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Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA (Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom"; IPA pronunciation: ) is a paramilitary Basque nationalist organization.

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

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

ETA has committed approximately 900 killings and dozens of kidnappings. More than 500 ETA militants are held in prison in Spain and France. On March 22, 2006 the organization declared a "permanent ceasefire." ETA broke the ceasefire with a car bomb attack on December 30, 2006 at Barajas International Airport, Madrid killing two Ecuadorians.

Aims

ETA's goal as stated in 1995 in their Democratic Alternative publication, is to force through violence a negotiation with Spain and France to agree on the following:

• Recognition of the right to "self-determination and territoriality" for the Basque Country.
• 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.

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

• Alleged drug traffickers as corruptors of Basque youth and police collaborators.
• The nuclear power plant facilities at Lemoiz (Biscay), ETA opposed it, four workers were assassinated by the organization and finally, following additional social controversy, it was never started and remains now deserted.
• A proposed highway which was to run through the Leizaran valley.

Context

ETA conventionally forms part of what is informally known as the Basque National Liberation Movement. This loose term refers to the range of political organizations that are ideologically akin, and comprises several distinct organizations promoting a type of left Basque nationalism is often referred to by the Basque-language term Ezker Abertzalea (Nationalist Left). Some of the other groups typically considered to belong to this are: Batasuna, the nationalist youth organization Segi, the labour union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB) and Askatasuna amongst others. They are closely connected ramifications of the same structure (double or even triple membership is common).

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

Tactics

See also List of ETA attacks

ETA's tactics include:

• Direct attacks: killing, such as by shooting. This tactic has been mostly abandoned because it involves a high risk of detention for the commandos.
• Bombings (often with car bombs). Usually no notice is given when the intention is to kill. Other times, someone makes one or more telephone calls to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA; normally the contacted newspapers are Egin, Gara, or Egunkaria or they are just charities (usually Detente Y Ayuda—DYA) announcing the threat. The explosive was initially Goma-2, self-produced ammonal and, after successful robberies in France, Titadyne.
• Rockets: hand-made rocket launchers have been used occasionally to attack military or police bases. Their lack of precision is probably the reason they are not used anymore.
• Anonymous threats: often delivered in the Basque Country by placards or graffiti. Such threats have forced many people into hiding or into exile from the Basque Country, and have been used to prevent people from freely expressing political ideas other than nationalist ones.
• Extortion: the so-called by ETA "revolutionary tax" paid by many businesses in the Basque Country and in the rest of Spain and enforced by the threat of assassination.
• Kidnapping, often as a punishment for failing to pay the "revolutionary tax".

ETA operates mainly in Spain, particularly in the Basque Country, Navarre, and (to a lesser degree) Madrid, Barcelona, and the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Actions in France usually consist in assaults on arsenals or military industries in order to steal weapons or explosives; these are usually stored in large quantities in hide-outs within the French Basque Country rather than within Spain. Also the French anti-terror judge Laurence Le Vert was threatened. Only very rarely have ETA members engaged in shootings with the French Gendarmerie when halted at a routine checkpoint (for Basque nationalist terrorism in the French Basque country see Iparretarrak).

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

ETA's targets expanded from the former military/police-related personnel to a wide array which now includes the following:

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

There have also been a number of ETA attacks that seem to have been directed at the general populace, such as the bomb in the supermarket Hipercor in Barcelona (21 killed, 45 seriously wounded of whom 20 resulted disabled) or Plaza de Callao in Madrid.

Government response

Members of ETA have often taken refuge in southwestern France, especially the French Basque Country and Aquitaine. ETA leaders normally choose to live in France for security reasons, as police pressure may be lower in the French side of the border. This used to be tolerated by the French government, especially during the Franco dictatorship. Some ETA members were executed during the Franco era. During the post-Franco 1970s and the 1980s, ETA members and its suspected supporters were the target of right-wing violence and, especially, violence by government agents such as GAL, whose actions were deemed as "state terrorism" by not only ETA and their supporters but by such observers as the BBC . Effectively, ETA members in France were informally treated as political asylees

Then the GAL disappeared in 1987. This fact, along with the law enforcement which supposed the indictment and imprisonment in the early 1990s of officials responsible for GAL, marked the end of the "dirty war" period (though some minor attacks under the names of GANE or other acronyms happened still in the early 90s). With the new situation, the French government started considering detainees' rights to be assured, changed its attitude in the matter and started cooperating with the Spanish government.

