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ETA, an
acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Homeland and Liberty"ETA BASQUE ORGANIZATION
Encyclopaedia Britannica 20 October 2011
or "Basque Country and Freedom"), was an armed
Basque nationalist Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the po ...
and far left separatist organization in the Basque Country (in northern Spain and southwestern France). The group was founded in 1959 and later evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group engaged in a violent campaign of bombing, assassinations, and kidnappings in the Southern Basque Country and throughout Spanish territory. Its goal was gaining independence for the Basque Country.Goiz Argi
. Goiz Argi. Retrieved on 30 January 2011.
ETA was the main group within the Basque National Liberation Movement and was the most important Basque participant in the Basque conflict. Between 1968 and 2010, it killed 829 people (including 340 civilians) and injured thousands more.Peace at Last? , People & Places, Smithsonian Magazine
Smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved on 30 January 2011.
ETA was classified as a
terrorist group A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
by Spain, France, the United Kingdom, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, Canada and the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
. This convention was followed by a plurality of domestic and international media, which also referred to the group as terrorists. There are more than 260 imprisoned former members of the group in Spain, France, and other countries. ETA declared ceasefires in 1989, 1996, 1998 and 2006. On 5 September 2010, ETA declared a new ceasefire that remained in force, and on 20 October 2011, ETA announced a "definitive cessation of its armed activity". On 24 November 2012, it was reported that the group was ready to negotiate a "definitive end" to its operations and disband completely. The group announced on 7 April 2017 that it had given up all its weapons and explosives. On 2 May 2018, ETA made public a letter dated to 16 April 2018 according to which it had "completely dissolved all its structures and ended its political initiative". ETA's motto was ("Keep up on both"), referring to the two figures in its symbol, a snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed struggle).


Structure

ETA changed its internal structure on several occasions, commonly for security reasons. The group used to have a very hierarchical organization with a leading figure at the top, delegating into three substructures: the logistical, military and political sections. Reports from Spanish and French police point towards significant changes in ETA's structures in its later years. ETA divided the three substructures into a total of eleven. The change was a response to captures, and possible infiltration, by the different law enforcement agencies. ETA intended to disperse its members and reduce the effects of detentions. The leading committee comprised 7 to 11 individuals, and ETA's internal documentation referred to it as , an abbreviation of (directorial committee). There was another committee named that functioned as an advisory committee. The eleven different substructures were: logistics, politics, international relations with fraternal organisations, military operations, reserves, prisoner support, expropriation, information, recruitment, negotiation, and treasury. ETA's armed operations were organized in different s (groups or commandos), generally composed of three to five members, whose objective was to conduct attacks in a specific geographic zone. The s were coordinated by the ("military
cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, f ...
"). To supply the s, support groups maintained safe houses and (small rooms concealed in forests, garrets or underground, used to store arms, explosives or, sometimes, kidnapped people; the Basque word literally means "hole"). The small cellars used to hide the people kidnapped are named by ETA and ETA's supporters "people's jails".
«El técnico» construyó loss zulos de ETA
'', La Razón, 18 October 2004.
The most common ''commandos'' were itinerant, not linked to any specific area, and thus were more difficult to capture. Among its members, ETA distinguished between / ("legal ones"), those members who did not have police records and lived apparently normal lives; ("liberated") members known to the police that were on ETA's payroll and working full-time for ETA; and ("supports") who just gave occasional help and logistics support to the group when required. There were also imprisoned members of the group, serving time scattered across Spain and France, that sometimes still had significant influence inside the organisation; and finally the ("burnt out"), members freed after having been imprisoned or those that were suspected by the group of being under police vigilance. In the past, there was also the figure of the deportees, expelled by the French government to remote countries where they lived freely. ETA's internal bulletin was named ("Column"), replacing the earlier one (1962) ("Standing"). ETA also promoted the ("street fight"), that is, violent acts against public transportation, political parties' offices or cultural buildings, destruction of private property of politicians, police, military, bank offices, journalists, council members, and anyone voicing criticism against ETA. Tactics included threats, graffiti of political mottoes, and rioting, usually using
Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...
. These groups were mostly made up of young people, who were directed through youth organisations (such as , and ). Many members of ETA started their collaboration with the group as participants in the .


Political support

The former political party Batasuna, disbanded in 2003, pursued the same political goals as ETA and did not condemn ETA's use of violence. Formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and " Herri Batasuna", it was banned by the Spanish Supreme Court as an anti-democratic organisation following the Political Parties Law (''Ley de Partidos Políticos''). It generally received 10% to 20% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community. Batasuna's political status was controversial. It was considered to be the political wing of ETA. Moreover, after the investigations on the nature of the relationship between Batasuna and ETA by Judge Baltasar Garzón, who suspended the activities of the political organisation and ordered police to shut down its headquarters, the Supreme Court of Spain finally declared Batasuna illegal on 18 March 2003. The court considered proven that Batasuna had links with ETA and that it constituted in fact part of ETA's structure. In 2003, the Constitutional Tribunal upheld the legality of the law. However, the party itself denied being the political wing of ETA, although double membership – simultaneous or alternative – between Batasuna and ETA was often recorded, such as with the cases of prominent Batasuna leaders like Josu Ternera, Arnaldo Otegi, Jon Salaberria and others.De la dirección de Batasuna a la de ETA · ELPAÍS.com
Elpais.com. Retrieved on 30 January 2011.
The Spanish
Cortes Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to: People * Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador Places * Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...
(the Spanish Parliament) 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 that use violence to achieve political goals, promote hatred against different groups or seek to destroy the democratic system. The bill passed the Cortes with a 304 to 16 vote. Many within the Basque nationalistic movement strongly disputed the Law, which they considered too draconian or even unconstitutional; alleging that any party could be made illegal almost by choice, simply for not clearly stating their opposition to an attack. Defenders of the law argued that the ''Ley de Partidos'' did 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. Defenders also argued that the ban of a political party is subject to judicial process, with all the guarantees of the State of Law. Batasuna had failed to produce such a statement. other political parties linked to organizations such as '' Partido Comunista de España (reconstituted)'' have also been declared illegal, and Acción Nacionalista Vasca and Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK/PCTV, ''Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista/Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas'') was declared illegal in September 2008. A new party called
Aukera Guztiak Batasuna (; en, Unity) was a Basque nationalist political party. Based mainly in Spain, it was banned in 2003, after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA with public money. The party is included in the "European Uni ...
''(All the Options)'' was formed expressly for the elections to the Basque Parliament of April 2005. Its supporters claimed no heritage from Batasuna, asserting that they aimed 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 kinds of violence more than others if they did not see fit (in this regard, the Basque National Liberation Movement (MLNV) regards present police actions as violence, torture and state terrorism). 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 successor 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 appeared born from an earlier 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. EHAK announced that they would apply the votes they obtained to sustain the political programme of the now-banned Aukera Guztiak platform. This move left no time for the Spanish courts to investigate EHAK in compliance with the ''Ley de Partidos'' before the elections were held. The bulk of Batasuna supporters voted in this election for PCTV. It obtained 9 seats of 75 (12.44% of votes) in the Basque Parliament. The election of EHAK representatives eventually allowed the programme of the now-illegal Batasuna to continue being represented without having condemned violence as required by the ''Ley de Partidos''. In February 2011, Sortu, a party described as "the new Batasuna", was launched. Unlike predecessor parties, Sortu explicitly rejects politically motivated violence, including that of ETA. However, on 23 March 2011, the Spanish Supreme Court banned Sortu from registering as a political party on the grounds that it was linked to ETA.


