ETA Totally Explained

Everything about Eta totally explained

or ETA (Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom"; ), is an armed Basque nationalist separatist organization. Founded in 1959, it evolved from a group advocating traditional cultural ways to an armed group demanding Basque independence.
   According to the official Spanish government figures, since 1968 ETA has killed 823 people, having committed dozens of kidnappings over this period as well. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by both the Spanish and French authorities as well as the European Union as a whole, the United States, and the United Nations. More than 700 members of the organization are incarcerated in prisons in Spain, France, and other countries.
   All formulations of ETA's goals have centered on sovereignty and self-determination for the Basque Country. The group's ideology is Marxist-Leninist.
   ETA's motto is ("Keep up on both"). This refers to the two figures in the its symbol, a snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed fight).

Structure

ETA has changed several times its internal structure for different reasons, commonly security ones. The band used to have a very hierarchical organization with a leading cupola on the top, delegating into three substructures: the logistic, military and political sections. Reports from the Spanish, Basque and French police point toward significant changes in the last years in ETA's structures. 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 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, a abbreviation of Zuzendaritza Batzordea (directorial committee). There is another committee named Zuba-hitu that functions as an advisoral committee. The eleven different substructures are: logistics, politics, international relations with fraternal organizations, 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. The taldes are coordinated by the cúpula militar ("military cupola"). To supply the taldes, support groups maintain safe houses and zulos, the Basque word zulo literally means "hole". Zulos are small rooms concealed in forests, house attics or undergrounds, used to store arms, explosives or, sometimes, kidnapped people. 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 the itinerant ones, not linked to any specific area, and thus, more difficult to capture.
   Among its members, ETA distinguishes between legales/legalak ("legal ones"), those members who don't have police records and live apparently normal lives; liberados ("liberated") members known to the police that are on ETA's payroll and working fulltime for ETA;apoyos("support") who just give punctual help and logistics support to the organization when required.. There are the prisoners, serving time scattered across Spain and France, that sometimes have still significant influence inside the organization; and finally the quemados ("burned out"), members freed after having been imprisoned or otherwise at least temporarily exhausted from the struggle. There was also in the past the figure of the deportees, expelled by the French government to remote countries where they live free. France 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 critics 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 organizations (such as Jarrai, Haika and Segi). Many of the present-day members of ETA started their collaborations with the organization as participants in the kale borroka.

Political support

The political party Batasuna (formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and "Herri Batasuna"), banned today by the Spanish Law as a non-democratic organization (Ley de Partidos Políticos), pursues the same political goals as ETA and doesn't condemn ETA's use of violence. It generally received 8 to 15% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community .
   Batasuna's political status has been a very controversial issue. It is considered to be the political wing of ETA although the party itself denies that this is the case, 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 which may be based on a hatred ideology or which advocate political violence. Many within Basque nationalism strongly disputed this move, which they felt was too draconian or even unlawful: they alleged that any party could be made illegal almost by choice, simply for not clearly stating their opposition to an attack. Defenders of the new law argue that the Ley de Partidos doesn't necessarily require responses to individual acts of violence, but rather a declaration of principles explicitly rejecting violence as a means of achieving political goals anathema to the state. Batasuna has failed to produce such a statement as of February 2008.
   In a parallel trial, the Judge Baltasar Garzón suspended the activities of Batasuna and its headquarters were shut down by police as the nature of the relationship between the political party and ETA were investigated. The Supreme Court of Spain finally declared Batasuna illegal on March 18, 2003. The court considered proven that Batasuna had links with ETA and that it constituted in fact part of ETA's structure.
   A new party called Aukera Guztiak (All the Options) was formed ex profeso for the elections to the Basque Parliament of April 2005. Its supporters claimed no heritage from Batasuna, asserting that their aim was to allow Basque citizens to freely express their political ideas, even those of independence. On the matter of political violence, Aukera Guztiak stated their right not to condemn some kind of violence more than other if they didn't see it fit (in this regard, the MLNV regards violent police action as violence, which the law does not). Nevertheless, most of their members and certainly most of their leadership were former Batasuna supporters or affiliates. The Spanish Supreme Court unanimously considered the party to be a sequel to Batasuna and declared a ban on it.
   After Aukera Guztiak had been banned, and less than two weeks before the election, another political group 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'd apply the votes they obtained to the programme of the now banned Aukera Guztiak platform. This move left no time for the Spanish courts to investigate the EHAK in compliance with the Ley de Partidos before the elections were to be held, which eventually allowed the programme of the illegalized Batasuna to keep being represented without having condemned violence as required by the Ley de Partidos. The bulk of Batasuna supporters voted in this election for PCTV, a virtually unknown political formation until then. PCTV obtained 9 seats (12.44% of votes) at the Basque Parliament .