Some of the ETA refugees were deported to remote cooperating countries like Cape Verde or Venezuela, so that they were out of the Spanish reach and could not be active in Europe. More recently, the French have become active against ETA, including fast-track transfers of detainees to Spanish tribunals that are regarded internationally as fully compliant with European legislation in human rights and legal representation of detainees.

As a result of this, ETA carried out actions against French policemen and menaced some French judges and prosecutors, changing its former low-profile activity within the French Basque Country, from where they had been discreetly managing their activities in the Spanish side of the border. A number of ETA members have been captured on French soil; some are serving sentences in France and others have been extradited to Spain to stand trial for crimes committed in Spain.

ETA members continue to allege frequent torture at the hands of the Guardia Civil. While these claims are hard to verify, some convictions are based on confessions obtained while prisoners are held incommunicado, without access to a lawyer, and these confessions are then routinely repudiated by the defendants during trials as having been extracted under torture. While there have been some successful prosecutions (all after an interval of years) of proven tortures during the "dirty war" period in the 1980s—the penalties have been deemed as usually light and co-conspirators and enablers were rarely sanctioned.

ETA considers its prisoners political prisoners. Until 2003, ETA consequently forbade them to ask penal authorities for progression to tercer grado, a regime allowing day or weekend furloughs, or parole. Before that date, progressing prisoners were expelled from the group.

A more recent tactic of the Spanish Government's campaign against ETA has been to target its social support network. After the Ley de Partidos Políticos was passed (a law barring political parties which may have a hatred ideology or may support political violence, amongst other), this has taken the form of banning Herri Batasuna and its successor parties unless they condemn explicitly political violence (which Batasuna fails to do as of January 2007) and, at times, imprisoning or processing some of its leaders who have been indicted for cooperation with ETA.

A related development is the judicial procedure 18/98, initiated by judge Baltasar Garzon, that pretends to expand the scope of what is membership or association with ETA.

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

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

• A trial against an ill-known organization called Xaki, acquitted in 2001 .
• A trial against the youths' movement ''Jarrai''-Haika-Segi, accused of contributing to street violence in an organized form and in connivence with ETA
• Another trial against Pepe Rei and his new investigation magazine Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep). The magazine was closed too.
• A trial against the political organization Ekin (Action), accused of promoting civil disobedience.
• A trial against the so-called "cultural" organization Joxemi Zumalabe Fundazioa, again accused of promoting civil disobedience
• A trial against the prisoner's support movement Amnistiaren Aldeko Komiteak
• A trial against Batasuna (listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and by all EU countries) and the Herriko Tabernak (people's taverns). Batasuna was outlawed in al forms past or future but most taverns continue working normally.
• A trial against the league of Basque-language academies AEK. The case was dropped in 2001.
• Another trial against Ekin, accusing Iker Casnova of managing the finances of ETA.
• A trial against the association of Basque municipalities Udalbiltza.
• The closing of the Basque-language newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria, in 2003 and the imprisoning and processing of its editor, Martxelo Otamendi, and other journalists (some of which falsely denounced brutal tortures).

From these, so far the youth's movements (Haika, Segi, Jarrai) members indicted have been found guilty (January 2007) of a crime of connivence with terrorism. Most of the other trials are still sub judice.

International response

The United Nations, European Union and the United States list it as a terrorist organization in their relevant watchlists.

Structure

ETA is organized into distinct talde/comandos ("groups"), whose objective is to conduct operations in a specific geographic zone; collectively, they are coordinated by the cúpula militar ("military cupola"). In addition, they maintain safe houses and zulo (little spaces hidden in forests or houses to store arms, explosives or sometimes kidnapped people; the Basque word zulo literally means "hole.". Currently the most common comandos are the itinerant ones, not linked to any specific area, an thus, more difficult to pursue.

