basque nationalist parties. The existence of the "Y Groups" as an organized phenomenon has been contested by some supporters of Basque national liberation, who claim that this construction is merely a trumped-up excuse to give longer prison sentences to those convicted of street violence.

In 1995, the armed organization again launched a peace proposal. The so-called Democratic Alternative replaced the earlier KAS Alternative as a minimum proposal for the establishment of Euskal Herria. The Democratic Alternative offered the cessation of all armed ETA activity if the Spanish-government would recognize the Basque people as having sovereignty over Basque territory, the right to self-determination and that it freed all ETA members in prison. The Spanish government ultimately rejected this peace offer as it would go against the Spanish Constitution. Changing the constitution was not considered.

Also in 1995 came a failed ETA car bombing attempt directed against José María Aznar, a conservative politician who was leader of the then-opposition Partido Popular (PP) and was shortly after elected to the presidency of the government; there was also an abortive attempt in Majorca on the life of King Juan Carlos I. Still, the act with the largest social impact came the following year. July 10, 1997 PP council member Miguel Ángel Blanco was kidnapped in the Basque city of Ermua and his death threatened unless the Spanish government would meet ETA's demand of bringing all ETA's inmates to prisons within the Basque Country within two days after the kidnapping. This demand wasn't met by the Spanish government and Miguel Ángel Blanco was found shot dead when the deadline expired. More than six million people demonstrated to demand his liberation, with demonstrations occurring as much in the Basque regions as elsewhere in Spain. After three days, ETA carried through their threat, killing him and unleashing massive demonstrations reflecting the ETA action with the cries of "Assassins" and "Basques yes, ETA no". This response came to be known as the "Spirit of Ermua".

Before the new electoral situation which, for the first time since the early 80s, opened the real prospect of a non-nationalist rule of the Basque autonomous community under the form of a PSOE-PP coalition, then the Basque nationalist parties signed the Lizarra/Estella Pact (PNV, EA, HB, EB) in hopes of changing the political situation and reversing what was seen as a menace to Basque nationalism. This meant that the parties which have governed jointly the Basque Country from the early 80s to date -PNV and EA- departed from the previous Ajuria Enea pact which gathered the parties known as "democratic" (PP, PSOE, PNV, EA, in other words, all but HB). Shortly after the Lizarra/Estella pact was signed, on September 18, 1998, ETA declared a unilateral truce or ceasefire, and began a process of dialogue with Spain's PP government. The dialogue continued for some time, but ETA resumed assassinations in 2000, accusing the government of being "inflexible" and of "not wanting dialogue". The communique that declared the end of the truce cited the failure of the process initiated in the Lizarra/Estella Pact to achieve political change as the reason for the return to violence. The Spanish government, from the highest levels, accused ETA of having declared a false truce in order to reorganize and rearm. This approach seems to have been proven by the appropriation of part of ETA's internal communications at the time of the truce. Later came acts of violence such as the November 6, 2001 car bomb in Madrid, which injured sixty-five, and attacks on soccer stadiums and tourist destinations.

The September 11, 2001 attacks appeared to have dealt a hard blow to ETA, owing to the toughening of "antiterrorist" measures (such as the freezing of bank accounts), the increase in international police coordination, and the end of the toleration some countries had, up until then, extended to ETA. In addition, in 2002 the Basque nationalist youth movement Jarrai was outlawed and the law of parties was changed outlawing Herri Batasuna, the "political arm" of ETA (although even before the change in law, Batasuna had been largely paralysed and under judicial investigation by judge Baltasar Garzón).

With ever-increasing frequency, attempted ETA actions have been frustrated by Spanish security forces.

On Christmas Eve 2003, in San Sebastián and in Hernani, National Police arrested two ETA members who had left dynamite in a railroad car prepared explode in Chamartín Station in Madrid. On March 1, 2004, in a place between Alcalá de Henares and Madrid, a light truck with 536 kg of explosives was discovered by the Guardia Civil.