Social support

The roots of ETA's support lie in attempts of the dictator Franco to suppress Basque nationalism. Since some Basque nationalists had sided with the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, Franco restricted virtually any public expressions of Basque culture and banned all expressions of Basque nationalism, including public display of the nationalist flag (the Ikurriña), the celebration of nationalist holidays, speaking the Basque language in public or teaching the language in schools and even baptizing children with non-Spanish names. However, the territories which were deemed as "loyal" during the Civil War to the Franco uprising were allowed after his victory to keep their limited self-government. These were Álava and Navarre, where Franco supporters (mostly Carlists) sided with Franco from the start, seeing Franco as a leader who would end anticlericalism and violence against the Catholic Church. Conversely, Biscay and Guipuscoa were considered "rebellious" for having sided with Republican Spain during the Civil War. These regions therefore saw their fueros abrogated by the Francoist regime.
During Franco's era, ETA had considerable public support beyond the Basque populace, reaching its peak after the 'Burgos Trials' of 1970—which drew international attention to the organization's cause and highlighted the repressive nature of the Franco regime—and their assassination of Almirante Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973 (Carrero Blanco was appointed by Franco as Prime Minister and "strong-man" to rule Spain after his death). Spain's transition to democracy from 1975 on and ETA's progressive radicalization have resulted in a steady loss of support, which became especially apparent at the time of their 1997 kidnapping and countdown assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco. Their loss of sympathizers has been reflected in an erosion of support for the political parties identified with the MLNV.

Opinion polls

A more recent poll by the Basque Autonomous Government (December 2006) shows that 88% of the Basques think that it's necessary for all political parties to launch a dialogue, including a debate on the political framework for the Basque Country (86%). 69% support the idea of ratifying the results of this hypothetical multitipartite dialogue through a referendum. This poll also reveals that the hope of a peaceful resolution to the violent Basque seperatist problem has fallen to 78% (from 90% in April).
These polls didn't cover Navarre, where support for Basque nationalist electoral options is weaker (around 25% of population) or the Northern Basque Country where support is even weaker (around 15% of population).

History

During Franco's dictatorship

ETA was founded by young nationalists, who were for a time affiliated with the PNV. Started in 1952 as a student discussion group at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, an offshoot of the PNV's youth group EGI, it was originally called EKIN, from the Basque-language verb meaning "to act"; the name had the meaning "get busy". On July 31, 1959 it reconstituted itself as ETA. Their split from the PNV was apparently because they considered the PNV too moderate in its opposition to Franco's dictatorship. They disagreed with the PNV's rejection of violent tactics and advocated a Basque resistance movement using direct action. This was an era of wars of national liberation such as the anti-colonial war in Algeria.
   In their platform, formed at their first assembly in Bayonne, France in 1962, ETA called for "historical regenerationism", considering Basque history as a process of construction of a nation. They declared that Basque nationality is defined by the Basque language, Euskara; this was in contrast to the PNV's definition of Basque nationality in terms of ethnicity. In contrast with the explicit Catholicism of the PNV, ETA defined itself as "aconfessional"—meaning ETA doesn't recognize a special state religion—although using Catholic doctrine to elaborate its social program. They called for socialism and for "independence for Euskadi, compatible with European federalism".
   In 1965, the VI Assembly of ETA adopted a Marxist-Leninist position; its precise political line has varied with time, although they've always advocated some type of socialism.
   In its early years, ETA's activity seems to have consisted mostly of theorizing and of protesting by destroying infrastructure and Spanish symbols and by hanging forbidden Basque flags. It isn't clear when exactly ETA first began a policy of assassination, nor is it clear who committed the first assassinations identified with ETA. There are sources that single out a failed 1961 attempt to derail a train carrying war veterans; others point to the unpremeditated June 7, 1968 killing of a Guardia Civil, José Pardines Arcay by ETA member Txabi Etxebarrieta: the policeman had halted Etxebarrieta's car for a road check. Etxebarrieta was soon killed by the police, leading to retaliation in the form of the first official ETA assassination, that of Melitón Manzanas, chief of the secret police in San Sebastián and an alleged torturer. In 1970, several members of ETA were condemned to death in the Proceso de Burgos ("Trial of Burgos"), but international pressure resulted in commutation of the sentences, which, however, had by that time already been applied to some other members of ETA. The nationalists that refused Marxism-Leninism and looked for a National Front appeared as the so-called ETA-V. They kidnapped the German consul in San Sebastian, Eugen Beilh, to exchange him for the Burgos condamnees. The most consequential assassination performed by ETA during Franco's dictatorship was Operación Ogro, the December 1973 assassination by bomb in Madrid of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's chosen successor and president of the government (a position roughly equivalent to being a prime minister). The assassination had been planned for months and was executed by placing a bomb in the sewer below the street where Blanco's car passed every day. The bomb blew up just in time and threw the politician and his car three floors into the air and over the top of a nearby building; the car landed on a balcony in a courtyard the other side from the road.
   This killing wasn't condemned and in some cases was even applauded by the Spanish opposition in exile. For some Carrero Blanco's death was an instrumental step for the posterior establishment of democracy, by eliminating Franco's choice of successor. In regard to Carrero's death, the former ETA member now turned anti-nationalist author Jon Juaristi contends that ETA's goal with this particular killing wasn't democratization but a spiral of violence as an attempt to fully destabilize Spain, increase Franco's repression against Basque nationalism and subsequently put the average citizen in the Basque country in the situation where they'd have had to accept the lesser evil in the form of ETA's reaction against Franco's unleashed repression.

