ETA (Basque: [eta], Spanish: [ˈeta]), an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque pronunciation: [eus̺kadi ta as̺katas̺una]; "Basque Homeland and Freedom") is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country. ETA is the main organisation of the Basque National Liberation Movement and is the most important participant in the Basque conflict.
ETA declared ceasefires in 1989, 1996, 1998 and 2006, but subsequently
broke them. However, on 5 September 2010, ETA declared a new ceasefire that is still in force – moreover, on 20 October 2011 ETA announced a "definitive cessation of its armed activity".
ETA's motto is Bietan jarrai
("Keep up on both"), referring to the two figures in its symbol, a
snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed
struggle).
Since 1968, ETA has been held responsible for killing 829 individuals, injuring thousands and undertaking dozens of kidnappings. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish and French authorities, as well as the European Union as a whole, and the United States.This convention is followed by a plurality of domestic and international media, which also refer to the group as "terrorists". More than 700 members of the organization are incarcerated in prisons in Spain, France, and other countries.
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Structure
ETA has 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 recent years. ETA has divided the three
substructures into a total of eleven. The change was a response to
recent captures, and possible infiltration, by the different law
enforcement agencies. ETA's intention is to disperse its members and
reduce the impact of detentions.
The leading committee is formed by 7 to 11 individuals, and ETA's
internal documentation refers to it as Zuba, an abbreviation of Zuzendaritza Batzordea (directorial committee). There is another committee named Zuba-hitu
that functions as an advisory committee. The eleven different
substructures are: logistics, politics, international relations with
fraternal organisations, military operations, reserves, prisoner
support, expropriation, information, recruitment, negotiation, and
treasury.
ETA's armed operations are organized in different taldes ("groups") or commandos, generally composed of three to five members, whose objective is to conduct attacks in a specific geographic zone.[citation needed] The taldes are coordinated by the cúpula militar ("military cupola"). To supply the taldes, support groups maintain safe houses and zulos (small rooms concealed in forests, garrets or underground, used to store arms, explosives or, sometimes, kidnapped people; the Basque word zulo
literally means "hole"). The small cellars used to hide the people
kidnapped are named by ETA and ETA's supporters "people's jails".Currently the most common commandos are itinerant, not linked to any specific area, and thus are more difficult to capture.
Among its members, ETA distinguishes between legales/legalak ("legal ones"), those members who do not have police records and live apparently normal lives; liberados ("liberated") members known to the police that are on ETA's payroll and working full time for ETA; and apoyos ("support") who just give occasional help and logistics support to the organization when required.
There are also the imprisoned members of the organisation, serving time
scattered across Spain and France, that sometimes still have
significant influence inside the organisation; and finally the quemados
("burnt out"), members freed after having been imprisoned or those that
the organisation suspect under police vigilance. In the past there was
also the figure of the deportees, expelled by the French government to
remote countries where they live freely. France has since stopped the
practice of deporting ETA members to other places than to Spain to be
judged.ETA's internal bulletin is named Zutabe ("Column"), replacing the earlier one (1962) Zutik ("Standing").
ETA also promotes the kale borroka
("street fight"), that is, violent acts against public transportation,
political parties offices or cultural buildings, destruction of private
property of politicians, police, military, journalist, council members,
and anyone voicing criticism against ETA, bank offices, menaces,
graffiti of political mottos, and general rioting, usually using Molotov cocktails. These groups are made up mostly of young people, who are directed through youth organisations (such as Jarrai, Haika and Segi). Many of the present-day members of ETA started their collaboration with the organisation as participants in the kale borroka.
Political support
The political party Batasuna pursues the same political goals as ETA and does not condemn ETA's use of violence. Formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and "Herri Batasuna"), it is presently banned by the Spanish Supreme Court as an anti-democratic organisation following the Political Parties Law (Ley de Partidos Políticos), It generally received 8% to 15% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community.