Social support

The
Spanish transition to democracy Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
from 1975 on and ETA's progressive radicalisation had 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 Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido (13 May 1968 – 13 July 1997) was a Spanish politician who was a councillor in Ermua in the Basque Country for the People's Party (PP). He was kidnapped and subsequently murdered by the separatist group ETA. Biog ...
. Their loss of sympathisers had been reflected in an erosion of support for the political parties identified with them. In the 1998 Basque parliament elections Euskal Herritarrok, formerly Batasuna, polled 17.7% of the votes. However, by 2001 the party's support had fallen to 10.0%. There were also concerns that Spain's "judicial offensive" against alleged ETA supporters (two Basque political parties and one NGO were banned in September 2008) constituted a threat to human rights. Strong evidence was seen that a legal network had grown so wide as to lead to the arrest of numerous innocent people. According to
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
,
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
was still "persistent", though not "systematic". Inroads could be undermined by judicial short-cuts and abuses of human rights.


Opinion polls

The Euskobarometro, the survey carried out by the Universidad del País Vasco (University of the Basque Country), asking about the views of ETA within the Basque population, obtained these results in May 2009:Euskobarómetro – EUSKOBAROMETRO MAYO 2009
. Alweb.ehu.es. Retrieved on 30 January 2011.
64% rejected ETA totally, 13% identified themselves as former ETA sympathisers who no longer support the group. Another 10% agreed with ETA's ends, but not their means. 3% said that their attitude towards ETA was mainly one of fear, 3% expressed indifference and 3% were undecided or did not answer. About 3% gave ETA "justified, with criticism" support (supporting the group but criticising some of their actions) and only 1% gave ETA total support. Even within Batasuna voters, at least 48% rejected ETA's violence. A poll taken by the Basque Autonomous Government in December 2006 during ETA's "permanent" ceasefire showed that 88% of the Basques thought that all political parties needed 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 multiparty dialogue through a referendum. This poll also reveals that the hope of a peaceful resolution to the issue of the constitutional status of the Basque region 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 the population); or the Northern Basque Country, where support is even weaker (around 15% of the population).


History


During Franco's dictatorship

ETA grew out of a student group called Ekin, founded in the early 1950s, which published a magazine and undertook direct action. ETA was founded on 31 July 1959 as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Homeland and Liberty" or "Basque Country and Freedom") by students frustrated by the moderate stance of the Basque Nationalist Party. (Originally, the name for the organisation used the word ''Aberri'' instead of ''Euskadi'', creating the acronym ''ATA''. However, in some Basque dialects, ''ata'' means ''duck'', so the name was changed.) ETA held their first assembly in
Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
, France, in 1962, during which a "declaration of principles" was formulated and following which a structure of activist cells was developed. Subsequently,
Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
and third-worldist perspectives developed within ETA, becoming the basis for a political programme set out in Federico Krutwig's 1963 book ''Vasconia'', which is considered to be the defining text of the movement. In contrast to previous Basque nationalist platforms, Krutwig's vision was anti-religious and based upon language and culture rather than race. ETA's third and fourth assemblies, held in 1964 and 1965, adopted an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist position, seeing nationalism and the class struggle as intrinsically connected. Some sources attributed the 1960 bombing of the Amara station in Donostia-San Sebastian (which killed a 22-month-old child) to ETA, but statistics published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior have always showed that ETA's first victim was killed in 1968. The 1960 attack was claimed by the Portuguese and Galician left-wing group Directorio Revolucionario Ibérico de Liberación (DRIL) (together with four other very similar bombings committed that same day across Spain, all of them attributed to DRIL), and the attribution to ETA has been considered to be unfounded by researchers. Police documents dating from 1961, released in 2013, show that the DRIL was indeed the author of the bombing. A more recent study by the ''Memorial de Víctimas del Terrorismo'' based on the analysis of police diligences at the time reached the same conclusion, naming Guillermo Santoro, member of DRIL, as the author of the attack. ETA's first killing occurred on 7 June 1968, when Guardia Civil member José Pardines Arcay was shot dead after he tried to halt ETA member
Txabi Etxebarrieta Txabi Etxebarrieta (14 October 1944 – 7 June 1968), also known as Xabier Etxebarrieta Ortiz, was a Basque nationalist and one of the founders of the armed pro-independence organization Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA). He was the perpetrator o ...
during a routine road check. Etxebarrieta was chased down and killed as he tried to flee. This led to retaliation in the form of the first planned ETA assassination: that of
Melitón Manzanas Melitón Manzanas González (born 1906 in Donostia-San Sebastián – 2 August 1968) was a high-ranking police officer in Francoist Spain, known as a torturerIglesias, María Antonioa"Hablan las víctimas de Melitón Manzanas" ''(The victims of ...
, chief of the
secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ...
in San Sebastián and associated with a long record of tortures inflicted on detainees in his custody. In December 1970, several members of ETA were condemned to death in the
Burgos trials The Burgos trials ( Spanish: ''Proceso de Burgos'') were a series of military tribunals held in the Spanish city of Burgos from 3 to 9 December 1970. The trials prosecuted 16 members of the Basque separatist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ...
(''Proceso de Burgos''), but international pressure resulted in their sentences being commuted (a process which, however, had by that time already been applied to some other members of ETA). In early December 1970, ETA kidnapped the German consul in San Sebastian, Eugen Beilh, to exchange him for the Burgos defendants. He was released unharmed on 24 December. Nationalists who refused to follow the tenets of Marxism–Leninism and who sought to create a united front appeared as ETA-V, but lacked the support to challenge ETA. The most significant assassination performed by ETA during
Franco's dictatorship Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Sp ...
was
Operación Ogro The assassination of Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco, also known by its code name Operación Ogro ( en, Operation Ogre), had far-reaching consequences within the politics of Spain. Admiral Carrero Blanco was killed in Madrid by the Basque ...
, the December 1973 bomb assassination in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
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 a tunnel dug below the street where Carrero Blanco's car passed every day. The bomb blew up beneath the politician's car and left a massive crater in the road. For some in the Spanish opposition, Carrero Blanco's assassination, i.e., the elimination of Franco's chosen successor was an instrumental step for the subsequent re-establishment of democracy. The government responded with new anti-terrorism laws which gave police greater powers and empowered military tribunals to pass death sentences against those found guilty. However, the last use of capital punishment in Spain when two ETA members were executed in September 1975, eight weeks before Franco's death, sparked massive domestic and international protests against the Spanish government.


During the transition

During the
Spanish transition to democracy Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
which began following Franco's death, ETA split into two separate groups:
ETA political-military ETA political-military (Spanish: ''ETA político-militar'', Basque: ''ETA politiko-militarra'') or ETA (pm) was the majority faction of the Basque revolutionary armed organization ETA, who during Spain's transition to democracy opted for a doub ...
or ETA(pm), and ETA military or ETA(m). Both ETA(m) and ETA(pm) refused offers of amnesty, and instead pursued and intensified their violent struggle. The years 1978–1980 were to prove ETA's most deadly, with 68, 76, and 98 fatalities, respectively. During the
Franco dictatorship Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spa ...
, ETA was able to take advantage of tolerance by the
French government The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...
, 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 A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...
" continued even after the transition to democracy, but it is generally agreed that after 1983 the French authorities started to collaborate with the Spanish government against ETA. In the 1980s, 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 seventh and eighth assemblies. ETA VII accepted this partial amnesty granted by the now democratic Spanish government and integrated into the political party ''
Euskadiko Ezkerra Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE; en, Basque Country Left) was a Basque socialist political organisation. It was founded as a coalition of Euskal Iraultzarako Alderdia (EIA, ''Basque Party for Revolution'' or ''Party for Basque Revolution'') and other B ...
'' ("Left of the Basque Country"). ETA VIII, after a brief period of independent activity, eventually integrated into ETA(m). With no factions existing anymore, ETA(m) reclaimed the original name of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna.