During the transition

After Franco's death, during the Spanish transition to democracy, ETA split into two separate organizations: one faction became ETA political-military or ETA(pm), and another ETA military or ETA(m).
   Both ETA(m) and ETA(pm) refused offers of amnesty, instead continuing and intensifying their violent struggle. The years 1978–80 were to prove ETA's most deadly, with 68, 76, and 91 fatalities, respectively. [Martinez-Herrera2002]
   During the Francoist dictatorship, ETA was able to take advantage of tolerance by the French government, which allowed its members to move freely through French territory, believing that in this manner they were contributing to the end of Franco's regime. There is much controversy over the degree to which this policy of "sanctuary" continued even after the transition to democracy, but it's generally agreed that currently the French authorities collaborate closely with the Spanish government against ETA.
   In the 80s, ETA(pm) accepted the Spanish government's offer of individual pardons to all ETA prisoners, even those who had committed violent crimes, who publicly abandoned the policy of violence. This caused a new division in ETA(pm) between the VI and VII assemblies. ETA VII accepted this partial amnesty granted by the now democratic Spanish government and integrated into the political party Euskadiko Ezkerra ("Left of the Basque Country").
   ETA VI, after a brief period of independent activity, eventually integrated in ETA(m), possibly influencing ETA(m) into adopting even more radical and violent positions. With no factions existing anymore, ETA(m) revamped the original name of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna.