Batasuna's political status is 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 denies being the political wing of ETA,despite the fact that double membership – simultaneous or alternative –
between Batasuna and ETA is often recorded, such as with the cases of
prominent Batasuna leaders like Josu Ternera, Arnaldo Otegi, Jon Salaberria and others.
The Spanish Cortes (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, promotes 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 consider 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
new law argue that the Ley de Partidos does not necessarily
require responses to individual acts of violence, but rather a
declaration of principles explicitly rejecting violence as a means of
achieving political goals. Defenders also argue that the ban of a
political party is subject to judicial process, with all the guarantees
of the State of Law. Batasuna has failed to produce such a statement. As
of February 2008 other political parties linked to organizations such as Partido Comunista de España (reconstituido) 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) were declared illegal in September 2008.
A new party called Aukera Guztiak (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 their aim was to allow Basque citizens to freely express
their political ideas, even those of independence. On the matter of
political violence, Aukera Guztiak stated their right not to condemn
some 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 sequel to
Batasuna and declared a ban on it.
After Aukera Guztiak had been banned, and less than two weeks before
the election, another political group 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 made the announcement 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, a virtually unknown political formation until
then. PCTV obtained 9 seats of 75 (12.44% of votes) at the Basque
Parliament.
The election of EHAK representatives eventually allowed the programme
of the illegalized 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
Spanish transition to democracy
from 1975 on and ETA's progressive radicalisation have resulted in a
steady loss of support, which became especially apparent at the time of
their 1997 kidnapping and countdown assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco.
Their loss of sympathisers has 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) constitute 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, torture 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, has obtained these results in May 2009:[41]
64% rejected ETA totally, 13% identified themselves as former ETA
sympathisers (mainly during the Franco dictatorship) 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 it was necessary for all
political parties to launch a dialogue, including a debate on the
political framework for the Basque Country (86%). 69% support the idea
of ratifying the results of this hypothetical 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 population) or the Northern Basque Country where support is even weaker (around 15% of population).
History
During Franco's dictatorship
ETA grew from 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 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,
France, in 1962, during which a "declaration of principles" was
formulated and following which a structure of activist cells was
developed. Subsequently, Marxist 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.
Although statistics published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior show that ETA's first victim was killed in 1968,some sources attribute the 1960 bombing of the Amara station in Donostia-San Sebastian (which killed a 22-month-old child) to ETA. This attack was claimed by the Portuguese and Spanish left-wing group DRIL (together with four other very similar bombings committed that same day across Spain, all of which are attributed to DRIL). The attack has, however, been blamed on ETA
because a chronology of ETA attacks referring to the 1960 bombing was
allegedly found on the computer of the head of ETA's political arm, José
Luis Álvarez Santacristina ("Txelis"), following his capture by police
in March 1992.[The Spanish parliament therefore regards the 1960 bombing to have been ETA's first attack, although this attribution has been considered to be unfounded.
ETA's first confirmed 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 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, chief of the secret police 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 Proceso de Burgos ("Burgos Trial"), 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, in order to exchange him for the Burgos
defendants. He was released unharmed on Christmas Eve.
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 was Operación Ogro, the December 1973 bomb assassination in Madrid of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco,
Franco's chosen successor and president of the government (a position
roughly equivalent to being a prime minister). The assassination had
been planned for months and was executed by placing a bomb in the sewer
below the street where Carrero Blanco's car passed every day. The bomb
blew up beneath the politician's car and threw it three floors into the
air and over the top of a nearby building onto a balcony in a nearby
courtyard.
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 establishment of democracy.[citation needed]
During the transition
During the Spanish transition to democracy which began following Franco's death, ETA split into two separate organisations: ETA political-military 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 1978–80 were
to prove ETA's most deadly, with 68, 76, and 98 fatalities,
respectively. [Martinez-Herrera 2002]
During the Franco dictatorship, ETA was able to take advantage of tolerance by the French government,
which allowed its members to move freely through French territory,
believing that in this manner they were contributing to the end of
Franco's regime. There is much controversy over the degree to which this
policy of "sanctuary"
continued even after the transition to democracy, but it is generally
agreed that currently the French authorities collaborate closely with
the Spanish government against ETA.
