Basque Fatherland and Liberty



         


For other meanings of ETA, see ETA (disambig).
Victims
Civilian 339
Police or military 478
Total 817
Source: Spanish Ministry
of the Interior


Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, or ETA, is the name of a Basque armed group that seeks to create an independent state for the Basque people, independent of neighboring Spain and France. In the Basque language, Euskara, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna translates to "Basque Fatherland and Liberty" (or "Basque Country and Liberty"). ETA is offically considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Its symbol is a snake wrapped around an axe. Its motto is Bietan jarrai ("Keep up on both") refering this to the two figures in the symbol, the metaphores for the secrecy/astuteness (snake) and strength (axe). The group was founded in 1959 and moved rapidly from a cultural position to a resistance movement to General Franco's violent oppression of the Basques.

[Top]

Goals

In general, ETA has two demands:

During the 1980s, the Basque Revolutionary Left summarized its claims in the Quebec example) where the Basque Country would decide if they want or not belong to Spain.

Because of its allegiance to Marxist ideas, ETA has in the past been sponsored by communist regimes such as Cuba, as well as by Libya and Lebanon, and some of its members have found "political" asylum in Mexico and Venezuela. It has had links with other militant left-wing movements in Europe and elsewhere, such as the IRA.

[Top]

Tactics

ETA operates mainly in Spain. They sometimes attack civilian targets, but focus on "military" targets. However, included in what ETA sees as military targets are not only the army, but also police and politicians. Before bombings ETA make a telephone call so that people can be evacuated, but sometimes the call gives incorrect information so that police and explosives experts get injured or killed. It employs bombings and assassinations, mainly aimed against politicians opposed to Basque nationalism, journalists, intellectuals, businessmen and the Guardia Civil and other Spanish and Basque security forces. It has killed an estimated 800 people since the 1960s. Its activities have mostly been confined to Spain, particularly the Basque Country, Madrid, Barcelona and the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Although it has not carried out attacks in France, ETA units have nonetheless been active there.

A police file, in 1996, indicated that ETA needed a daily 15 million pesetas (about 90000 euros) in order to finance its operations. Althrough ETA used robbery in its beginnings, it has been accused both of arms trafficking and of benefiting economically from its political counterpart Batasuna. The two most important means that the organization has used to obtain finances are kidnapping and extortion, this last in the form of "revolutionary taxes" (in common with other organizations such as FARC). In 2002 the judge Baltasar Garzón seized the September 13, 1974: A bomb placed inside "Rolando" cafeteria in Madrid kills 12 civilians.

[Top]

Other ETA-related events

During the 1970s and the 1980s, ETA members and its suspected supporters had been the target of right-wing and state terrorism (such as GAL). Several ETA members were executed during the Franco era.

[Top]

Political issues

ETA's political wing is Batasuna, formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and "Herri Batasuna", which generally receives about 10% of the vote in the Basque areas of Spain.

Batasuna's political status has been a very controversial issue. The Spanish Cortes (parliament) began the process of declaring the party illegal in August 2002, a move which was strongly disputed by many who felt that it was too draconian. Judge Baltasar Garzón suspended the activities of Batasuna in a parallel trial, investigating the relationship between Batasuna and ETA, and its headquarters were shut down by police. The Supreme Court of Spain finally declared Batasuna illegal on March 18, 2003. The court considered proven that Batasuna had several links with ETA and that it was, in fact, part of ETA. Batasuna was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States in May 2003 and by all EU countries in June 2003.

In Spain, all Members of Parliament not belonging to Batasuna or any of the independentist political parties are required to carry a permanent escort lest they should be attacked by ETA. This also extends to all Basque city councilors of non Basque Nationalist parties and several of the Basque Nationalist officials.

[Top]

History

ETA was founded by young nationalists unsatisfied by the PNV party. For ten years, they theorized and protested by destroying infrastructure and Spanish symbols and hanging forbidden Basque flags.

In 1968, Xabi Etxebarrieta, a member of ETA, shot dead a policeman which halted his car for a road check. He was soon killed by the Spanish police. Then ETA planned their first murder, Melitón Manzanas, a police officer and suspected torturer.

The ETA ideology was influenced by the Algerian independence and the decolonization movement.

In 1973, ETA set a bomb in Madrid against the car of admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, murdering this appointed successor of Francisco Franco and prime minister of Spain. Many in the Spanish opposition welcomed this blow against the dictatorship.

ETA was divided in ETA military and ETA political-military.

After the democratization (1975-1978) of Spain, the majority of ETA (pm) accepted the amnesty and joined the democratic process in the Euskadiko Ezkerra ("Left Wing of the Basque Country") party. Dissenters joined ETA (m), which continued fighting Spain.

From 1986 to 1987 a government-supported, "counter-terrorist" illegal group, the GAL, killed or kidnapped several suspected ETA militants and some innocent people. After this date, no major cases of foul play on part of the Spanish government have been proven, although ETA supporters routinely claim human rights violations and torture by security forces.

ETA has failed in killing king Juan Carlos I of Spain in Majorca and conservative leader José María Aznar in Madrid.

To fight ETA, the Spanish state issued an counter-terrorist law, relaying suspected terrorist to the specialized tribunal Audiencia Nacional in Madrid. Suspected terrorists are subject to a habeas corpus term longer than the rest of suspects. ETA prisoners are deliberately dispersed across Spain and France, some as far from their families as in the Salto del Negro prison in the Canary Islands. The governments justify this as a means to break the cohesion of the group.

The Colombian government accuses Irish and Basque citizens in Colombia of being IRA and ETA members teaching terrorist techniques to FMLN guerrilla.

ETA was initially suspected of being the authors of a series of ten bombings which targeted three locations along Madrid's suburban train lines on the morning of March 11, 2004, killing 192 persons (see 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks). This theory was officially endorsed by José María Aznar's government despite the police quickly gathering evidence pointing towards Islamic terrorism, an attitude which many Spaniards took as an offence towards the victims of the attacks and towards the Spanish people and which has been argued as a decisive factor in the electoral result which overturned Aznar's government (see Spanish legislative election, 2004). The authorship of this attack, the largest European terror incident in terms of lives lost since the 1988 Pan Am flight 103 flight bombing, has been finally ascribed to Islamist terrorists by the Spanish police.

[Top]

Other armed organizations acting in the Basque Country








  View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License