Under democracy

ETA performed their first car bomb assassination in Madrid in September 1985, resulting in one death (American citizen Eugene Kent Brown, Johnson&Johnson employee) and sixteen injuries; another bomb in July 1986 killed twelve members of the Guardia Civil and injured 50; on July 19, 1987 the Hipercor bombing was an attack in a shopping center in Barcelona, killing twenty one and injuring forty five; in the last case, entire families were killed. The horror caused then was so striking that ETA felt compelled to issue a communiqué stating that they'd given advance warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to evacuate the area. The police claim that the warning came only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.
   In a "dirty war" against ETA, Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups"), a government-sponsored and supposedly counter-terrorist organization active 1983–87 committed assassinations, kidnappings and torture, not only of ETA members but of civilians supposedly related to those, some of whom turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with ETA. In 1997 a Spanish court convicted and imprisoned several individuals involved in GAL, not only mercenaries and low-level police officials but politicians up to the highest levels of the PSOE government of prime minister Felipe González, including a former Homeland Minister. Although González had been quoted as saying that the government would defend itself in the "sewers of the state" (las cloacas del estado), his role in GAL was never proven. No major cases of foul play on the part of the Spanish government after 1987 (when GAL ceased to operate) have been proven in court, although ETA supporters still routinely claim human rights violations and torture by security forces; international human rights organizations like Amnesty International have backed some of these claims. ETA's manuals have been found telling its members and supporters to claim routinely that they'd been tortured while detained.
In 1986 Gesto por la Paz (known in English as Association for Peace in the Basque Country) was founded; they began to convene silent demonstrations in communities throughout the Basque Country the day after any violent killing, whether by ETA or by GAL. These were the first systematic demonstrations in the Basque Country against terrorist violence. Also in 1986, in Ordizia, ETA shot down María Dolores Katarain, known as "Yoyes", while she was walking with her infant son. Yoyes was a former member of ETA who had abandoned the armed struggle and rejoined civil society: they accused her of "desertion" because of her taking advantage of the Spanish reinserción policy which granted amnesty to those prisoners who publicly refused political violence (see below).
   On January 12, 1988 all Basque political parties except ETA-affiliated Herri Batasuna signed the Ajuria-Enea pact with the intent of ending ETA's violence. Weeks later on January 28, ETA announced a 60-day "ceasefire", later prolonged several times. Negotiations known as the Mesa de Argel ("Algiers Table") took place between the ETA representative Eugenio Etxebeste ("Antxon"), and the then PSOE government of Spain but no successful conclusion was reached, and ETA eventually resumed the use of violence.
   During this period, the Spanish government had a policy referred to as "reinsertion", under which imprisoned ETA members whom the government believed had genuinely abandoned violence could be freed and allowed to rejoin society. Claiming a need to prevent ETA from coercively impeding this reinsertion, the PSOE government decided that imprisoned ETA members, who previously had all been imprisoned within the Basque Country, would instead be dispersed to prisons throughout Spain, some as far from their families as in the Salto del Negro prison in the Canary Islands. France has taken a similar approach. In the event, the only clear effect of this policy was to incite social protest, especially from nationalists and families of the prisoners, claiming cruelty of separating family members from the insurgents. Much of the protest against this policy runs under the slogan "Euskal presoak - Euskal Herrira" (Basque prisoners to the Basque Country, by "Basque prisoners" only ETA members are meant). It has to be noted that almost in any Spanish jail there's 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") provide support for prisoners and families. The Basque Government and several Nationalist town halls grant money on humanitarian reasons for relatives to visit prisoners. The long road trips had 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. 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've no contact with the outside world, including informing their family of their arrest, consultation with private lawyers or examination by a physician other than the coroners. In comparison the habeas corpus term for non-terrorists 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", young people (generally minors) dedicated to so-called "kale borroka" — street struggle — and whose activities included burning buses, street lamps, benches, ATMs, garbage containers, etc. and throwing Molotov cocktails. The appearance of these groups was attributed by many to the supposed weakness of ETA, which obliged them to resort to minors to maintain or augment their impact on society after arrests of leading militants, including the "cupola". ETA also began to menace leaders of other parties besides rival Basque nationalist parties. The existence of the "Y Groups" as an organized phenomenon has been contested by some supporters of Basque national liberation, who claim that this construction is merely a trumped-up excuse to give longer prison sentences to those convicted of street violence.
   In 1995, the armed organization again launched a peace proposal. The so-called "Democratic Alternative" replaced the earlier KAS Alternative as a minimum proposal for the establishment of Euskal Herria. The Democratic Alternative offered the cessation of all armed ETA activity if the Spanish-government would recognize the Basque people as having sovereignty over Basque territory, the right to self-determination and that it freed all ETA members in prison. The Spanish government ultimately rejected this peace offer as it would go against the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Changing the constitution wasn't considered.
   Also in 1995 came a failed ETA car bombing attempt directed against José María Aznar, a conservative politician who was leader of the then-opposition Partido Popular (PP) and was shortly after elected to the presidency of the government; there was also an abortive attempt in Majorca on the life of King Juan Carlos I. Still, the act with the largest social impact came the following year. July 10, 1997 PP council member Miguel Ángel Blanco was kidnapped in the Basque city of Ermua and his death threatened unless the Spanish government would meet ETA's demand of bringing all ETA's inmates to prisons within the Basque Country within two days after the kidnapping. This demand wasn't met by the Spanish government and Miguel Ángel Blanco was found shot dead when the deadline expired. More than six million people demonstrated to demand his liberation, with demonstrations occurring as much in the Basque regions as elsewhere in Spain. After three days, ETA carried through their threat, killing him and unleashing massive demonstrations reflecting the ETA action with the cries of "Assassins" and "Basques yes, ETA no". This response came to be known as the "Spirit of Ermua".
   Before the new electoral situation which, for the first time since the early 80s, opened the real prospect of a non-nationalist rule of the Basque autonomous community under the form of a PSOE-PP coalition, then the Basque nationalist parties signed the Lizarra/Estella Pact (EAJ-PNV, EA, HB, and the Basque branch of IU, EB) in hopes of changing the political situation and reversing what was seen as a menace to Basque nationalism. This meant that the parties which have governed jointly the Basque Country from the early 80s to date -PNV and EA- departed from the previous Ajuria Enea pact which gathered the parties known as "democratic" (PP, PSOE, PNV, EA, in other words, all but HB). Shortly after the Lizarra/Estella pact was signed, on September 18, 1998, ETA declared a unilateral truce or ceasefire, and began a process of dialogue with Spain's PP government. The dialogue continued for some time, but ETA resumed assassinations in 2000, accusing the government of being "inflexible" and of "not wanting dialogue". The communique that declared the end of the truce cited the failure of the process initiated in the Lizarra/Estella Pact to achieve political change as the reason for the return to violence. The Spanish government, from the highest levels, accused ETA of having declared a false truce in order to reorganize and rearm. This approach seems to have been proven by the appropriation of part of ETA's internal communications at the time of the truce. Later came acts of violence such as the November 6, 2001 car bomb in Madrid, which injured sixty-five, and attacks on soccer stadiums and tourist destinations.
   The September 11, 2001 attacks appeared to have dealt a hard blow to ETA, owing to the toughening of "antiterrorist" measures (such as the freezing of bank accounts), the increase in international police coordination, and the end of the toleration some countries had, up until then, extended to ETA. In addition, in 2002 the Basque nationalist youth movement Jarrai was outlawed and the law of parties was changed outlawing Herri Batasuna, the "political arm" of ETA (although even before the change in law, Batasuna had been largely paralysed and under judicial investigation by judge Baltasar Garzón).
   With ever-increasing frequency, attempted ETA actions have been frustrated by Spanish security forces.
   On Christmas Eve 2003, in San Sebastián and in Hernani, National Police arrested two ETA members who had left dynamite in a railroad car prepared explode in Chamartín Station in Madrid. On March 1, 2004, in a place between Alcalá de Henares and Madrid, a light truck with 536 kg of explosives was discovered by the Guardia Civil.
   ETA was initially blamed for the 2004 Madrid bombings by the outgoing government and large sections of the press. Although the current Spanish government and judiciary now consider the bombs to be the work of Islamic groups, sections of the Spanish right including the main opposition Partido Popular and one of the main Spanish newspapers, El Mundo subsequently continued to assert that there was some degree of ETA involvement. Eight months after the attacks, the former Prime Minister José María Aznar stated that he still believed that ETA was responsible.