GAL

During the 1980s a "dirty war" ensued using the
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación GAL (an acronym for ''Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación'', "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups") were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government to fight against ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant g ...
(GAL, "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups"), a paramilitary group which billed themselves as counter-terrorist, active between 1983 and 1987. The GAL's stated mission was to avenge every ETA killing with another killing of ETA exiles in the French department of Pyrénées Atlantiques. GAL committed 27 assassinations (all but one in France), plus several kidnappings and torture, not only of ETA members but of civilians supposedly related to those, some of whom turned out to have nothing to do with ETA. GAL activities were a follow-up of similar dirty war actions by death squads, actively supported by members of Spanish security forces and secret services, using names such as active from 1975 to 1981. They were responsible for the killing of about 48 people. One consequence of GAL's activities in France was the decision in 1984 by interior minister Pierre Joxe to permit the extradition of ETA suspects to Spain. Reaching this decision had taken 25 years and was critical in curbing ETA's capabilities by denial of previously safe territory in France. 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. The group's connections with the state were unveiled by the Spanish journal , with an investigative series leading to the GAL plot being discovered and a national trial initiated. As a consequence, the group's attacks since the revelation have generally been dubbed state terrorism. In 1997 the Spanish court finished its trial, which resulted in convictions and imprisonment of several individuals related to the GAL, including civil servants and politicians up to the highest levels of the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
(PSOE) government, such as former Homeland Minister José Barrionuevo. Premier
Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician, who was the Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, and the 3rd Prime Minister of Spain since th ...
was quoted as saying that the
constitutional state ''Rechtsstaat'' (lit. "state of law"; "legal state") is a doctrine in continental European legal thinking, originating in Dutch and German jurisprudence. It can be translated into English as " rule of law", alternatively "legal state", state ...
has to defend itself "even in the sewers" (), something which, for some, indicated at least his knowledge of the scheme. However, his involvement with the GAL could never be proven. These events marked the end of the armed "counter-terrorist" period in Spain and no major cases of foul play on the part of the Spanish government after 1987 (when GAL ceased to operate) have been proven in courts.


Human rights

According to the radical nationalist group, Euskal Memoria, between 1960 and 2010 there were 465 deaths in the Basque Country due to (primarily Spanish) state violence. This figure is considerably higher than those given elsewhere, which are usually between 250 and 300. Critics of ETA cite only 56 members of that organisation killed by state forces since 1975. ETA members and supporters routinely claim
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
at the hands of Spanish police forces. While these claims are hard to verify, some convictions were based on confessions while prisoners were held incommunicado and without access to a lawyer of their choice, for a maximum of five days. These confessions were routinely repudiated by the defendants during trials as having been extracted under torture. There were some successful prosecutions of proven tortures during the "dirty war" period of the mid-1980s, although the penalties have been considered by
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
as unjustifiably light and lenient with co-conspirators and enablers. In this regard, Amnesty International showed concern for the continuous disregard of the recommendations issued by the agency to prevent the alleged abuses from possibly taking place. Also in this regard, ETA's manuals were found instructing its members and supporters to claim routinely that they had been tortured while detained. Unai Romano's case was very controversial: pictures of him with a symmetrically swollen face of uncertain aetiology were published after his incommunicado period leading to claims of police abuse and torture. Martxelo Otamendi, the ex-director of the Basque newspaper , decided to bring charges in September 2008 against the Spanish Government in the
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...
for "not inspecting properly" cases tainted by torture. As a result of ETA's violence, threats and killings of journalists, Reporters Without Borders included Spain in all six editions of its annual watchlist on press freedom up to 2006. Thus, the NGO included ETA in its watchlist "Predators of Press Freedom".


Under democracy

ETA performed their first
car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
assassination in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
in September 1985, resulting in one death (American citizen Eugene Kent Brown, employee of Johnson & Johnson) and sixteen injuries; the Plaza República Dominicana bombing in July 1986 killed 12 members of the Guardia Civil and injured 50; on 19 June 1987, the Hipercor bombing was an attack in a shopping centre in
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, killing 21 and injuring 45; 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 warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to evacuate the area. The police said that the warning came only a few minutes before the bomb exploded. In 1986 (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 political violence. Also in 1986, in Ordizia, ETA gunned 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 reinsertion policy which granted amnesty to those prisoners who publicly renounced political violence (see below). On 12 January 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 28 January, ETA announced a 60-day "ceasefire", later prolonged several times. Negotiations known as the (" 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 The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...
. 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 ("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. '' /'' ("Pro-Amnesty Managing Assemblies", currently illegal), later ("Freedom") and ("The Family Members"), provided support for prisoners and families. The Basque Government and several Nationalist town halls granted money on humanitarian reasons for relatives to visit prisoners. The long road trips have caused accidental deaths that are protested against by Nationalist Prisoner's Family supporters. During the ETA ceasefire of the late 1990s, the PSOE government brought the prisoners on the islands and in Africa back to the mainland. 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 in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, 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 other than through the court-appointed lawyer, including informing their family of their arrest, consultation with private lawyers or examination by a physician other than the
coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jur ...
s. In comparison, the
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, ...
term for other suspects is three days. In 1992, ETA's three top leaders—"military" leader
Francisco Mujika Garmendia Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...
("Pakito"), political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina ("Txelis") and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe ("Fiti"), often referred to collectively as the "cúpula" of ETA or as the Artapalo collective—were arrested in the northern Basque town of
Bidart Bidart (; eu, Bidarte)BIDARTE
Y Groups", formed by young militants of ETA parallel groups (generally minors), dedicated to so-called —street struggle—and whose activities included burning buses, street lamps, benches, ATMs, and garbage containers, 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. In 1995, the armed group 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 of 1978 The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was ...
. Changing the constitution was not considered. Also in 1995 was a failed ETA car bombing attempt directed against
José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the Fre ...
, a conservative politician who was the leader of the then-opposition (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. On 10 July 1997, PP council member
Miguel Ángel Blanco Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido (13 May 1968 – 13 July 1997) was a Spanish politician who was a councillor in Ermua in the Basque Country for the People's Party (PP). He was kidnapped and subsequently murdered by the separatist group ETA. Biog ...
was kidnapped in the Basque town of Ermua, with the separatist group threatening to assassinate him unless the Spanish government met ETA's demand of starting to bring all ETA's inmates to prisons of the Basque Country within two days after the kidnapping. This demand was not met by the Spanish government and after three days Miguel Ángel Blanco was found shot dead when the deadline expired. More than six million people took out to the streets to demand his liberation, with massive demonstrations occurring as much in the Basque regions as elsewhere in Spain, chanting cries of "Assassins" and "Basques yes, ETA no". This response came to be known as the "Spirit of Ermua". Later acts of violence included the 6 November 2001 car bomb in Madrid which injured 65 people, and attacks on football stadiums and tourist destinations throughout Spain. The 11 September 2001 attacks in the US appeared to have dealt a hard blow to ETA, owing to the worldwide toughening of "anti-terrorist" measures (such as the freezing of bank accounts), the increase in international policy coordination, and the end of the toleration some countries had, up until then, extended to ETA. Additionally, 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 were frustrated by Spanish security forces. On 24 December 2003, in San Sebastián and in
Hernani Hernani may refer to: *Hernani, Eastern Samar, a municipality in Eastern Samar, Philippines *Hernani, Gipuzkoa, a town in Gipuzkoa, Basque Autonomous Community, Spain * ''Hernani'' (drama), a Romantic drama by Victor Hugo * Hernani CRE, a Spanish r ...
, National Police arrested two ETA members who had left dynamite in a railroad car prepared to explode in Chamartín Station in Madrid. On 1 March 2004, in a place between Alcalá de Henares and
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, a light truck with 536 kg of explosives was discovered by the Guardia Civil. ETA was initially blamed for the 2004 Madrid bombings by the outgoing government and large sections of the press. However, the group denied responsibility and Islamic fundamentalists from Morocco were eventually convicted. The judicial investigation currently states that there is no relationship between ETA and the Madrid bombings.