Targets, tactics and attacks

Their aspiration, which was outlined in 1995 in their Democratic Alternative publication, is to force the governments of Spain and France to agree on the following:

• Recognition of the right to "self-determination and territoriality" for Euskal Herria.
• That the Basque citizenry are the "unique subject" ("subject" in the sense of "one who acts") to make decisions about the future of the Basque Country.
• Amnesty for all militants, whether prisoners or self-imposed exiles
• Respect for what ETA defines as "the results of the democratic process in the Basque Country".
• "Total ceasefire" once these points are guaranteed through a political agreement.

All formulations of ETA's goals have centered on sovereignty and self-determination for Euskal Herria (Basque Country, Iparralde and Navarra). ETA's motto in Basque-Euskera is "aizkora bezain zorrotza eta sugea bezain zuhurra" which translates in English as "sharp like an axe and quiet like a snake".

ETA has killed hundreds of people, including civilians, and kidnapped dozens in its actions against the Spanish state. More than 500 ETA militants are held in prison in Spain, France and other countries.

The organization has adopted from time to time other secondary tactical causes such as fighting against:

• Alleged heroin traffickers, as corruptors of Basque youth and police collaborators, a fix for a tip.
• The nuclear power plant facilities at Lemoiz (Bizkaia). ETA opposed its construction. Four workers were killed by the organization. Following a peaceful and co-ordinated campaign of switching electrical appliances on and off across Bizkaia, thus overloading and tripping all the substations and connections, causing wide spread black outs, and a huge effort to reset those, the reactor core which was actually delivered to the site was taken away. The site remains deserted. The objection to the power plant was its implicit reliance on the Spanish Government for support and maintenance for thousands of years to come..
• A proposed highway which was to run through the Leizaran Valley.

Targets

ETA's targets have expanded from the former military/police-related personnel to a wider array, which today includes the following:

• Spanish military and police personnel. These used to be the only targets before 1995. As the autonomous police (Basque Ertzaintza and Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra) took a greater role in combatting ETA, they were added to their list of targets. The barracks of the Guardia Civil also provide housing for their families, thus, attacks on the barracks have also resulted in deaths of relatives, including children.
• Businessmen (such as Javier Ybarra or Joxe Mari Korta): these are mainly targeted in order to extort them for the so-called "revolutionary tax". Refusal to pay has been punished with assassinations, kidnappings for ransom or bombings of their business.
• Prison officers such as José Antonio Ortega Lara.
• Elected parliamentarians, city councillors and politicians in general: these had not been targeted by ETA before 1995 (whereas people holding political positions were attacked during the Francoist's dictatorship, most prominently Luis Carrero Blanco, killed in 1973). This scenario changed with the killing of Gregorio Ordóñez in 1995. From this year onwards, politicians were also made targets by ETA. Dozens of politicians belonging to the People's Party (PP) and Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) have been assassinated or maimed. Some Basque nationalist politicians from the PNV party, such as Juan Mari Atutxa, have also received threats. Hundreds of politicians in Spain require a constant bodyguard service. Bodyguards are contingent victims as well. In 2005 ETA announced that it would no longer target politicians.
• Judges and university lecturers: this trend started with the assassination of Manuel Broseta in 1992. Particularly threatened are the members of the Spanish special court: the Audiencia Nacional.
• Journalists: some of these professionals began to be labeled by ETA as targets starting with the killing of journalist José Luis López de la Calle, assassinated in May 2000. As a result of ETA's violence and threats against journalists, Spain has been included in all six editions of Reporters Without Borders's watchlist on press freedom.
• Economic targets: a wide array of private or public property considered valuable assets of Spain, especially railroads, tourist sites, industries, or malls.
• Exceptionally, ETA has also assassinated former ETA members such as Maria Dolores González Catarain as a reprisal for having left the organization.
• There have also been a number of ETA attacks that have caused civilian casualties, such as the bomb in the supermarket Hipercor in Barcelona (resulting in 21 killed and 45 seriously wounded, of whom 20 were left disabled) or the attack of Plaza de Callao in Madrid.