Targets, tactics and attacks

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

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

All formulations of ETA's goals have centered on sovereignty and self-determination for Euskal Herria (Basque Country, Iparralde and Navarra). ETA's motto in Basque-Euskera is "aizkora bezain zorrotza eta sugea bezain zuhurra" which translates in English as "sharp like an axe and quiet like a snake".
ETA has killed hundreds of people, including approximately 340 civilians, and kidnapped dozens, in its actions against the Spanish state.. Following a peaceful and co-ordinated campaign of switching electrical appliances on and off across Bizkaia, thus overloading and tripping all the substations and connections, causing wide spread black outs, and a huge effort to reset those, the reactor core which was actually delivered to the site was taken away. The site remains deserted. The objection to the power plant was its implicit reliance on the Spanish Government for support and maintenance for thousands of years to come..

The A-15 highway which was to run through the Leizaran Valley between Navarre and Guipuscoa. It was inaugurated in 1995, during the construction 4 people related to the construction were killed by ETA.

The so called Basque Y, a plan to make the AVE high-speed railways connect the three capital cities of the Basque Autonomous Community.

Targets

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

Spanish military and police personnel. These used to be the only victims before 1995. As the autonomous police (Basque Ertzaintza and Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra) took a greater role in combatting ETA, they were added to their list of targets. The barracks of the Guardia Civil also provide housing for their families, thus, attacks on the barracks have also resulted in deaths of relatives, including children.