2006 ceasefire declaration and subsequent discontinuation

In the context of negotiation with the Spanish government, ETA declared what it described as a "truce" several times since its creation. On 22 March 2006, ETA sent a DVD message to the Basque Network Euskal Irrati-Telebista and the journals ''
Gara ''Gara'' (Basque: ''We Are'') is a bilingual (Basque/Spanish) newspaper published in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Autonomous Community. The newspaper's target market comprises the area of the Basque Country, but its cir ...
'' and '' Berria'' with a communiqué from the group announcing what it called a "permanent ceasefire" that was broadcast over Spanish TV. Talks with the group were then officially opened by Spanish ''Presidente del Gobierno'' José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. These took place all over 2006, not free from incidents such as an ETA cell stealing some 300 handguns, ammunition and spare parts in France in October 2006. or a series of warnings made by ETA such as the one of 23 September, when masked ETA militants declared that the group would "keep taking up arms" until achieving "independence and socialism in the Basque country", which were regarded by some as a way to increase pressure on the talks, by others as a tactic to reinforce ETA's position in the negotiations. Finally, on 30 December 2006 ETA detonated a van bomb after three confusing warning calls, in a parking building at the
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
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 pm, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero released a statement stating that the "peace process" had been discontinued.


2008 to present

In January 2008, ETA stated that its call for independence is similar to that of the Kosovo status and
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. In the week of 8 September 2008, two Basque political parties were banned by a Spanish court for their secretive links to ETA. In another case in the same week, 21 people were convicted whose work on behalf of ETA prisoners actually belied secretive links to the armed separatists themselves. ETA reacted to these actions by placing three major car bombs in less than 24 hours in northern Spain. In April 2009 Jurdan Martitegi was arrested, making him the fourth consecutive ETA military chief to be captured within a single year, an unprecedented police record, further weakening the group. Violence surged in the middle of 2009, with several ETA attacks leaving three people dead and dozens injured around Spain.
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
condemned these attacks as well as ETA's "grave human rights abuses". The Basque newspaper ''
Gara ''Gara'' (Basque: ''We Are'') is a bilingual (Basque/Spanish) newspaper published in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Autonomous Community. The newspaper's target market comprises the area of the Basque Country, but its cir ...
'' published an article that suggested that ETA member Jon Anza could have been killed and buried by Spanish police in April 2009. The central prosecutor in the French town of Bayonne, Anne Kayanakis, announced, as the official version, that the autopsy carried out on the body of Jon Anza – a suspected member of the armed Basque group ETA, missing since April 2009 – revealed no signs of having been beaten, wounded or shot, which should rule out any suspicions that he died from unnatural causes. Nevertheless, that very magistrate denied the demand of the family asking for the presence of a family doctor during the autopsy. After this, Jon Anza's family members asked for a second autopsy to be carried out. In December 2009, Spain raised its terror alert after warning that ETA could be planning major attacks or high-profile kidnappings during Spain's European Union presidency. The next day, after being asked by the opposition,
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (; 28 July 1951 – 10 May 2019) was a Spanish statesman, politician and chemist who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain from 2010 to 2011, and previously as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993, as Minister of ...
said that warning was part of a strategy.


2010 ceasefire

On 5 September 2010, ETA declared a new ceasefire, its third after two previous ceasefires were ended by the group. A spokesperson speaking on a video announcing the ceasefire said the group wished to use "peaceful, democratic means" to achieve its aims, though it was not specified whether the ceasefire was considered permanent by the group. ETA claimed that it had decided to initiate a ceasefire several months before the announcement. In the part of the video, the spokesperson said that the group was "prepared today as yesterday to agree to the minimum democratic conditions necessary to put in motion a democratic process if the Spanish government is willing". The announcement was met with a mixed reaction; Basque nationalist politicians responded positively and said that the Spanish and international governments should do the same, while the Spanish interior counsellor of Basque, Rodolfo Ares, said that the committee did not go far enough. He said that he considered ETA's statement "absolutely insufficient" because it did not commit to a complete termination of what Ares considered "terrorist activity" by the group.


2011 permanent ceasefire and cessation of armed activity

On 10 January 2011, ETA declared that their September 2010 ceasefire would be permanent and verifiable by international observers. Observers urged caution, pointing out that ETA had broken permanent ceasefires in the past, whereas Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (who left office in December 2011) demanded that ETA declare that it had given up violence once and for all. After the declaration, Spanish press started speculating of a possible Real IRA-type split within ETA, with hardliners forming a new more violent offshoot led by "Dienteputo". On 21 October 2011, ETA announced a cessation of armed activity via video clip sent to media outlets following the Donostia-San Sebastián International Peace Conference, which was attended by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former
Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...
of Ireland
Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste a ...
, former prime minister of Norway
Gro Harlem Brundtland Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician (Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organiza ...
(an international leader in sustainable development and public health), former Interior Minister of France
Pierre Joxe Pierre Joxe, KBE (; born 28 November 1934) is a former French Socialist politician and has been a member of the Constitutional Council of France between 2001 and 2010. A graduate of the École nationale d'administration, he joined the Court ...
, president of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams (a
Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parl ...
in Dáil Éireann), and British diplomat Jonathan Powell, who served as the first Downing Street Chief of Staff. They all signed a final declaration that was supported also by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the former US president and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
, and the former US senator and former US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace
George J. Mitchell George John Mitchell Jr. (born August 20, 1933) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. A leading member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995, and as Senate Majority Leader from ...
. The meeting did not include Spanish or French government representatives. The day after the ceasefire, in a contribution piece to ''The New York Times'', Tony Blair indicated that lessons in dealing with paramilitary separatist groups can be learned from how the Spanish administration handled ETA. Blair wrote, "governments must firmly defend themselves, their principles and their people against terrorists. This requires good police and intelligence work as well as political determination. owever firm security pressure on terrorists must be coupled with offering them a way out when they realize that they cannot win by violence. Terrorist groups are rarely defeated by military means alone". Blair also suggested that Spain would need to discuss weapon decommissioning, peace strategies, reparations for victims, and security with ETA, as Britain discussed with the
Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish re ...
. ETA had declared ceasefires many times before, most significantly in 1999 and 2006, but the Spanish government and media outlets expressed particularly hopeful opinions regarding the permanence of this proclamation. Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero described the move as "a victory for democracy, law and reason". Additionally, the effort of security and intelligence forces in Spain and France are cited by politicians as the primary instruments responsible for the weakening of ETA. The optimism may come as a surprise considering ETA's failure to renounce the independence movement, which has been one of the Spanish government's requirements. Less optimistically, Spanish Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party le ...
of the centre-right People's Party expressed the need to push for the full dissolution of ETA. The People's Party has emphasized the obligation of the state to refuse negotiations with separatist movements since former Prime Minister
José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the Fre ...
was in office. Aznar was responsible for banning media outlets seen as subversive to the state and Batasuna, the political party of ETA. Additionally, in preparation for his party's manifesto, on 30 October 2011, Rajoy declared that the People's Party would not negotiate with ETA under threats of violence nor announcements of the group's termination, but would instead focus party efforts on remembering and honouring victims of separatist violence. This event may not alter the goals of the Basque separatist movement but will change the method of the fight for a more autonomous state. Negotiations with the newly elected administration may prove difficult with the return to the centre-right People's Party, which is replacing Socialist control, due to pressure from within the party to refuse all ETA negotiations. In September 2016, French police stated that they did not believe ETA had made progress in giving up arms. In March 2017, well-known French-Basque activist was quoted as having told ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', "ETA has made us responsible for the disarmament of its arsenal, and by the afternoon of 8 April, ETA will be completely unarmed." On 7 April, the BBC reported that ETA would disarm "tomorrow", including a photo of a stamped ETA letter attesting to this. The French police found 3.5 tonnes of weapons on 8 April, the following day, at the caches handed over by ETA. ETA, for its part, issued a statement endorsing the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.