Tactics

ETA's tactics include:

• Direct attacks: killing, e.g. by shooting. This tactic has been mostly abandoned because it involves a high risk of detention for the killers.
• Bombings (often with car bombs). One or more telephone calls are made to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA; normally the contacted newspapers are Egin, Gara, or Egunkaria. Charities (usually Detente Y Ayuda—DYA) have also been used to announce the threat. The type of explosives used in these attacks were initially Goma-2 or self-produced ammonal. After a number of successful robberies in France, ETA started using Titadyne.
• Rockets: hand-made rocket launchers have been used occasionally to attack military or police bases. Their lack of precision is probably the reason they are not used anymore.
• Anonymous threats: often delivered in the Basque Country by placards or graffiti. Such threats have forced many people into hiding or into exile from the Basque Country, and have been used to prevent people from freely expressing political ideas other than nationalist ones.
• Extortion: the so-called by ETA "revolutionary tax" is paid by many businesses in the Basque Country and the rest of Spain. It is enforced by the threat of assassination.
• Kidnapping: often as a punishment for failing to pay the "revolutionary tax".

ETA operates mainly in Spain, particularly in the Basque Country, Navarre, and (to a lesser degree) Madrid, Barcelona, and the tourist areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Actions in France usually consist of assaults on arsenals or military industries in order to steal weapons or explosives; these are usually stored in large quantities in hide-outs located in the French Basque Country rather than Spain. The French judge Laurence Le Vert has received threats from ETA. Only very rarely have ETA members engaged in shootings with the French Gendarmerie. This has often occurred mainly when members of the organization were confronted at checkpoints for Basque nationalists in the French Basque country, see Iparretarrak.

In spite of this, ETA, killed in France on December 1st, 2007, two Spanish Civil Guards on antiterrorist surveillance duties in Capbreton, Landes. This has been its first cold blood killing after it ended its self styled "permanent ceasefire" and the first killing committed by ETA in France of an Spanish police agent ever since 1976, when they kidnapped, tortured and assassinated two Spanish inspectors in Hendaye

A police file, dating from 1996, indicated that ETA needs about 15 million pesetas (about 90,000 Euros) daily in order to finance its operations. Although ETA used robbery as a means of financing its activities in its early days, it has since been accused both of arms trafficking and of benefiting economically from its political counterpart Batasuna.

Attacks

See also: List of ETA attacks

Basque Nationalist context

ETA is considered to form part of what is informally known as the Basque National Liberation Movement, a movement born much after ETA's creation. This loose term refers to a range of political organizations that are ideologically akin, comprising several distinct organizations that promote a type of leftist Basque nationalism that is often referred to by the Basque-language term Ezker Abertzalea (Nationalist Left). Other groups typically considered to belong to this independentist movement are: the political party Batasuna, the nationalist youth organization Segi, the labour union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB), and Askatasuna among others. There are often strong interconnections between these groups (double or even triple membership is common according to the Spanish Authorities).

There are Basque nationalist parties with similar goals as those of ETA (namely, independence) but who openly reject their violent means. They are: EAJ-PNV, Eusko Alkartasuna, Aralar and, in the French Basque country, Abertzaleen Batasuna. In addition a number of left-wing parties, such as Ezker Batua, Batzarre and some sectors of the EAJ-PNV party, also support self-determination but are not in favour of independence.

Government response

Historically members of ETA have often taken refuge in France, particularly in the French Basque Country. ETA leaders normally choose to live in the France for security reasons, as police pressure was usually lower on the French side of the border. This used to be tolerated by the French government, especially during the Franco dictatorship. Some ETA members were executed during the Franco era).

After Franco's dead in the mid 1970s and the 1980s, ETA members and its suspected supporters were the target of right-wing violence and violence by government agents such as GAL, whose actions have been considered a case of "state terrorism"[21].