Businessmen (such as Javier Ybarra or Joxe Mari Korta): these are mainly targeted in order to extort them for the so-called "revolutionary tax". Refusal to pay has been punished with assassinations, kidnappings for ransom or bombings of their business.

Prison officers such as José Antonio Ortega Lara.

Elected parliamentarians, city councillors and ex-councillors, politicians in general: these hadn't been targeted by ETA before 1995 (whereas people holding political positions were attacked during the Francoist's dictatorship, most prominently Luis Carrero Blanco, killed in 1973). This scenario changed with the killing of Gregorio Ordóñez in 1995. From this year onwards, politicians were also made targets by ETA. Dozens of politicians belonging to the People's Party (PP) and Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) have been assassinated or maimed. Some Basque nationalist politicians from the PNV party, such as Juan Mari Atutxa, have also received threats. Hundreds of politicians in Spain require a constant bodyguard service. Bodyguards are contingent victims as well. In 2005 ETA announced that it would no longer "target" elected politicians. In this regard, ETA killed ex-council member Isaías Carrasco in Mondragon/Arrasate on March 8th, 2008.

Judges and university lecturers: this trend started with the assassination of Manuel Broseta in 1992. Particularly threatened are the members of the Spanish special court: the Audiencia Nacional.

Journalists: some of these professionals began to be labeled by ETA as targets starting with the killing of journalist José Luis López de la Calle, assassinated in May 2000. As a result of ETA's violence and threats against journalists, Spain has been included in all six editions of Reporters Without Borders's watchlist on press freedom. This NGO has also included ETA in its watchlist "predators of press freedom".

Economic targets: a wide array of private or public property considered valuable assets of Spain, especially railroads, tourist sites, industries, or malls.

Exceptionally, ETA has also assassinated former ETA members such as Maria Dolores González Catarain as a reprisal for having left the organization.

A number of ETA attacks by car bomb have caused civilian casualties, including ETA's bloodiest attack to date, 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 include:

Direct attacks: killing, for example by shooting, generally in the back of the victim .

Bombings (often with car bombs). Generally one or more telephone calls are made to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA; normally the contacted newspapers are Egin, Gara, or Egunkaria. Charities (usually Detente Y Ayuda—DYA) have also been used to announce the threat if the bomb is in a populated area. When the bombs target individuals no calls are made in advance. The type of explosives used in these attacks were initially Goma-2 or self-produced ammonal. After a number of successful robberies in France, ETA began using Titadyne.

Shells: hand-made mortars (the Jo ta ke model)have been used occasionally to attack military or police bases. Their lack of precision is probably the reason they're not used anymore.

Anonymous threats: often delivered in the Basque Country by placards or graffiti. Such threats have forced many people into hiding or into exile from the Basque Country, and have been used to prevent people from freely expressing political ideas other than nationalist ones.

Extortion or blackmail: called by ETA a "revolutionary tax", ETA demands 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 have also been threatened in this manner, such as the soccer player Bixente Lizarazu. ETA moves the extorted funds to accounts in Liechtenstein and other fiscal havens. According to French judiciary sources, ETA exacts an estimated 900,000 euros/year in this manner.

Kidnapping: often as a punishment for failing to pay the blackmail known as "revolutionary tax", but also has been used to try to force the government to free ETA's prisoners under the threat of killing the kidnapped, as in the kidnaping and following execution of Miguel Angel Blanco. ETA hides the kidnapped in underground chambers without windows, denominated zulos, of very reduced dimmensions for extended periods. Also, people robbed of their vehicles are usually tied and abandoned in an isolated place to allow those who assaulted them to escape.

Robbery: ETA members rob weapons, explosives, machines for license plates and vehicles. ETA operates mainly in Spain, particularly in the Basque Country, Navarre, and (to a lesser degree) Madrid, Barcelona, and the tourist areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Actions in France usually consist of assaults on arsenals or military industries in order to steal weapons or explosives; these are usually stored in large quantities in hide-outs located in the French Basque Country rather than Spain. The French judge Laurence Le Vert has been 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. This has often occurred mainly when members of the organization were confronted at checkpoints.
   In spite of this, ETA killed in France on December 1 2007 two Spanish Civil Guards on counter-terrorist surveillance duties in Capbreton, Landes. This has been its first cold blood killing after it ended its self-styled "permanent ceasefire" and the first killing committed by ETA in France of a Spanish police agent ever since 1976, when they kidnapped, tortured and assassinated two Spanish inspectors in Hendaye A police file, dating from 1996, indicated that ETA needed about 15 million pesetas (about 90,000 Euros) daily in order to finance its operations. More recently, 2007 police reports point 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 euros annually.
   Although ETA used robbery as a means of financing its activities in its early days, it has since been accused both of arms trafficking and of benefiting economically from its political counterpart Batasuna.
   Arrested ETA members often carry false documentation, especially in France, including Spanish police badges.