In the 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 ("Left of the Basque Country").
ETA VIII, after a brief period of independent activity, eventually
integrated into ETA(m), possibly influencing ETA(m) into adopting even
more radical and violent positions. With no factions existing anymore,
ETA(m) revamped the original name of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna.
GAL
During the 1980s a "dirty war" ensued by means of the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups"), a paramilitary patriotic group which billed themselves as counter-terrorist,
active between 1983 and 1987. The GAL committed assassinations,
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. 27 people were murdered by GAL.
Activities of GAL 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 Batallón Vasco Español acting from 1976 to 1982. 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 El Mundo, with an investigative
series leading to the GAL plot being discovered and trial initiated. As
a consequence, the group's attacks since the revelation have generally
been dubbed state terrorism.
In 1997 the Spanish Audiencia Nacional
court finished its trial, which resulted in convictions and
imprisonment of several individuals related to the GAL, including civil
servants up to the highest levels of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) government, such as former Homeland Minister José Barrionuevo. Premier Felipe González was quoted as saying that the constitutional state has to defend itself "also in the sewers" (El Estado de derecho también se defiende en las cloacas)
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 474 deaths in the Basque Country due to
(primarily Spanish) "state violence".[63] This figure is considerably higher than those given elsewhere, which usually amount to 250–300.[64]
ETA members and supporters routinely claim torture at the hands of any police force.[65] While these claims are hard to verify, some convictions are based on confessions obtained while prisoners are held incommunicado
and without access to a lawyer of their choice, for a maximum of five
days. These confessions are routinely repudiated by the defendants
during trials as having been extracted under torture. There have been
some successful prosecutions of proven tortures during the "dirty war"
period of the mid-1980s, although the penalties have been considered by Amnesty International as unjustifiably light and lenient with co-conspirators and enablers.
In this regard, Amnesty International has shown concern for the
continuous disregard on the recommendations issued by the agency to
prevent the alleged abuses to possibly take place.
Also in this regard, ETA's manuals have been found instructing its
members and supporters to claim routinely that they had been tortured
while detained.
Unai Romano's case has been very controversial. Pictures of him with a
symmetrically swollen face of uncertain etiology were published after
his incomunication period leading to claims of police abuse and torture.
Martxelo Otamendi, the ex-director of the Basque newspaper Euskaldunon
Egunkaria, decided to bring charges in September 2008 against the
Spanish Government in Strasbourg Court for "not inspecting properly"
torture denounced cases.
As a result of ETA's violence, threats and killings of journalists, Reporters Without Borders has included Spain in all six editions of its annual watchlist on press freedom. Thus, this NGO has included ETA in its watchlist "Predators of Press Freedom".
Under democracy
ETA performed their first car bomb assassination in Madrid
in September 1985, resulting in one death (American citizen Eugene Kent
Brown, Johnson & Johnson employee) and sixteen injuries; another
bomb in July 1986 killed twelve members of the Guardia Civil and injured
50; on 19 June 1987, the Hipercor bombing was an attack in a shopping center in Barcelona,
killing twenty-one and injuring forty-five; in the last case, entire
families were killed. The horror caused then was so striking that ETA
felt compelled to issue a communiqué stating that they had given advance
warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to
evacuate the area. The police claim that the warning came only a few
minutes before the bomb exploded.
In 1986 Gesto por la Paz (known in English as Association for Peace in the Basque Country)
was founded; they began to convene silent demonstrations in communities
throughout the Basque Country the day after any violent killing,
whether by ETA or by GAL. These were the first systematic demonstrations
in the Basque Country against terrorist violence. Also in 1986, in Ordizia, ETA shot down María Dolores Katarain,
known as "Yoyes", while she was walking with her infant son. Yoyes was a
former member of ETA who had abandoned the armed struggle and rejoined
civil society: they accused her of "desertion" because of her taking
advantage of the Spanish reinserción policy which granted amnesty to those prisoners who publicly refused political violence (see below).