The GAL was dissolved in 1987, four years after its foundation. The airing of the state-sponsored "dirty war" scheme and the imprisonment of officials responsible for GAL in the early 1990s led to a political scandal in Spain. These events marked the end of the armed "counter-terrorist" period in Spain (although some minor attacks were carried out during the early 1990s under the name of GANE and other acronyms). With the new situation, the French government considered that detainees' rights were being adequately defended in Spain. France changed its position in the matter and initiated a period of active cooperation with the Spanish government against ETA, including fast-track transfers of detainees to Spanish tribunals that are regarded as fully compliant with European Union legislation in human rights and the legal representation of detainees. This cooperation is still active.

In response to this new situation, ETA carried out attacks against French policemen and made threats to some French judges and prosecutors. This implied a drastic change from the organization's previously low-profile activity in the French Basque Country, from where ETA had been discreetly managing their activities in the south.

ETA members and supporters continue to allege torture at the hands of the Guardia Civil. While these claims are hard to verify, some convictions are based on confessions obtained while prisoners are held incommunicado and without access to private lawyer, for a maximum of three days. These confessions are routinely repudiated by the defendants during trials as having been extracted under torture. There have been some successful prosecutions of proven tortures during the "dirty war" period of the mid-1980s, although the penalties have been considered by Amnesty International as unjustifiably light and lenient with co-conspirators and enablers.

ETA considers its prisoners political prisoners. Until 2003, ETA consequently forbade them to ask penal authorities for progression to tercer grado (a form of open prison that allows single-day or weekend furloughs) or parole. Before that date, those who did so were expelled from the group.

A more recent tactic of the Spanish Government's campaign against ETA has been to target its social support network. The most important measure has been the passing of the Ley de Partidos Políticos. This is a law barring political parties which support violence, don't condemn terrorist actions or are involved with terrorist groups . The law has resulted in the banning of Herri Batasuna and its successor parties unless they condemn explicitly terrorist actions and, at times, imprisoning or processing some of its leaders who have been indicted for cooperation with ETA. Judge Baltasar Garzón has initiated a judicial procedure 18/98, which aims to expand the scope of what is legally regarded as membership of or association with ETA.

This procedure started in 1998 with the preventive closure of the newspaper Egin (and its associated radio-station Egin Irratia), accused of being linked to ETA, and imprisoning the editor of its "investigative unit", Pepe Rei, under similar accusations. The process is still in wait of resolution.

Judicial procedure 18/98 has many ramifications, including the following:

• A trial against a little-known organization called Xaki, acquitted in 2001.
• A trial against the youths' movement Jarrai-Haika-Segi, accused of contributing to street violence in an organized form and in connivance with ETA.
• Another trial against Pepe Rei and his new investigation magazine Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep). The magazine was also closed down.
• A trial against the political organization Ekin (Action), accused of promoting civil disobedience.
• A trial against the organization Joxemi Zumalabe Fundazioa, which was once again accused of promoting civil disobedience.
• A trial against the prisoner support movement Amnistiaren Aldeko Komiteak.
• A trial against Batasuna and the Herriko Tabernak (people's taverns), accused of acting as a network of meeting centres for members and supporters of ETA. Batasuna was outlawed in all forms. Most taverns continue working normally.
• A trial against the league of Basque-language academies AEK. The case was dropped in 2001.
• Another trial against Ekin, accusing Iker Casnova of managing the finances of ETA.
• A trial against the association of Basque municipalities Udalbiltza.
• The closing of the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria in 2003 and the imprisonment and processing of its editor, Martxelo Otamendi, and other journalists (some of whom reported brutal torture).

As of June 2007, indicted members of the youth movements Haika, Segi and Jarrai have been found guilty (January 2007) of a crime of connivance with terrorism. Most of the other trials are still under process.

International response

The United Nations, European Union and the United States list ETA as a terrorist organization in their relevant watch lists. The United Kingdom lists ETA as a terrorist group in the Terrorism Act of 2000 [22]. The Canadian Parliament listed ETA as a terrorist organization on April 2, 2003 [23]. Prior to the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York, there seemed to be a tendency among the international media to refer to ETA in neutral (and occasionally even sympathetic) terms, describing the organization as a "separatist movement" [24] or a group of "rebels" in battle against Spain for the liberation of their territory. The global reaction to terrorism brought about by the post-September 11th scenario, and particularly the official consideration of ETA as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" by the United States Department of State, has prompted more condemnatory views of ETA. Today ETA is portrayed by the media more often as a terrorist organization [25].