Attacks

Basque Nationalist context

ETA is considered to form part of what is informally known as the Basque National Liberation Movement, a movement born much after ETA's creation. This loose term refers to a range of political organizations that are ideologically akin, comprising several distinct organizations that promote a type of leftist Basque nationalism that's often referred to by the Basque-language term Ezker Abertzalea (Nationalist Left). Other groups typically considered to belong to this independentist movement are: the political party Batasuna, the nationalist youth organization Segi, the labour union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB), and Askatasuna among others. There are often strong interconnections between these groups, double or even triple membership are not unfrequent
   The GAL was dissolved in 1987, four years after its foundation. The airing of the state-sponsored "dirty war" scheme and the imprisonment of officials responsible for GAL in the early 1990s led to a political scandal in Spain. These events marked the end of the armed "counter-terrorist" period in Spain (although some minor attacks were carried out during the early 1990s under the name of GANE and other acronyms). With the new situation, the French government considered that detainees' rights were being adequately defended in Spain. France changed its position in the matter and initiated a period of active cooperation with the Spanish government against ETA, including fast-track transfers of detainees to Spanish tribunals that are regarded as fully compliant with European Union legislation in human rights and the legal representation of detainees. This cooperation is still active.
   In response to this new situation, ETA carried out attacks against French policemen and made threats to some French judges and prosecutors. This implied a drastic change from the organization's previously low-profile activity in the French Basque Country, from where ETA had been discreetly managing their activities in the south.
ETA members and supporters always allege torture at the hands of any police organization. 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 three days. These confessions are routinely repudiated by the defendants during trials as having been extracted under torture. There have been some successful prosecutions of proven tortures during the "dirty war" period of the mid-1980s, although the penalties have been considered by Amnesty International as unjustifiably light and lenient with co-conspirators and enablers.
   ETA considers its prisoners political prisoners. Until 2003, ETA consequently forbade them to ask penal authorities for progression to tercer grado (a form of open prison that allows single-day or weekend furloughs) or parole. Before that date, those who did so were menaced and expelled from the group. Some were assassinated by ETA for leaving the band and going through reinsertion programs. The law has resulted in the banning of Herri Batasuna and its successor parties unless they condemn explicitly terrorist actions and, at times, imprisoning or processing some of its leaders who have been indicted for cooperation with ETA.
   Judge Baltasar Garzón has initiated a judicial procedure (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 of 1999 Judge Baltasar Garzón authorized the reopening of the newspaper and the radio, but they coulndn't 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 in connivance with ETA.

Another trial against Pepe Rei and his new investigation magazine Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep). The magazine was also closed down.

A trial against the political organization Ekin (Action), accused of promoting civil disobedience.

A trial against the organization Joxemi Zumalabe Fundazioa, which was once again accused of promoting civil disobedience.

A trial against the prisoner support movement Amnistiaren Aldeko Komiteak.

A trial against Batasuna and the Herriko Tabernak (people's taverns), accused of acting as a network of meeting centres for members and supporters of ETA. Batasuna was outlawed in all forms. Most taverns continue working normally as their ownership isn't directly linked to Batasuna.

A trial against the league of Basque-language academies AEK. The case was dropped in 2001.

Another trial against Ekin, accusing Iker Casnova of managing the finances of ETA.

A trial against the association of Basque municipalities Udalbiltza.

The closing of the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria in 2003 and the imprisonment and processing of its editor, Martxelo Otamendi, due to links with ETA accounting and fundraising, and other journalists (some of whom reported torture). As of June 2007, indicted members of the youth movements Haika, Segi and Jarrai have been found guilty (January 2007) of a crime of connivance with terrorism. Most of the other trials are still under process.
On Tuesday 20 May, 2008, leading ETA figures were arrested in Southern France. Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, 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, José Antonio Barandiarán, who is rumoured to have led police to 'Thierry'. At a time of resurgent ETA activity, following Kosovo's independence, the recent arrest of Innocencia Galparsoro, the Mayor of Mondragon, these arrests bear significance in Spain's fight against the seperatists. 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 terrorist attacks, and that the man considered to be the head of the terrorists, 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."