Among its members, ETA distinguishes between legales/legalak ("lawful ones"), those members who do not have police files; liberados ("liberated"), exiled to France and on ETA's payroll; prisoners, serving time scattered across Spain and France; quemados ("burned out"), freed after having been imprisoned; and deportees, expelled by the French government to remote countries where they live free. The term comando legal is also used for the groups compossed enterly for legales, and thus unkown by the police.

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

ETA also promoves the Kale Borroka among young people causing riots in Basque cities. Many members of ETA have promoted from Kale Borroka.

Political support

The political party Batasuna, formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and "Herri Batasuna", now considered a terrorist organization by the United States and by all EU countries and banned by the Spanish Law as a non democratic organization (Ley de Partidos Políticos), pursues the same political goals as ETA. It has generally received between 10 and 20% of the vote in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

Batasuna's political status has been a very controversial issue. It is considered by some, including the Spanish courts, to be the political wing of ETA, although the party itself denies that this is the case. The Spanish Cortes (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 refuse to condemn political violence. Many within the 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, just for not clearly stating their opposition to crime after a terrorist attack, even though the Ley de Partidos does not require this kind of response but some kind of general statement where whatever given political party refuses explicitly political violence as a means to achieve political goals, something which Batasuna has failed to produce as of October 2006. 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. In line with that decision, Batasuna was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States in May 2003 and by all EU countries in June 2003.

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

After Aukera Guztiak had been banned, and less than two weeks before the election, another political group born as a schism from Herri Batasuna, the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK/PCTV, Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista / Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas) a formerly unknown political party which had no representation in the Autonomous Basque Parliament, made the announcement that they would apply the votes they obtained to the programme of the now banned Aukera Guztiak platform. This move left no time for the Spanish courts as for to assess the PCTV 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 terrorist violence as required by the Ley de Partidos, thus avoiding the aim of this law, for the greater bulk of the Batasuna supporters voted in this election for the before virtually unknown PCTV. They obtained 9 seats (12.44% of votes) at the Basque Parliament . As of September 2005, EHAK/PCTV is under investigation to discover whether or not their situation is compliant with the aforementioned law.

Social support

The roots of ETA's support lie in attempts of the Spanish state under Francisco Franco to destroy Basque nationalism. Since some Basque nationalists had sided with the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, Franco restricted virtually any public expressions of Basque culture and banned all expressions of Basque nationalism, including public display of the nationalist flag, celebration of nationalist holidays, speaking the Basque language in public and teaching it in schools; 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 and therefore saw their fueros abrogated by the Francoist regime. After the war, the recovery and extension of the important Basque industry was swift and fuelled by a massive rural exodus, especially from Castile, Galicia, which led to some dilution of the Basque identity. Modern Basque nationalism is inclusive of those immigrants who assimilate, considering language and self-identification as the primary elements of identity.

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 his successor in the rule of Spain). 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

In recent years, ETA supporters seem to represent a minority in the Basque Country, according to opinion polls, yet independence and political negotiation seem to enjoy of a wide support.

A Euskobarómetro poll (conducted by the Universidad del País Vasco) in the Basque Country in May 2006, found that a significant number of Basques supported some or all of ETA's goals (33% favoured Basque independence, 35% federalism, 26% autonomy, 1% centralism). While few supported their violent methods (95% agreed that "today in Euskadi it is possible to defend all political aspirations and objectives without the necessity of resorting to violence"), also a wide majority was in favour of political negotiation between ETA and the government (only 5% opposed them), supporting also grace measures for ETA prisioners (72%), celebration of a referendum of the political status of the Basque Country (73%) and political concessions by Spain (64%).

A more recent poll by the Basque Autonomous Government (December 2006) shows that 88% of Western Basques think that it is necessary that all political parties dialogue, including discussing on the political frame for the Basque Country (86%). 69% support a referendum to confirm or disregard the results of this multitipartite dialogue. This poll also shows that the hope of a peaceful resolution has fallen to 78% (90% in April).

These polls did not cover Navarre, where support for Basque nationalist electoral options is weaker (around 25% of population) nor the Northern Basque Country where it is still 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 does not recognize a special state religion—although using Catholic doctrine to elaborate its social program. They called for socialism and for "independence for Euskadi, compatible with European federalism".