ETA's most recent declaration of a "permanent ceasefire"

Before the Barajas bombing, the last of ETA's killings had been committed on 30 May, 2003, being its last proven assassination attempt on 17 February, 2005. ETA was initially blamed by the government for the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, but it soon became clear that the attack had been the work of radical Islamists. For the next two years, there was much conjecture whether ETA was refraining from their previous level of violence out of weakness, out of a change of heart or tactics, or because the 11 March attacks had undercut support for violent political tactics.

On 22 March 2006 ETA sent a DVD message to the Basque Network Euskal Irrati-Telebista and the journals Gara and Berria with a communiqué from the organization announcing what it called a "permanent 'ceasefire'" that was broadcast over Spanish TV. According to the spokeswoman for the organisation, the "ceasefire" would begin on Friday 24 March. In their communiqué, they stated that the French and Spanish governments should cooperate and respond positively to this new situation. On 23 March, Gara published an extended version of the communiqué.

ETA members fire salvoes at Aritxulegi

On September 23 2006 masked and armed ETA members took part in a political act in Aritxulegi (Guipuscoa) and declared that the organization will "keep taking up arms" until achieving "independence and socialism in the Basque country". "The fight is not a thing of the past. It is the present and the future", claimed the militant. The statement is regarded by some as intended to put pressure on the ongoing talks with the Spanish government, which were announced on September 17, and by some other analysts as a declaration of ETA's ultimate intentions, making clear that the organization will not disarm until every single one of their goals have been completely achieved. Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero stressed in the Spanish Parliament that the Spanish Government would still keep its offer for talks despite the militant's statement.

On October 24 2006 a suspected ETA cell stole some 300 handguns, ammunition and spare parts in France.

On November 4 2006 Gara newspaper published excerpts of ETA's bulletin Zutabe no.111, in which the organization pondered that "if the Spanish government doesn't fulfill its compromises and there are no visible steps, the peace process will be broken". ETA also announced that they would "make a renewed effort towards the negotiations with the Spanish government". ETA "laments that in the time elapsed since the March declaration of ceasefire (…) precious time has been wasted". They demanded from Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero "to give a positive answer" to two central issues: (1) "to the specific demand of the fulfilment of the commitments he adopted on leaving aside repression and ceasing attacks" and (2) "he will have to commit clearly to respect the will for an [independence] process in Euskal Herria, that is: the will of Basque citizens".

Reactions to the "ceasefire"

Most political parties welcomed the news of a ceasefire on the part of ETA. The government (under the PSOE administration) displayed an optimistic and hopeful response to the announcement, although in official statements president Zapatero called for "prudence".

PP: The People's Party (headed by Mariano Rajoy) showed pessimism with regards to this announcement and claimed that it was only a pause for ETA, probably in the same fashion as the previous truce (declared by ETA in 1998, under president Aznar's administration). Rajoy called on the government to continue "fighting terrorism" and reject negotiations.

Basque Government: Juan José Ibarretxe called for the establishment of a negotiation table "without exclusions" (i.e. involving all the concerned political sectors, i.e., Batasuna, which is currently illegal).

Batasuna's position evolved from a cautious optimism into increasingly serious warnings against what they considered "a lack of resolve on the part of the Spanish government" and what they believed was "a will not to solve the conflict but to erode the Nationalist Left". The harshest of such warnings was issued in December 5 2005, when they gave a press conference denouncing "continued repression" (in reference to the detentions of ETA members by the police) and warning that the peace process could "hardly continue in such conditions". After the Barajas bombing, Batasuna remained the only political party that considered that the "ceasefire" was still viable. An ETA communiqué released soon after the Barajas bombings stated the terrorist group's apparent will to continue negotiations. Five months later, on the 5th of June 2007, ETA released a statement affirming it considered the "ceasefire" to be over, warning attacks would be resumed at midnight that same day [26].