End of political activity

In a letter to online newspaper '' El Diario'', published on 2 May 2018, ETA formally announced that it had "completely dissolved all its structures and ended its political initiative" on 16 April 2018. A leading leftwing Basque nationalist politician and former ETA member, Arnaldo Otegi, the general coordinator of the Basque coalition party EH Bildu, has said the violence ETA used in its quest for independence “should never have happened” and it ought to have laid down its arms far earlier than it did. A full quote: 'Today we want to make specific mention of the victims of ETA's violence,” said Otegi. “We want to express to them our sorrow and pain for the suffering they endured. We feel their pain, and that sincere feeling leads us to affirm that it should never have happened, that no one could be satisfied with what happened, and that it should not have lasted as long as it did. We should have managed to reach
he abandonment of the armed campaign He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
sooner.'


Victims, tactics and attacks


Victims

ETA's targets expanded from military or police-related personnel and their families to a wider array, which included the following: * Fascist leaders, such as Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's successor was killed in a bombing on December 20, 1973. * Spanish military and police personnel, active duty or retired. 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. As the regional police (
Ertzaintza The (, en, Public Guard or ''People's Guard''), is the autonomous police force for the Basque Country, largely replacing the Spanish Policía Nacional (National Police) and Guardia Civil (Civil Guard). An Ertzaintza member is called an ''e ...
in the Basque Country and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia) took a greater role in combating ETA, they were added to their list of targets. * Businessmen (such as Javier Ybarra and
Ignacio Uria Mendizabal Ignacio is a male Spanish and Galician name originating either from the Roman family name Egnatius, meaning born from the fire, of Etruscan origin, or from the Latin name "Ignatius" from the word "Ignis" meaning "fire". This was the name of se ...
): these are mainly targeted in order to extort them for the so-called "
revolutionary tax Revolutionary tax is a major form of funding for violent non-state actors such as guerrilla and terrorist organizations. Those outside the organization may consider it to be a euphemism for "protection money."José Antonio Ortega Lara. * Elected parliamentarians, city councillors and ex-councillors, politicians in general: most prominently Luis Carrero Blanco (killed in 1973). Dozens of politicians belonging to the People's Party (PP) and
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
(PSOE) were assassinated or maimed. Some Basque nationalist politicians from the PNV party, such as Juan Mari Atutxa, also received threats. Hundreds of politicians in Spain required a constant bodyguard service. Bodyguards are contingent victims as well. In 2005 ETA announced that it would no longer "target" elected politicians. Nonetheless, ETA killed ex-council member Isaías Carrasco in Mondragon/Arrasate on 7 March 2008. * Judges and prosecutors. Particularly threatened were the members of the Spanish anti-terrorist court: the '' Audiencia Nacional''. * University professors who publicly expressed ideas that countered armed Basque separatism: such as
Manuel Broseta Manuel Broseta Pont (13 October 1932 – 15 February 1992) was a Spanish academic and politician. He was a member of the Senate of Spain between 1979 and 1982 and he served as State Secretary for Autonomous Communities for the Union of the Democ ...
or
Francisco Tomás y Valiente Francisco Tomás y Valiente (8 December 1932 – 14 February 1996) was a Spanish jurist, historian, and writer. He was professor of history of law in the Autonomous University of Madrid. He presided Spain's Constitutional Court from 1986 to 199 ...
. In the latter case, the shooting resulted in more than half a million people protesting against ETA. * Journalists: some of these professionals began to be labelled by ETA as targets starting with the killing of journalist José Luis López de la Calle, assassinated in May 2000. * Economic targets: a wide array of private or public property considered valuable assets of Spain, especially railroads, tourist sites, industries, or malls. * Exceptionally, ETA also assassinated former ETA members such as María Dolores Katarain as a reprisal for having left the group. * A number of ETA attacks by car bomb caused random civilian casualties, like ETA's bloodiest attack, the bombing in 1987 of the subterranean parking lot of the Hipercor supermarket in Barcelona which killed 21 civilians and left 45 seriously wounded, of whom 20 were left disabled; also the attack of Plaza de Callao in Madrid.


Tactics

ETA's tactics included: * Direct attacks: killing by shooting the victim in the nape. * Bombings (often with
car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
s). When the bombs targeted individuals for assassination they were often surreptitiously rigged in the victim's car. The detonating systems varied. They were rarely manually ignited but instead, for example, wired so the bomb would explode on the ignition or when the car went over a set speed limit. Sometimes the bomb was placed inside a stolen car with false plates, parked along the route of the objective, and the explosive remotely activated when the target passed by (e.g. V.I.P. cars, police patrols or military vehicles). These bombs sometimes killed family members of ETA's target victim and bystanders. When the bombs were large car-bombs seeking to produce large damage and terror, they were generally announced by one or more telephone calls made to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA. Charities (usually Detente Y Ayuda—DYA) were also used to announce the threat if the bomb was in a populated area. The type of explosives used in these attacks was initially
Goma-2 Goma-2 was a type of high explosive manufactured for industrial use (chiefly mining) by Unión Española de Explosivos S.A. It was a gelatinous, nitroglycol-based explosive widely used within Spain and exported abroad. It was used by ETA in the ...
or self-produced ammonal. After several successful robberies in France, ETA began using Titadyne. * Shells: hand-made mortars (the ''Jo ta ke'' model) were occasionally used to attack military or police bases. Their lack of precision was probably the reason their use was discontinued. * Anonymous threats: often delivered in the Basque Country by placards or graffiti. Such threats forced many people into hiding or exile from the Basque Country and were used to prevent people from freely expressing political ideas other than Basque nationalist ones. *
Extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
or blackmail: called by ETA a "revolutionary tax", demanding money from a business owner in the Basque Country or elsewhere in Spain, under threats to him and his family, up to and including death threats. Occasionally, some French Basques were threatened in this manner, such as footballer Bixente Lizarazu. ETA moves the extorted funds to accounts in Liechtenstein and other fiscal havens. According to French judiciary sources, as of 2008 ETA exacted an estimated €900,000 a year in this manner. * Kidnapping: often as a punishment for failing to pay the blackmail known as "revolutionary tax", but was also used to try to force the government to free ETA prisoners under the threat of killing the kidnapped, as in the kidnapping and subsequent execution of Miguel Angel Blanco. ETA often hid the kidnapped in underground chambers without windows, called '' zulos'', of very reduced dimensions for extended periods. Also, people robbed of their vehicles would usually be tied up and abandoned in an isolated place to allow those who carjacked them to escape. * Robbery: ETA members also stole weapons, explosives, machines for license plates and vehicles.