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

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

It is not clear when exactly ETA first began a policy of assassination, nor is it clear who committed the first assassinations identified with ETA. There are sources that say the first was the June 27, 1960 death of a 22-month-old child, Begoña Urroz Ibarrola, who died in a bombing in San Sebastián; other sources single out a failed 1961 attempt to derail a train carrying war veterans; others point to the unpremeditated June 7, 1968 killing of a Guardia Civil, José Pardines Arcay by ETA member Txabi Etxebarrieta: the policeman had halted Etxebarrieta's car for a road check. Etxebarrieta was soon killed by the police, leading to retaliation in the form of the first official ETA assassination, that of Melitón Manzanas, chief of the secret police in San Sebastián and an alleged torturer. In 1970, several members of ETA were condemned to death in the Proceso de Burgos ("Trial of Burgos"), but international pressure resulted in commutation of the sentences, which, however, had by that time already been applied to some other members of ETA. The most consequential assassination performed by ETA during Franco's dictatorship was 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 landing on a balcony in a courtyard the other side from the road.

This killing was not condemned and in some cases was even applauded by the Spanish opposition in exile. For some Carrero Blanco's death was an instrumental step for the posterior establishment of democracy, by eliminating Franco's pick for successor. In regard to Carrero's death, the former ETA member now turned anti-Nationalist author Jon Juaristi contends that ETA's goal with this particular killing was not democratization but a spiral of violence as an attempt to fully destabilize Spain, increase Franco's repression against the Basque nationalism and subsequently put the average citizen in the Basque country in the situation where they would have had to accept the lesser evil in the form of ETA's terrorism 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). The difference(for some time) the political scene and also focusing exclusively on military targets: policemen and members of the army.

During Spain's transition to democracy, both ETA(m) and ETA(pm) refused offers of amnesty, instead continuing and intensifying its violent struggle. The years 1978–80 were to prove ETA's most deadly, with 68, 76, and 91 fatalities, respectively.

During the Francoist dictatorship, ETA was able to take advantage of toleration 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.

Already 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 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 made ETA claim in a communique that they had given advance warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to evacuate the area. The police claim that the warning came only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.

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

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

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 terrorism 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 terrorists. 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, such difficult it is to have they split due to their number. The terrorists families are given some money by the gang.

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

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

In 1992, ETA's three top leaders — "military" leader Francisco Mujika Garmendia ("Pakito"), political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina ("Txelis") and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe ("Fiti"), often referred to collectively as the "cupola" of ETA or as the Artapalo collective — were arrested in the French 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 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.

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".

After the Good Friday Accord marked the beginning of the end of violent hostilities in Northern Ireland, and given that the Ajuria-Enea pact had failed to bring peace to the Basque Country, the Lizarra/Estella Pact brought together political parties, unions, and other Basque groups in hopes again of changing the political situation. Shortly after, 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 football 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 left to cause a massacre, but was prevented by the action of the Guardia Civil.