The 2006–2007 ETA ceasefire was a period of heightened political tension in Spain. The strategic interests of the concerned political parties and the mutual recriminations between Spanish politicians of acting with hidden agendas were often at the forefront of the discussions.

End of "ceasefire"

Main article: 2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport bombing

On December 30th 2006, at 9:00 in the morning, after three confusing warning calls, ETA detonated a van bomb in a parking building at the Madrid Barajas international airport. The explosion caused the collapse of the building and killed two Ecuadorian immigrants who were napping inside their cars in the parking building. At 6:00 P.M., José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero released a statement informing that the "peace process" had been discontinued.

In November 2006 ETA warned the Spanish government that the so-called "peace process" was "in crisis." The concessions sought by ETA and its political supporters (which included the relocation of ETA inmates from jails all over Spain to penitentiaries located in the Basque region and the halting of arrests and trials of ETA suspects) had not been attended.

File:Que-6-june-07.jpg

Front page of Madrid's daily newspaper Qué! on 6th June 2007, with prominent headline condemning ETA

It was reported that, before the attack, ETA reminded Rodríguez Zapatero about the 2004 Madrid train bombings (as a way to pressure the Government with the possibility of an attack before upcoming elections), even though the source also states that ETA 'had nothing to do' with the attack itself.

On the 4th and 5th of January 2007 the Ertzaintza found a cache of 350 pounds of explosives in Atxondo (Biscay). Out of these, 220 pounds were ready for immediate use (only lacking a detonator).

On the 9th of January 2007, newspaper Gara published a letter on behalf of ETA, claiming resposibility for the December 30th 2006 bomb at Barajas airport in Madrid. ETA also claimed that the ceasefire was still in place despite the bombing. ETA extended their solidarity to the "collateral damage" (the two Ecuadorian immigrants killed by the explosion), assuring that the "objective of this armed action was not to cause victims" and blamed the government for the dead, in view of the alleged lack of diligence evacuating the building. They also accused the Government and the PSOE political party of creating obstacles for a democratic process.

On the 5th of June 2007 ETA released a communiqué through the Berria newspaper's web site, formally announcing the end of the "permanent ceasefire" by midnight. ETA also announced that it would "act in all fronts in defence of Euskal Herria".

On June 21 2007, Spanish police found 130 kg (285 pounds) of explosives in a car parked in the town of Ayamonte, near the Portuguese border. The cache was suspected to belong to ETA, stoking fears that attacks would be imminent after the group announced the end of the "permanent ceasefire" on June 5, 2007.

On October 9 2007 ETA places a bomb under the car of the bodyguard of a PSE(Socialist Party of Euskady) council member of Galdakano. The bodyguard, Juan Carlos Domingo Galíndez, was seriously injured.

On December 1 2007, Members of the Basque group ETA shot dead a Spanish civil guard and seriously wounded another in southern France. It is the first fatality blamed on ETA in nearly a year. The two plainsclothes civil guard officers were in Capbreton, France, to meet with French police about joint operations against ETA, which traditionally uses France as a base for its attacks in Spain. The civil guards were shot as they emerged from a place where they regularly have breakfast. Three ETA suspects fled in a car, later leaving it to commandeer a second car.

Other armed movements

Other militant organizations that operated in the southern Basque Country

• Spanish anti-ETA groups:
  • ATE (Anti-Terrorismo ETA)
  • Batallón Vasco Español
  • Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL)
  • Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey
• Minor Left wing groups:
  • Iraultza
  • Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas
  • Irrintzi

International links

• ETA is known to have had 'fraternal' contacts with the Provisional Irish Republican Army; the two groups have both, at times, characterized their struggles as parallel. It has also had links with other militant left-wing movements in Europe and in other places throughout the world.
• ETA commandos teamed in 1999 with the (now self-dissolved) Breton Revolutionary Army to steal explosives from magazines in Brittany.
• The Colombian army stated that there were contacts between ETA and the Colombian guerrilla FARC, in spite of having no hard evidence
• Some ex-militants have received political asylum in Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Venezuela.
• Several ex-militants were sent from France through Panama to reside in Cuba after an agreement of the Spanish government (under Felipe González) with Cuba. The United States Department of State has no information on their activities on Cuban territory.