Attacks


Activity

With its attacks against what they considered "enemies of the Basque people", ETA killed over 820 people since 1968, including more than 340 civilians. It maimed hundreds more and kidnapped dozens. Its ability to inflict violence had declined steadily since the group was at its strongest during the late 1970s and 1980 (when it killed 92 people in a single year). After decreasing peaks in the fatal casualties in 1987 and 1991, 2000 was the last year when ETA killed more than 20 in a single year. After 2002, the yearly number of ETA's fatal casualties was reduced to single digits. Similarly, over the 1990s and, especially, during the 2000s, fluid cooperation between the French and Spanish police, state-of-the-art tracking devices and techniques and, apparently, police
infiltration Infiltration may refer to: Science, medicine, and engineering *Infiltration (hydrology), downward movement of water into soil *Infiltration (HVAC), a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning term for air leakage into buildings *Infiltration (me ...
allowed increasingly repeating blows to ETA's leadership and structure (between May 2008 and April 2009 no less than four consecutive "military chiefs" were arrested). ETA operated 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. To date, about 65% of ETA's killings were committed in the Basque Country, followed by
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
with roughly 15%. Navarre and
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...
also registered significant numbers. Actions in France usually consisted of assaults on arsenals or military industries to steal weapons or explosives; these were usually stored in large quantities in hide-outs located in the French Basque Country rather than Spain. The French judge Laurence Le Vert was threatened by ETA and a plot arguably aiming to assassinate her was unveiled. Only very rarely have ETA members engaged in shootings with the French
Gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...
. This often occurred mainly when members of the group were confronted at checkpoints. Despite this, on 1 December 2007 ETA killed two Spanish Civil Guards on counter-terrorist surveillance duties in Capbreton, Landes, France. This was its first killing after it ended its 2006 declaration of "permanent ceasefire" and the first killing committed by ETA in France of a Spanish police agent since 1976, when they kidnapped, tortured and assassinated two Spanish inspectors in Hendaye.


Financing

In 2007, police reports pointed out that, after the serious blows suffered by ETA and its political counterparts during the 2000s, its budget would have been adjusted to €2,000,000 annually. Although ETA used robbery as a means of financing its activities in its early days, it was accused both of arms trafficking and of benefiting economically from its political counterpart Batasuna.
Extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
was ETA's main source of funds.


Basque nationalist context

ETA was 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 similar, 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 (, Basque for "Nationalist Workers' Committees") is a Basque left-wing nationalist and separatist trade union operating mainly in Spain currently led by Garbiñe Aranburu. It was created in 1974 by Jon Idigoras among others. They are part of ...
(LAB), and Askatasuna among others. There are often strong interconnections between these groups, double or even triple membership are not infrequent. 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. Also, many left-wing parties, such as Ezker Batua,
Batzarre Batzarre ( en, Assembly) is a political party in Navarre, Spain. It has a branch in the Basque Autonomous Community known as Zutik. It bids to win the political space to the left of the Basque nationalists and the Spanish socialists, the latte ...
and some sectors of the EAJ-PNV party, also support self-determination but are not in favour of independence.


French role

Historically, members of ETA took refuge in France, particularly the French Basque Country. The leadership typically chose to live in France for security reasons, where police pressure was much less than in Spain. Accordingly, ETA's tactical approach had been to downplay the issue of independence of the French Basque country so as to get French acquiescence for their activities. The
French government The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...
quietly tolerated the group, especially during Franco's regime, when ETA members could face the death penalty in Spain. In the 1980s, the advent of the GAL still hindered counter-terrorist cooperation between France and Spain, with the French government considering ETA a Spanish domestic problem. At the time, ETA members often travelled between the two countries using the French sanctuary as a base of operations. With the disbanding of the GAL, the French government changed its position on the matter and in the 1990s initiated the ongoing 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 The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
legislation on human rights and the legal representation of detainees. Virtually all of the highest ranks within ETA –including their successive "military", "political" or finances chiefs – have been captured in French territory, from where they had been plotting their activities after having crossed the border from Spain. In response to the new situation, ETA carried out attacks against French policemen and made threats to some French judges and prosecutors. This implied a change from the group's previous low-profile in the French Basque Country, which successive ETA leaders had used to discreetly manage their activities in Spain.


Government response

ETA considered its prisoners
political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...
s. 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 menaced and expelled from the group. Some were assassinated by ETA for leaving the group and going through reinsertion programs. The Spanish Government passed the ''Ley de Partidos Políticos''. This is a law barring political parties that support violence and do not condemn terrorist actions or are involved with terrorist groups.Ley Orgánica 6/2002, de 27 de Junio, de Partidos Políticos
Noticias.juridicas.com (21 January 2011). Retrieved on 30 January 2011.
The law resulted in the banning of Herri Batasuna and its successor parties unless they explicitly condemned terrorist actions and, at times, imprisoning or trying some of its leaders who have been indicted for cooperation with ETA. Judge Baltasar Garzón initiated a judicial procedure (coded as ''18/98''), aimed towards the support structure of 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 temporary imprisoning the editor of its "investigative unit", Pepe Rei, under similar accusations. In August 1999 Judge Baltasar Garzón authorized the reopening of the newspaper and the radio, but they could not reopen due to economic difficulties. Judicial procedure 18/98 has many ramifications, including the following: * A trial against a little-known organization called '' Xaki'', acquitted in 2001 as the "international network" of ETA. * A trial against the youths' movement '' Jarrai''-'' Haika''-''Segi'', accused of contributing to street violence in an organized form and 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 as their ownership is not directly linked to Batasuna. * A trial against the league of Basque-language academies
AEK A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...
. 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 ''Egunkaria'' (Basque for ''The Daily'') for thirteen years was the only fully Basque language newspaper in circulation until it was closed down on 20 February 2003 by the Spanish authorities due to allegations of an illegal association with ...
in 2003 and the imprisonment and trial of its editor, Martxelo Otamendi, due to links with ETA accounting and fundraising, and other journalists (some of whom reported torture).Testimony by Martxelo Otamendi
at the
Universal Forum of Cultures The Universal Forum of Cultures ( ca, Fòrum de les Cultures, was an international cultural event intended to take place every three years. History The first Forum was held in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain), from May 9 to September 26, 2004. It w ...
, Barcelona (May 2004).
In 2007, indicted members of the youth movements Haika, Segi and Jarrai were found guilty of a crime of connivance with terrorism. In May 2008, leading ETA figures were arrested in
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
, France. Francisco Javier López Peña, also known as 'Thierry,' had been on the run for twenty years before his arrest. A final total of arrests brought in six people, including ETA members and supporters, including the ex-Mayor of
Andoain Andoain is a town in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, in the North of Spain. Nowadays it has a population of 14,637 inhabitants (2019), which has been quite stable since the 90s. Andoain is located where ...
, José Antonio Barandiarán, who is rumoured to have led police to 'Thierry'. The Spanish Interior Ministry claimed the relevance of the arrests would come in time with the investigation. Furthermore, the Interior Minister said that those members of ETA now arrested had ordered the latest attacks and that senior ETA member Francisco Javier López Peña was "not just another arrest because he is, in all probability, the man who has most political and military weight in the terrorist group." After Lopez Pena's arrest, along with the Basque referendum being put on hold, police work has been on the rise. On 22 July 2008, Spanish police dismantled the most active cell of ETA by detaining nine suspected members of the group. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said about the arrests: "We can't say this is the only ETA unit but it was the most active, most dynamic and of course the most wanted one." Four days later French police also arrested two suspects believed to be tied to the same active cell. The two suspects were: Asier Eceiza, considered a top aide to a senior ETA operative still sought by police, and Olga Comes, whom authorities have linked to the ETA suspects.