Recent events

For recent ETA attacks see List of ETA attacks

• October 8, 1999: ETA is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. government for the first time.
• 25 May 2001: Thousands of Spaniards participate in a silent march through San Sebastian, a northern city, to protest the killing of journalist Santiago Oleaga Elejabarrieta. Banners are held that read "No To ETA – Peace And Freedom." Spanish reporters give a statement saying, "However much they kill and try to impose their cause through terror we, as media professionals, will defend the expression which took so long to achieve in this country."
• 11 July 2001 Hundreds of people gather in Madrid to commemorate the life of slain policeman Luis Ortiz de la Rosa, who was killed the preceding day. The rally protests ETA's actions.
• 15 July 2001: CNN reports that hundreds of Spaniards have gathered in city and town halls around Spain to silently protest two killings blamed on the "Basque terrorist group ETA". The cities include Pamplona, Vitoria, and Zaragoza.
• 24 August 2001: The Spanish police arrest six suspected ETA members in the Barcelona suburb of Terrasa, seizing over 550 pounds of what CNN reports as "explosives, firearms, forged license plates and electronic detonator components."
• 26 February 2002: U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announces that the U.S. has frozen assets of twenty one people associated with ETA.
• 22 December 2002: Ibon Fernandez Iradi, who is suspected of teaching ETA members how to make bombs, escapes from custody in a police station in Bayonne, France.
• 8 October 2003: thirty four suspected ETA members are arrested in the early morning. Twenty-nine are apprehended in northern Spain and five in France.
• 9 December 2003: Police in southwestern France arrest Gorka Palacios, twenty nine, the alleged military commander of ETA. Three people who the police said were collaborators were also arrested in the 6:00 AM raid on a house in the village of Lons, near the town of Pau. At a news conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Spanish interior minister Ángel Acebes characterized the arrests as of "great significance" and of "first magnitude."
• February 18, 2004: ETA publicly stated that a ceasefire only in Catalonia had been in effect since January 1, based on "a desire to unite the ties between the Basque and Catalan peoples." Some claimed that this ceasefire was based on a secret pact with Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira, leader of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, "Republican Left of Catalonia"). Carod-Rovira, despite admitting to having met with ETA in France in December denied having reached any accord, saying that the meeting was an attempt to drive ETA away from violence, and ended with no results. This, during an electoral campaign, became a scandal, and endangered the recent tripartite Catalan government, formed by ERC (ERC), Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds-Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (ICV-EUiA) and the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC). The opposition then accused Aznar of being behind the leak to the media of the intelligence report detailing the meeting and Aznar refused to clarify whether he knew about this meeting before the leaking. Aznar was also questioned as to why the ETA members who attended that meeting were not detained.
• Also in 2004, ETA was initially suspected of being the authors of a series of ten bombings only a few days before the national elections, which targeted three locations along Madrid's suburban train lines on the morning of March 11 2004, killing 191 civilians (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. Many Spanish citizens took this rush to judgment as an offence towards the victims of the attacks and towards the Spanish people; this was generally seen 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 terrorist incident in terms of lives lost since the 1988 Pan Am flight 103 flight bombing, has been finally ascribed to Islamist militants by the Spanish police.
• 20 February 2004: Nine men and a woman are arrested, making the number of ETA suspects detained this week thirty three. They worked on a Basque-language newspaper, Euskaldunon Egunkaria, published statements from ETA. They've been released and their torture claims dismissed without being investigated or even calling them to testify.
• 21 March 2004: A spokesman for the newly elected PSOE government of Spain rejects a proposal from ETA for negotiations because ETA was not prepared to surrender its weapons.
• September 27, 2004: ETA militants sent a videotape to Gara, a Basque newspaper based in Gipuzkoa, in which the militants stated that ETA would continue to fight for Basque self-determination and that ETA would "respond with arms at the ready to those who deny us through the force of arms." This videotape represented ETA's first major public statement since the 11 March attacks. During the weekend preceding the videotape release, the group claimed responsibility for a series of bombings that hampered electricity transmission between France and Spain.
• October 3, 2004: French police launched an operation against ETA's logistical apparatus, making 21 arrests, among them the couple who functioned as top ETA leaders, Mikel Albizu Iriarte ("Mikel Antza") and Soledad Iparragirre ("Anboto"). They found four zulos (caches) with a vast quantity of armaments, much greater than had been estimated to be at ETA's disposal; they also managed to turn up information about ETA's printing an internal newsletter, but nothing leading to any major bank account or other hoard of money. The operation was considered one of the most successful since Bidart in 1992. As of October 2004, it appears that these measures will result in ETA leadership moving into different hands; it is too soon to evaluate the consequences. Spain has solicited the extradition of Mikel Antza y Amboto via a Euroorden.
• December 12 2004: The Real Madrid Santiago Bernabéu stadium football Stadium was evacuated due to a phoned-in bomb threat in name of ETA. The bomb—expected to blow up at 9:00 p.m.—did not explode, and the 69,000 spectators of the match under way at the time of the call were safely evacuated by the Spanish Police at 8:45 p.m.
• May 17 2005: The Spanish Government offered to hold talks with ETA if it renounced violence. The Opposition Popular Party condemned the overture as premature.
• March 5 2006: Following the February 2006 deaths of ETA members Igor Miguel Angulo Iturrate, 32, (due to an apparent suicide by hanging) and Ricardo Sainz Olmos, 41, (by a heart attack), Batasuna together with the union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak convoked a day of protest and general strike on March 9. On the morning of the strike, ETA detonated several bombs near highways, with no injuries.
• March 22 2006: ETA has declared a "permanent ceasefire" after nearly 40 years fighting for independence from Spanish and French authorities. "Euskadi Ta Askatasuna has decided to declare a permanent ceasefire as from 0000 (2300GMT) on 24 March 2006".
• December 30 2006: A bomb attack at terminal T4 of Madrid Barajas airport. Two Ecuadorian immigrants (Diego Armando Estacio Civizapa and Carlos Alonso Palate) resting inside their cars in the parking garage died as a consequence of the explosion.

