Euskadi Ta Askatasuna

Structure

ETA was initially organized in extreme hierarchy: a leading figure at the top, delegating into the logistical, military and political sections. Reports from Spanish and French police point towards significant changes in ETA's structures in its later years. ETA divided the three substructures into a total of eleven. The change was a response to captures, and possible infiltration, by the different law enforcement agencies. ETA intended to disperse its members and reduce the effects of detentions.

The leading committee comprised 7 to 11 individuals, and ETA's internal documentation referred to it as Zuba, an abbreviation of Zuzendaritza Batzordea (directorial committee). There was another committee named Zuba-hits that functioned as an advisory committee. The eleven different substructures were: logistics, politics, international relations with fraternal organisations, military operations, reserves, prisoner support, expropriation, information, recruitment, negotiation, and treasury.

ETA's armed operations were organized in different taldes (groups or commandos), generally composed of three to five members, whose objective was to conduct attacks in a specific geographic zone. The taldes were coordinated by the cúpula militar ("military cupola"). To supply the taldes, support groups maintained safe houses and zulos (small rooms concealed in forests, garrets or underground, used to store arms, explosives or, sometimes, kidnapped people; the Basque word zulo literally means "hole"). The small cellars used to hide the people kidnapped are named by ETA and ETA's supporters "people's jails". The most common commandos were itinerant, not linked to any specific area, and thus were more difficult to capture.

Among its members, ETA distinguished between legales/legalak ("legal ones"), those members who did not have police records and lived apparently normal lives; liberados ("liberated members") known to the police that were on ETA's payroll; and apoyos ("supporters") who gave occasional help and logistics support to the group when required.

There were also imprisoned members of the group, serving time scattered across Spain and France, that sometimes still had significant influence inside the organisation; and finally the quemados ("burnt out"), members freed after having been imprisoned or those that were suspected by the group of being under police surveillance. In the past, there was also the figure of the deportees, expelled by the French government to remote countries where they lived freely. ETA's internal bulletin was named Zutabe ("Column"), replacing the earlier one (1962) Zutik ("Standing").

Ideology

ETA did not identify as Marxist from its inception, but soon after its founding it did gain such coloration and defined itself as a revolutionary socialist movement. The organization spoke of a distinctly Basque "national socialism" (socialismo nacional), a term that was used by numerous anti-colonial movements during the Cold War, as well as movements such as Peronism. From 1965 onwards, ETA had two distinct factions - the nationalist and socialist one, with the former subordinating class struggle to the national question, and the latter seeing the national question as subordinate to a greater class struggle. Early ETA also had European federalist influences thanks to the presence of Federico Krutwig, a Basque revolutionary who was a staunch Europhile and adhered to the views of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Menachem Begin. However, he left ETA in 1967 as Marxist factions became dominant.

The main and non-negotiable demand of the party was an independent Basque state stretching from northern Spain to southern France. It was said to combine 'conservative nationalism with communist ideology', as it centered its doctrine on Basque independence and socioeconomic struggle against capitalism, which it expressed through a slogan of "Basques as a people of workers". ETA postulated a two-fold cause for independence, based on both respect for Basque language and culture as well as the liberation of the working class. It intertwined the goal for a Basque nation-state for a socialist economy which was to consist of an equitable distribution of wealth and improved living standards for the Basque working class.

ETA defined itself as an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movement. Its ideology was described as a "combination of liberation theology, separatism, Catholicism and Marxism" and as "a nationalist, third-worldist organization of Marxist inclinations, with Catholic influences, especially from the Latin American inspired theology of liberation". The vision of Basque nationalism that ETA envisioned was "based not only on the Basque culture and language but also on the centrality of the Roman Catholic Church." According to Paddy Woodworth, ETA "passed through an ideological ferment, moving rapidly from Catholic social radicalism through a spectrum of anti-colonialist positions, ultimately defining itself as a Marxist-Leninist movement commited to Basque independence and socialism", and noted profound "religious overtones" in the theoretical documents of ETA.