International response

The
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
listed ETA as a
terrorist group A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
in their relevant watch lists. ETA has been a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the
Terrorism Act 2000 The Terrorism Act 2000 (c.11) is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland (Em ...
since 29 March 2001. The Canadian Parliament listed ETA as a terrorist group in 2003. France and Spain have often shown co-operation in the fight against ETA, after France's lack of co-operation during the Franco era. In late 2007, two Spanish guards were shot to death in France when on a joint operation with their French counterparts. Furthermore, in May 2008, the arrests of four people in Bordeaux led to a breakthrough against ETA, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry. In 2008, as ETA activity increased, France increased its pressure on ETA by arresting more ETA suspects, including Unai Fano, María Lizarraga, and Esteban Murillo Zubiri in Bidarrain. He had been wanted by the Spanish authorities since 2007 when a Europol arrest warrant was issued against him. French judicial authorities had already ordered that he be held in prison on remand. Spain has also sought cooperation from the United Kingdom in dealing with ETA-IRA ties. In 2008, this came to light after
Iñaki de Juana Chaos José Ignacio de Juana Chaos (born 1955 in Gipuzkoa, Spain), better known as Iñaki de Juana Chaos, is a member of the Basque separatist group ETA. He was convicted of killing 25 people in 1987 and was originally sentenced to 3,000 years in prison ...
, whose release from prison was cancelled on appeal, had moved to
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
. He was thought to be staying at an IRA safe house while being sought by the Spanish authorities. Interpol notified the judge, Eloy Velasco, that he was in either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.


Other related armed groups


Disbanded violent groups

* Anti-ETA groups: ** '' Acción Nacional Española'' ** ''ATE ( Anti-Terrorismo ETA)'' ** '' Batallón Vasco Español'' ** ''
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación GAL (an acronym for ''Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación'', "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups") were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government to fight against ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant g ...
'' (GAL) ** '' Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey'' * Minor Basque nationalist and radical left-wing groups: ** ''
Iparretarrak Iparretarrak (meaning "''the Northerners''" in Basque), commonly known as IK, was a Basque nationalist paramilitary organization operating in the Northern Basque Country, founded in 1973 by Philippe Bidart and other Basque activists. To date, 1982 ...
'' ** '' Iraultza'' ** ''
Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas The Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas (CAA or CCAA) ( eu, Komando Autonomo Antikapitalistak; "Autonomous Anticapitalist Commandos") were a Basque armed group in Spain with Autonomist Marxist politics, defined as an anarchistic breakaway of ET ...
'' ** '' Euskal Zuzentasuna'' ** '' Hordago'' ** ''
Irrintzi Irrintzi is an armed Basque nationalist group or cell that acts in the Northern Basque Country (Basque: ''Iparralde''). The word ''irrintzi'' refers originally to the traditional Basque folk high-pitched scream used to express celebration or h ...
''


International links

* ETA was known to have had 'fraternal' contacts with the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
; the two groups have both, at times, characterized their struggles as parallel. Links between the two groups go back to at least March 1974. ETA purchased Strela 2 surface-to-air missiles from the IRA and in 2001 unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down a jet carrying the Spanish Prime Minister,
José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the Fre ...
. It has also had links with other militant left-wing movements in Europe and other places throughout the world. * In the late 1960s, the Portuguese terrorist group LUAR, which was fighting the dictatorship, brokered the contacts that allowed ETA to purchase weapons in the former Czechoslovak Republic. The partnership continued as LUAR would later assign part of the stolen passports on Portugal consulted in
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...
and Luxembourg, in 1971. These were used by ETA in the Ogro operation that resulted in the assassination of Prime Minister, Admiral
Carrero Blanco Admiral-General Luis Carrero Blanco (4 March 1904 – 20 December 1973) was a Spanish Navy officer and politician. A long-time confidant and right-hand man of dictator Francisco Franco, Carrero served as the Prime Minister of Spain and i ...
. Later, in 1981, when Portugal and Spain were living already in full democracy, ETA exchanged weapons, explosives and provided logistical support to the Forças Populares 25 de Abril (FP-25), a Portuguese far-left terrorist group. In 1981, FP-25 received Gama 2 explosives and two dozen FireBird pistols in exchange for G3 machine guns Additionally, ETA came to harbor in the Basque Country, two FP-25 terrorists who needed to retreat. * In 1999 ETA commandos teamed up with the (now self-dissolved)
Breton Revolutionary Army The Breton Revolutionary Army (french: Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne, ARB) is an illegal armed organization that is part of the Breton nationalism movement in the Brittany region of France. History Origins of the conflict Until the end of th ...
to steal explosives from magazines in
Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
. * The Colombian government stated that there are contacts between ETA and the Colombian guerrillas FARC. The recent capture of FARC's leaders' computers, and leaked email exchanges between both groups, show that ETA members received training from FARC. Apparently, FARC asked for help from ETA to conduct future attacks in Spain,Colombia VP says FARC sought ETA ties for an attack in Spain
Tehran Times (1 June 2008). Retrieved on 30 January 2011.
Colombia: FARC sought to launch attack with ETA
France24. Retrieved on 30 January 2011.

General Commander Fernando Tapias in August 2001.
but the Anncol news agency later denied it, clarifying that the Spanish capital Madrid had been confused with a city in northern Colombia also named Madrid. Following a judicial investigation, it was reported that FARC and ETA had held meetings in Colombia, exchanging information about combat tactics and methods of activating explosives through mobile phones. The two organizations were said to have met at least three times. One of the meetings involved two ETA representatives and two FARC leaders, at a FARC camp, and lasted for a week in 2003. FARC also offered to hide ETA fugitives while requesting anti-air missiles, as well as asking ETA to supply medical experts who could work at FARC prison camps for more than a year. Besides, and more controversially, FARC also asked ETA to stage attacks and kidnappings on its behalf in Europe. ** Italian author and mafia specialist
Roberto Saviano Roberto Saviano (; born 22 September 1979) is an Italian writer, essayist, journalist, and screenwriter. In his writings, including articles and his book '' Gomorrah'', he uses literature and investigative reporting to tell of the economic reali ...
pointed to a relationship of the group with the Mafia. According to this view, ETA trafficked
cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...
which it got via its FARC contacts, then traded it with the Mafia for guns. * Several ex-militants were sent from France through Panama to reside in Cuba after an agreement of the Spanish government (under
Felipe González Felipe González Márquez (; born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish lawyer, professor, and politician, who was the Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, and the 3rd Prime Minister of Spain since th ...
) with Cuba.
Conferencia de Prensa
ofrecida for Felipe Pérez Roque, Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba. Centro de Convenciones " Atlapa" de la Ciudad de Panamá''. 7 November 2000.
The
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
has no information on their activities on Cuban territory.Country Reports on Terrorism: Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
(28 April 2006): ''The Government of Cuba maintains close relationships with other state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran and North Korea, and has provided a haven to members of'' ETA'', FARC, and the ELN.'' There is no information concerning activities of these or other organizations on Cuban territory. Press reports indicate that fugitives from US justice and ETA members are living legally in Cuba, just like fugitives from Cuban justice live legally in the US. The United States says it is not aware of specific terrorist enclaves in the country.
*
Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
groups in the Argentine province of Neuquén have been accused of being trained by both ETA and FARC. Local Mapuches have classified the rumours as part of a plot by businessmen and other Argentines. The United States diplomatic cables leak revealed by WikiLeaks showed the government of Michelle Bachelet had asked the United States aid in investigating a possible FARC-ETA-Mapuche link.