International response

The United Nations, European Union and the United States list ETA as a terrorist organization in their relevant watch lists. The United Kingdom lists ETA as a terrorist group in the Terrorism Act of 2000. The Canadian Parliament listed ETA as a terrorist organization on April 2, 2003 .
France and Spain have often showed co-operation in the fight against ETA, despite 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 persons in Bourdeax led to a major breakthrough against ETA, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry. (External Link

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ETA's most recent declaration of a "permanent ceasefire" and current events

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.
   The most recent is the one of 22 March 2006, when 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 Luís 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 September 23, 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 P.M., José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero released a statement stating that the "peace process" had been discontinued.
   On December 1, 2008 ETA gunmen -after an unplanned encounter- killed a painclothes civil guard and seriously injured another (who died days later) on a surveillance mission in Capbreton, France .
   In January 2008, ETA stated that its call for independence is similar to that of the Kosovo status and Scotland.
   On March 7 2008 ETA killed Isaías Carrasco in Mondragón-Arrasate, an ex-councillor for the Socialist party the PSOE, who was shot five times as he was walking in the street with his family..
   On May 14 2008 a car bomb was detonated in front of a Civil Guard lodging compound where 15 families lived, killing policeman Juan Manuel Piñuel Villalón and leaving four others injured. No organization has yet claimed the attack, but Basque and Spanish authorities point to ETA .
   On May 20th 2008 a number or senior ETA members were arrested in Bordeaux, France, in a joint Spanish-French operation. Among the arrested was Javier Lopez Peña, who was described by the Spanish Interior minister as "the person who carried the most weight within Eta - politically and militarily", it's also speculated that López Peña was the responsible for the decission to abandon ETA's 2006 self-styled "permanent ceasefire".

Other armed movements

Spanish anti-ETA groups:

ATE (Anti-Terrorismo ETA)
Batallón Vasco Español
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL)
Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey

Minor Left wing groups:

International links

ETA is known to have had 'fraternal' contacts with the Provisional Irish Republican Army; the two groups have both, at times, characterized their struggles as parallel. It has also had links with other militant left-wing movements in Europe and in other places throughout the world.

ETA commandos teamed in 1999 with the (now self-dissolved) Breton Revolutionary Army to steal explosives from magazines in Brittany.

The Colombian army stated that there were contacts between ETA and the Colombian guerrilla FARC, in spite of having no hard evidence

Some ex-militants have received political asylum in Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Venezuela.

Several ex-militants were sent from France through Panama to reside in Cuba after an agreement of the Spanish government (under Felipe González) with Cuba. The United States Department of State has no information on their activities on Cuban territory.

Documentary films

Documentary films about ETA

, 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.

Other films

Other fact-based films about ETA

Commando Txikia (José Luis Madrid, 1977)

, about the murder of Luis Carrero Blanco.

El proceso de Burgos ("The Burgos Trial", Imanol Uribe, 1979)

, ETA prisoners escape from the Segovia prison.

("The Trial of ETA", Manuel Macià, 1988)

, María Dolores Katarain, also known as Yoyes, tries to abandon ETA and is murdered by her former fellows.

, based on the life of Mikel Lejarza, who, prompted by the Spanish police, entered ETA to be a double agent.

, about the journalistic research leading to the uncovering of the state-supported GAL.

Fictional films featuring ETA members and actions

El caso Almería ("The Almería Case", Pedro Costa, 1983)

La muerte de Mikel ("The Death of Mikel", Imanol Uribe, 1983). A young Basque man dies in a plot involving ETA and drug traffic.

Goma 2 (José Antonio de la Loma, 1984)

Ander y Yul ("Ander and Yul", Ana Díez, 1988)

Días de humo ("Days of Smoke", Antton Eceiza, 1989)

Sombras en una batalla ("Shadows in a Battle", Mario Camus, 1993)

Días contados ("Storied Days", Imanol Uribe, 1994)

A ciegas ("Blindly", Daniel Calparsoro, 1997)

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)

Novels

Novels about ETA

The Spanish Game (Charles Cumming, 2006)Further Information

Get more info on 'Eta'.

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