On 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 Mesa de Argel ("Algiers Table") took place between the ETA representative Eugenio Etxebeste
("Antxon"), and the then PSOE government of Spain but no successful
conclusion was reached, and ETA eventually resumed the use of violence.
During this period, the Spanish government had a policy referred to as "reinsertion",
under which imprisoned ETA members whom the government believed had
genuinely abandoned violence could be freed and allowed to rejoin
society. Claiming a need to prevent ETA from coercively impeding this
reinsertion, the PSOE government decided that imprisoned ETA members,
who previously had all been imprisoned within the Basque Country, would
instead be dispersed to prisons throughout Spain, some as far from their
families as in the Salto del Negro prison in the Canary Islands.
France has taken a similar approach. In the event, the only clear
effect of this policy was to incite social protest, especially from
nationalists and families of the prisoners, claiming cruelty of
separating family members from the insurgents. Much of the protest
against this policy runs under the slogan "Euskal presoak – Euskal Herrira" (Basque prisoners to the Basque Country,
by "Basque prisoners" only ETA members are meant). It has to be noted
that almost in any Spanish jail there is a group of ETA prisoners, as
the number of ETA prisoners makes it difficult to disperse them.
Gestoras pro-Amnistía/Amnistia Aldeko Batzordeak ("Pro-Amnesty Managing Assemblies", currently illegal), later Askatasuna ("Freedom") and Senideak ("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 has caused
accidental deaths that are protested against by ETA supporters.
During the ETA ceasefire of the late 1990s, the PSOE government
brought back to the mainland the prisoners on the islands and in Africa.[citation needed]
Since the end of the ceasefire, ETA prisoners have not been sent back
to overseas prisons. Some Basque authorities have established grants for
the expenses of visiting families.
Another Spanish "counter-terrorist" law puts suspected terrorist cases under the central tribunal Audiencia Nacional in Madrid,
due to the threats by the group over the Basque courts. Under Article
509 suspected terrorists are subject to being held "incommunicado" for
up to thirteen days, during which they have no contact with the outside
world 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 coroners. In comparison the habeas corpus term for other suspects is three days.
In 1992, ETA's three top leaders—"military" leader Francisco Mujika Garmendia ("Pakito"), political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina ("Txelis") and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe ("Fiti"), often referred to collectively as the "cúpula" of ETA or as the Artapalo collective—were arrested in the northern Basque town of Bidart,
which led to changes in ETA's leadership and direction. After a
two-month truce, ETA adopted even more radical positions. The principal
consequence of the change appears to have been the creation of the "Y Groups", formed by young militants of ETA parallel organisations (generally minors), dedicated to so-called "kale borroka"—street struggle—and whose activities included burning buses, street lamps, benches, ATMs, 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 organization again launched a peace proposal. The so-called "Democratic Alternative" replaced the earlier KAS
Alternative as a minimum proposal for the establishment of Euskal
Herria. The Democratic Alternative offered the cessation of all armed
ETA activity if the Spanish-government would recognize the Basque people
as having sovereignty over Basque territory, the right to self-determination
and that it freed all ETA members in prison. The Spanish government
ultimately rejected this peace offer as it would go against the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Changing the constitution was not considered.
Also in 1995 came a failed ETA car bombing attempt directed against José María Aznar, a conservative politician who was leader of the then-opposition Partido Popular (PP) and was shortly after elected to the presidency of the government; there was also an abortive attempt in Majorca on the life of King Juan Carlos I. Still, the act with the largest social impact came the following year. 10 July 1997, PP council member Miguel Ángel Blanco 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 came acts of violence such as the 6 November 2001, car bomb in Madrid, which injured sixty-five, and attacks on football stadiums and tourist destinations.
The 11 September 2001 attacks
appeared to have dealt a hard blow to ETA, owing to the toughening of
"antiterrorist" measures (such as the freezing of bank accounts), the
increase in international police coordination, and the end of the
toleration some countries had, up until then, extended to ETA. In
addition, in 2002 the Basque nationalist youth movement Jarrai
was outlawed and the law of parties was changed outlawing Herri
Batasuna, the "political arm" of ETA (although even before the change in
law, Batasuna had been largely paralysed and under judicial
investigation by judge Baltasar Garzón).