In the media


Films


Documentary films

* , 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. * , Eterio Ortega and Elías Querejeta interview local councillors threatened by ETA. * , the testimony of some of ETA's victims in the last 30 years by filmmaker Iñaki Arteta. * 48 horas: A movie about the kidnapping of Miguel Angel Blanco and his subsequent murder *'' ETA. Une histoire basque'', about the history of ETA * In 2009 a video posted on YouTube subtitled in French shows an inside view of an ETA cell with their methods of action, notably, bomb making and ID card falsification. Also, there is footage of outdoor military training and of the Basque Warrior Day (Gudari Eguna).
Chronique Basque
About a Basque politician who is the target of an ETA death threat. * '' Asier ETA biok'' ("Asier and/ETA I", 2013)Asier ETA biok
official site.
Asier ETA biok
in IMDB
Filmmaker Aitor Merino explores his relation with his childhood friend
Asier Aranguren is a male given name of Basque language, Basque origin, meaning 'the beginning' ( in Standard Basque). It was created for a character in Fernando Navarro Villoslada's 1877 novel . Notable people with the name include: Given name *Asier Antona G ...
, who had become an ETA member. * ''
El fin de ETA EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
'' a documentary about the history of ETA


Other fact-based films about ETA

* ''Commando Txikia'' (José Luis Madrid, 1977) * (Operation Ogre, 1979), Gillo Pontecorvo's film about the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco. * ("The Burgos Trial", Imanol Uribe, 1979) * , about the Segovia prison break when ETA prisoners escaped from Segovia prison. * ("The Trial of ETA", Manuel Macià, 1988) * , María Dolores Katarain, also known as "Yoyes", tries to leave ETA and is killed by her former comrades. * , based on the life of
Mikel Lejarza Mikel Lejarza Eguía (born 1947 in Areatza, Spain) is a former member of the Spanish intelligence service. During the 1970s, he infiltrated the Basque separatist organisation ETA, providing safe houses in Spain to lodge their commandos. His secret ...
, who, prompted by the Spanish police, entered ETA to be a double agent. * ''
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
'', where the squad of Israeli operatives pretend to be members of ETA to avoid conflict with a squad of PLO operatives whilst sharing a neutral safe house. * , about the journalistic research leading to the uncovering of the state-supported GAL. * (2008) ("A bullet in the head"), about the life of an ETA member the day he will kill two Spanish Policemen in Capbreton, France. * ("A Bullet for the King", March 2009) about ETA's failed plot to murder Juan Carlos I during his holidays in Majorca in 1995. * (2021) about the meetings between Maixabel Lasa, widow of an assassinated politician, and the repenting assassins.


Fictional films featuring ETA members and actions

* '' El caso Almería'' ("The Almería Case", Pedro Costa Musté, 1983) * ''
La Muerte de Mikel '' La Muerte de Mikel'' ( en, The Death of Mikel) is a 1984 Spanish film directed by Imanol Uribe, starring Imanol Arias. The film tells in flash back, the story of a gay member of ETA who died under mysterious circumstances. Plot The film opens a ...
'' ("The Death of Mikel",
Imanol Uribe Imanol Uribe (born 28 February 1950) is a Spanish screenwriter and film director. He won the Goya Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for the 1994 thriller '' Running Out of Time''. Biography Born in San Salvador on 28 February 1950 to ...
, 1983) * '' it:Goma 2'' ( José Antonio de la Loma, 1984) * ''Ander y Yul'' ("Ander and Yul", Ana Díez, 1988) * ''Días de humo'' ("Days of Smoke", Antton Eceiza, 1989) * ''Sombras en una batalla'' ("Shadows in a Battle",
Mario Camus Mario Camus García (20 April 1935 – 18 September 2021) was a Spanish film director and screenwriter. He won the Golden Bear at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival with '' La colmena''. His 1987 film ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' w ...
, 1993) * ''Días contados'' ("Counted Days", Imanol Uribe, 1994) * ''A ciegas'' (" Blinded",
Daniel Calparsoro Daniel Calparsoro López-Tapia (born 11 May 1968) is a Spanish filmmaker, considered one of Spain's most adept action film directors. Biography Daniel Calparsoro López-Tapia was born in Barcelona on 11 May 1968, although he was raised in betwee ...
, 1997) * '' The Jackal'' (
Michael Caton-Jones Michael Caton-Jones (born Michael Jones; 15 October 1957) is a Scottish director and producer of film and television. His credits include the World War II film '' Memphis Belle'' (1990), the romantic comedy ''Doc Hollywood'' (1991), the bio ...
, 1997) * ''El viaje de Arián'' ("Arián's Voyage", Eduard Bosch, 2001) * ''La voz de su amo'' ("His Master's Voice", Emilio Martínez Lázaro, 2001) * ''Esos cielos'' ("Those skies", Aitzpea Goenaga, 2006) * ''Todos estamos invitados'' ("We are all invited", Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, 2008) * '' Casa de mi padre'' ("My Father's House", Gorka Merchán, 2008) * ''
Celda 211 ''Cell 211'' ( es, Celda 211, links=no) is a 2009 Spanish-French prison film directed by Daniel Monzón, starring Luis Tosar and Alberto Ammann alongside Antonio Resines, Manuel Morón, Carlos Bardem, Fernando Soto, Luis Zahera, Vicente Rome ...
'' ("Cell 211", Daniel Monzón, 2009) * ''
Carlos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...
'' ( Olivier Assayas, 2010) * '' Bomb Scared'' ( Borga Cabeaga, 2017) * '' Patria'' (''"Fatherland"'', Aitor Gabilondo, 2020). Based on the novel '' Patria'' (
Fernando Aramburu Fernando Aramburu (San Sebastián, 1959) is a Spanish writer. Career He graduated in Spanish Philology from University of Zaragoza and has been living and working as a lecturer in Spanish language in Germany since 1985. His 2006 novel ''Fuego ...
, 2016) fictional, but based on the social conflict between families of ETA members and families of the victims.


Novels

* ''The Spanish Game'' (
Charles Cumming Charles Cumming (born 1971) is a British writer of spy fiction. Early life and education Cumming was born in 1971, in Ayr, Scotland, the son of Ian Cumming (b. 1938) and Caroline Pilkington (b. 1943). He was educated at Ludgrove School (1979 ...
, 2006) * '' The Sands of Time'' ( Sidney Sheldon, 1988) * ''The Fish of Bitterness'' ''(Los peces de la amargura)'' in Spanish (
Fernando Aramburu Fernando Aramburu (San Sebastián, 1959) is a Spanish writer. Career He graduated in Spanish Philology from University of Zaragoza and has been living and working as a lecturer in Spanish language in Germany since 1985. His 2006 novel ''Fuego ...
, 2006) * ''A Basque Story'' ( M. Bryce Ternet, 2009) * ''Fatherland'' ''(Patria)'' in Spanish (
Fernando Aramburu Fernando Aramburu (San Sebastián, 1959) is a Spanish writer. Career He graduated in Spanish Philology from University of Zaragoza and has been living and working as a lecturer in Spanish language in Germany since 1985. His 2006 novel ''Fuego ...
, 2016)


Video games

* In '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', the group is represented by the in-game faction ''The Separatists '' and as playable characters on the in-game map ''de_Inferno ''(defusal group) and ''cs_italy'' (hostage group).


See also

*
Etxerat Etxerat (, meaning 'Homeward') is an association of family members of people who have been imprisoned or exiled because of their activity in support of the Basque National Liberation Movement. Most of those prisoners and exiles are members, or f ...
*
José Larrañaga Arenas José Tomás Larrañaga Arenas (popularly known as ''Txiki'' or ''José Txiki'') ( Azcoitia, March 7, 1926 - Azcoitia, December 31, 1984) was a Spanish politician who was assassinated by the ETA. Biography Larrañaga was a politician and busi ...
* Julen Madariaga


Notes


References


Bibliography

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


External links

*
ETA terrorism and art. Exhibition '1989 After the Conversations of Algiers. Delirium and Truce' at Fundació Antoni Tàpies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eta Anti-Francoism Basque conflict Military units and formations established in 1959 Military units and formations disestablished in 2018 Military wings of nationalist parties Military wings of socialist parties Separatism in France Separatism in Spain Resistance movements Terrorism in France Terrorism in Spain Articles containing video clips 1959 establishments in the Basque Country (autonomous community) 2018 disestablishments in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Defunct organizations designated as terrorist in Europe