Declaration of "permanent ceasefire" and current events

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

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

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

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

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

Reactions to the "ceasefire"

PSOE: The socialist government has called for "prudence" although they, among most other parties, have reacted positively to this announcement.

PP: The People's Party (Mariano Rajoy) has shown pessimism with regards to this announcement and claims this is only a pause for ETA, probably in the same fashion as the last truce was. He calls on the government to continue "fighting terrorism".

Basque Government: Juan José Ibarretxe has called for the establishment of a negotiation table "without exclusions" after summer of 2006. Board that is yet to be built in December 2006.

Batasuna's position has evolved from a cautious but constructive optimism into increasingly serious warns against what they consider "inmovilism of the Spanish government" and what they believe is "a bet not to solve the conflict but to erode the Nationalist Left". the most serious of such warnings was issued in December 5 2005, when they gave a press conference denouncing continuous repression and warning that the peace process can hardly continue in such conditions .

End of Ceasefire

On December 30th 2006, at 9:00 in the morning, after three confusing warning calls, ETA detonated a van bomb in a parking building at the Madrid Barajas international airport. The explosion caused the collapse of the building and killed two Ecuadorian immigrants napping inside their cars in the parking building. .

At 6:00 P.M., José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said that the "peace process" was discontinued .

In November 2006 ETA warned to the Spanish government that the so-called "peace process" was "in crisis" . ETA and its political supporters asked for concessions that were not attended. Concessions such as moving ETA inmates to jails in the Basque region or the halting of arrests and trials of ETA suspects .

It has been reported (ABC, December 31st 2006) that, before the attack, ETA reminded Rodríguez Zapatero about the 2004 Madrid train bombings (as a way to pressure the Government with the possibility of an attack before upcoming elections), even though the source also states that ETA 'had nothing to do' with the attack itself

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

On the 9th of January 2007 ETA, in a letter to the newspaper Gara, claims the December 30th 2006 bombing of one the parking garages of Barajas airport in Madrid. ETA also claims that the cease fire is still in place despite the bombing. ETA extends their solidarity to the "collateral damage" (the two Ecuadorian immigrants killed by the explosion), assures that the "objective of this armed action was not to cause victims" and blames the government for the dead, due to an alleged lack of diligence evacuating the building. They also accuse the Government and the PSOE of creating obstacles for a democratic process .

Other armed movements

Other armed organizations that operated in the Basque Country

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

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 possible terrorist activities on Cuban territory.

References

• This article makes use of material translated from the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Misplaced Pages.
• Enric Martinez-Herrera, "National Extremism and Outcomes of State Policies in the Basque Country, 1979–2001", originally published in the International Journal on Multicultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2002.