With ever-increasing frequency, attempted ETA actions have been frustrated by Spanish security forces.
On Christmas Eve 2003, in San Sebastián and in Hernani, National Police arrested two ETA members who had left dynamite in a railroad car prepared to explode in Chamartín Station in Madrid. On 1 March 2004, in a place between Alcalá de Henares and Madrid, 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
In the context of negotiation with the Spanish government, ETA has
declared what it has described as "truce" a number of times since its
creation.
On 22 March 2006, ETA sent a DVD message to the Basque Network Euskal Irrati-Telebista and the journals Gara and Berria with a communiqué from the organization announcing what it called a "permanent ceasefire" that was broadcast over Spanish TV.
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 on October 2006.
or a series of warnings made by ETA such as the one of 23 September,
when masked ETA militants declared that the organization 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
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
Current events
In January 2008, ETA stated that its call for independence is similar to that of the Kosovo status and Scotland.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.[citation needed]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 the fourth consecutive ETA military chiefs to be
captured within a single year, an unprecedented police record further
weakening the group.
The group, and therefore the violence resurged in summer 2009, with
several ETA attacks leaving three people dead and dozens injured around
Spain. The Basque newspaper Gara published an article that suggested that ETA member Jon Anza could had been killed and buried by Spanish police in April 2009.The central prosecutor in the French town of Bayonne, Anne Kayanakis,
announced 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, therefore
ruling out any suspicions that he died from unnatural causes.
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 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 organisation 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 made the decision to initiate a ceasefire
several months prior to the announcement. In 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
counselor of Basque, Rodolfo Ares, said that the commitment 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
(set to be replaced in December 2011 after the election of Mariano
Rajoy in November) demanded that ETA declare that it had given up
violence for 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 20 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 of Ireland Bertie Ahern, former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland (an international leader in sustainable development and public health), former Interior Minister of France Pierre Joxe, president of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams (a Teachta Dála 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,[88] the former US President and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter, and the former US senator and former US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George J. Mitchell.[89] The meeting did not include Spanish or French government representatives.[90]
The day after the ceasefire, in a contribution piece to the New York
Times, Tony Blair indicated that lessons in dealing with terrorist
groups can be learned from the way in which the Spanish administration
handled the 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. [However], 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”.[91]
Blair also suggested that Spain will need to discuss weapon
decommissioning, peace strategies, reparations for victims, and security
with the ETA, as Britain has discussed with Northern Ireland.[92]
The ETA has declared ceasefires many times before, most significantly
in 1999 and 2006, but the Spanish government and media outlets have
expressed particularly hopeful opinions regarding the permanence of this
most recent 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 celebrated by politicians as the primary instruments
responsible for the weakening of the 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.In fact, ETA’s ceasefire video ended with the assertion that the struggle for the Basque homeland continues.
Less optimistic, the recently elected Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, of the center-right People's Party (Spain), expressed the need to push for the full dissolution of the ETA.The Popular Party, another translation for the People's Party, has
emphasized the obligation of the state to refuse negotiations with
separatist movements since former Prime Minister José María Aznar
was in office. Aznar was responsible for banning media outlets seen as
subversive to the state and Batasuna, the political party of the ETA.
Additionally, in preparation for his party’s manifesto, on 30 October
2011, Rajoy declared that the Popular Party will not negotiate with
terrorists (ETA) under threats of violence nor announcements of the
group’s termination, but will instead focus party efforts on remembering
and honoring victims of terrorist violence.
Significantly, while the ETA pledged to refrain from a violent
separatist movement, the separatist movement was not denounced. In fact,
the ETA announcement reinforced the struggle for the Basque homeland,
but through the use of democratic means.
It is crucial to understand that 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 center-right
Popular Party, which is replacing Socialist control, due to pressure
from within the party to refuse all ETA negotiations.
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