Documentary films

Non-fictional films about ETA

• Asesinato en febrero (2001) at IMDb, about the families of Basque politician Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard, both killed by ETA.
• The Basque Ball: The Skin Against the Stone, (La Pelota Vasca, 2003) about the Basque conflict by filmmaker Julio Medem: interviews about Basque nationalism and politics. Includes testimonials of ETA victims and relatives of ETA prisoners.
• Perseguidos (2004) at IMDb, Eterio Ortega and Elías Querejeta interview local councillors threatened by ETA.
• Trece entre mil (2005) at IMDb, the testimony of some of ETA's victims in the last 30 years by filmmaker Iñaki Arteta.

Other films

Other fact-based films about ETA:

• Commando Txikia (José Luis Madrid, 1977)
• Operation Ogro (1979) at IMDb, about the murder of Luis Carrero Blanco.
• El proceso de Burgos ("The Burgos Trial", Imanol Uribe, 1979)
• Escape from Segovia (1981) at IMDb, ETA prisoners escape from the Segovia prison.
• El caso Almería ("The Almería Case", Pedro Costa, 1983)
• La muerte de Mikel ("The Death of Mikel", Imanol Uribe, 1983). A young Basque man dies in a plot involving ETA and drug traffic.
• Goma 2 (José Antonio de la Loma, 1984)
• Ander y Yul ("Ander and Yul", Ana Díez, 1988)
• Proceso a ETA at IMDb ("The Trial of ETA", Manuel Macià, 1988)
• Días de humo ("Days of Smoke", Antton Eceiza, 1989)
• Sombras en una batalla ("Shadows in a Battle", Mario Camus, 1993)
• Días contados ("Storied Days", Imanol Uribe, 1994)
• A ciegas ("Blindly", Daniel Calparsoro, 1997)
• Yoyes (2000) at IMDb, María Dolores Katarain, also known as Yoyes, tries to abandon ETA and is murdered by her former fellows.
• El viaje de Arián ("Arián's Voyage", Eduard Bosch, 2001)
• La voz de su amo ("His Master's Voice", Emilio Martínez Lázaro, 2001)
• Lobo (2004) at IMDb, based on the life of Mikel Lejarza, who, prompted by the Spanish police, entered ETA to be a double agent.
• Esos cielos ("Those skies", Aitzpea Goenaga, 2006)
• GAL (2006) at IMDb, about the journalistic research leading to the uncovering of the state-supported GAL.

References

General

• This article makes use of material translated from the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia.
• Enric Martinez-Herrera, Template:PDFlink, originally published in the International Journal on Multicultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2002.

Specific

External links

• http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=31 - MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base (ETA)
• Who are Eta? - A BBC profile (including a map of the territory "claimed" by ETA)
• Text of ETA cease-fire statement
• Template:Es icon Fotos del Horror, photos and other documentation of ETA members, attacks, and popular protests against ETA.
• Template:Es icon Resumen de Atentados de ETA
• The Basque Conflict: New Ideas and Prospects for Peace U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report, April 2006
• ETA and Spain, according to Amnesty International
• Template:Es icon Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo Biggest organisation in Spain for support to the victims of terrorist
• Template:Es icon Fundación Víctimas del terrorismo Organisation for the victims's support
• Template:Es icon Basta Ya, Basque organisation protesting against Basque nationalist violence and threats.
• Template:Es icon Fundación para la Libertad Organisation against terrorist murders, threats and daily violence
• Template:Es icon Fundación Miguel Ángel Blanco Founded by the family of Miguel Ángel Blanco, a symbolic victim of ETA
• Foro de Ermua Organisation created after the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco
• on FAS Intelligence Resource Program
• Template:Es icon A dossier from Gara (now in the Wayback Machine) about the prisoner dispersion including a map of the distribution of ETA prisoners in Spain and France. It defines the arrested terrorists as "political prisoners"