1. http://www.goizargi.com/2003/queeselmlnv4.htm"What is the MNLV (4)"
2. http://www.goizargi.com/2003/queeselmlnv3.htm "What is the MNLV (3)"
3. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20993749-1702,00.html "Madrid airport bomb ends ceasefire"
4. EU list of terrorist organisations, 29 May 2006 29 May 2006
5. Template:En icon Democratic Alternative
6. Template:Eu icon EUSKAL HERRIARENTZAKO ALTERNATIBA DEMOKRATIKOA (Berria, original Basque text)
7. Reporters Without Borders points out problems with free press in Spain due to ETA's threats and violence, 2006
8. Ana María Ortiz, Jessica, la ultima victima de Hipercor, El Mundo (Crónica number 347) nu 9 June 2002
9. October 2002 AI Index: EUR 41/12/2002: SPAIN: A briefing for the United Nations Committee against Torture: Although convictions of torturers occur, these are rare. examining judges and prosecutors may not always be displaying due diligence trials involving torture complaints are often delayed for long periods. Where torture has been found to have occurred and torturers are convicted, awards of compensation by courts to torture victims are usually low and may take between seven and 19 years to be decided.
10. AI Index: EUR 41/014/2002: 1 November 2002: SPAIN: A Briefing for the UN Committee against Torture: Update: The Committee also expressed concern about: the length of judicial investigations into torture complaints, which could give rise to the granting of pardons to convicted torturers, or the failure to impose appropriate sentences, owing to the period of time that had elapsed since the crime was committed;
11. ETA pide el tercer grado para sus presos Libertad Digital, 5 October 2003, quoted in La dispersión de los presos de ETA (page 9), a PDF in the ¡Basta Ya! site.
12. Party Law in Spanish
13. Euskobarómetro May 2006 (UPV-EHU)
14. Gabinete de Prospección Sociológica (Gobierno Vasco): list of sociological studies 2006
15. Gara:Más del 85% apuesta por el derecho a decidir y por el diálogo sobre el marco
16. Deia: Ocho de cada diez vascos confían en el proceso de paz pese a su estancamiento
17. 'Eta cell' was planning attacks, BBC News / Europe, 17 February 2005.
18. ETA cease-fire, eitb24, 23 March 2006.
19. Template:Es icon Template:Fr icon Template:Eu icon ETA declara un alto el fuego permanente para impulsar un proceso democrático ("ETA declares a permanent ceasefire to give impetus to a democratic process"), Gara, 3 March 2006 (article in Spanish, text of announcement in Basque, Spanish and French.
20. Daniel Woolls, Eta to 'keep taking up arms' in secession war, The Independent, 25 September 2006.
21. ETA and Spanish Government to initiate formal talks in a month, eitb24, 17 September 2006.
22. Basque militants refuse to disarm, BBC News, 24 September 2006.
23. Spanish PM stresses Basque peace process still on track, eitb24, 27 September 2006.
24. Template:Es icon La Policía sospecha que fue ETA quien robó anteayer 350 pistolas en Nimes ("The police suspect that it was ETA who stole 350 pistols yesterday in Nîmes"), Gara, 25 October 2006
25. Template:Es icon ETA constata la crisis del proceso y anuncia «un nuevo esfuerzo» ("ETA confirms the crisis of the process and announces 'a new effort'", Gara, 4 November 2006
26. Batasuna afirma que "el proceso es inviable en estas condiciones" (Gara daily)
27. Colombia: Sospechan relación de ETA con las FARC General Commander Fernando Tapias on August 2001.
28. Conferencia de Prensa ofrecida por Felipe Pérez Roque, Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba. Centro de Convenciones “Atlapa” de la Ciudad de Panamá. 7 November 2000.
29. Country Reports on Terrorism: Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (April 28, 2006): The Government of Cuba maintains close relationships with other state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran and North Korea, and has provided safe haven to members of ETA, FARC, and the ELN. There is no information concerning terrorist activities of these or other organizations on Cuban territory. Press reports indicate that U.S. fugitives from justice and ETA members are living legally in Cuba. The United States is not aware of specific terrorist enclaves in the country.

Documentary films

Non-fictional films about ETA

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

Other films

Other fact-based films about ETA:

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

External links

• http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=31 - MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base (ETA)
• Who are Eta? - A BBC profile (including a map of the territory "claimed" by ETA)
• Text of ETA cease-fire statement
• Template:Es icon Fotos del Horror, photos and other documentation of ETA members, attacks, and popular protests against ETA.
• Template:Es icon Resumen de Atentados de ETA
• In memoriam, Victims of ETA
• The Basque Conflict: New Ideas and Prospects for Peace U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report, April 2006
• ETA and Spain, according to Amnesty International
• Basta Ya, Basque organization protesting against Basque nationalist violence and threats.
• on FAS Intelligence Resource Program
• Etxera, organisation protesting against imprisonment of Basque prisoners outside of the Basque country (site down at 28 February 2005, see archive for older versions)
• Template:Es icon A dossier on Gara about the prisoner dispersion including a map of the distribution of ETA prisoners in Spain and France.

• Irregular military
• Designated terrorist organizations
• Basque politics
• Francoist Spain
• National liberation movements
• Politics of Spain
• Secessionist organizations
• Basque history