According to the organization's Marxist-Leninist and ethnonational doctrine, despite the Spanish transition to democracy, Spain continued to be ruled and dominated by the same oligarchy and military, whose interests continued to depend on 'exploiting the masses', including the Basques and other ethnonational minorities in Spain. According to ETA, Spain transitioned into "Francoism without Franco" and is still based on the same state apparatus and capitalism. The party also attacked the Basque bourgeoisie, arguing that it collaborates with the Spanish elites as it also depends on the continued exploitation of the Basque working class, thus having a common interest with Madrid. ETA also claimed that "one cannot be a Basque patriot unless one is also a member of the Basque working class", as the collaboration of the Basque bourgeoisie with the Spanish bourgeoisie would result in the "elimination of all signs of a distinctive Basque ethnocultural identity". Moreover, the organization claimed that the American Central Intelligence Agency aids the Spanish and Basque governments and police forces against it, referring to the Spanish and Basque officials as "occupation forces". ETA went as far as to label drug smugglers "Spanish occupation forces" as well, claiming that they secretly collaborate with police forces.

Political support

The former political party Batasuna, disbanded in 2003, pursued the same political goals as ETA and did not condemn ETA's use of violence. Formerly known as Euskal Herritarrok and "Herri Batasuna", it was banned by the Spanish Supreme Court as an anti-democratic organisation following the Political Parties Law (Ley de Partidos Políticos). It generally received 10% to 20% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community.

Batasuna's political status was controversial. It was considered to be the political wing of ETA. Moreover, after the investigations on the nature of the relationship between Batasuna and ETA by Judge Baltasar Garzón, who suspended the activities of the political organisation and ordered police to shut down its headquarters, the Supreme Court of Spain finally declared Batasuna illegal on 18 March 2003. The court considered proven that Batasuna had links with ETA and that it constituted in fact part of ETA's structure. In 2003, the Constitutional Tribunal upheld the legality of the law.

However, the party itself denied being the political wing of ETA, although double membership – simultaneous or alternative – between Batasuna and ETA was often recorded, such as with the cases of prominent Batasuna leaders like Josu Urrutikoetxea, Arnaldo Otegi, Jon Salaberria and others.

The Spanish Cortes (the Spanish Parliament) began the process of declaring the party illegal in August 2002 by issuing a bill entitled the Ley de Partidos Políticos which bars political parties that use violence to achieve political goals, promote hatred against different groups or seek to destroy the democratic system. The bill passed the Cortes with a 304 to 16 vote. Many within the Basque nationalistic movement strongly disputed the Law, which they considered too draconian or even unconstitutional; alleging that any party could be made illegal almost by choice, simply for not clearly stating their opposition to an attack.

Defenders of the law argued that the Ley de Partidos did not necessarily require responses to individual acts of violence, but rather a declaration of principles explicitly rejecting violence as a means of achieving political goals. Defenders also argued that the ban of a political party is subject to judicial process, with all the guarantees of the State of Law. Batasuna had failed to produce such a statement. As of February 2008 other political parties linked to organizations such as Partido Comunista de España (reconstituted) have also been declared illegal, and Acción Nacionalista Vasca and Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK/PCTV, Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista/Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas) was declared illegal in September 2008.

Social support

The Spanish transition to democracy from 1975 on and ETA's progressive radicalisation had resulted in a steady loss of support, which became especially apparent at the time of their 1997 kidnapping and countdown assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco. Their loss of sympathisers had been reflected in an erosion of support for the political parties identified with them. In the 1998 Basque parliament elections Euskal Herritarrok, formerly Batasuna, polled 17.7% of the votes. However, by 2001 the party's support had fallen to 10.0%. There were also concerns that Spain's "judicial offensive" against alleged ETA supporters (two Basque political parties and one NGO were banned in September 2008) constituted a threat to human rights. Strong evidence was seen that a legal network had grown so wide as to lead to the arrest of numerous innocent people. According to Amnesty International, torture was still "persistent", though not "systematic". Inroads could be undermined by judicial short-cuts and abuses of human rights.

Clerical support

Despite its far-left orientation, ETA was founded by students of the Benedictine seminary in Lazkao and owed its ability to survive the Francoist years of harsh repression to the support of Basque clergy, with many Basque priests having strong Basque nationalist and separatist tendencies. With the approval of the local ecclesiastical hierarchy, ETA was able to store its weapons in churches, chapels and monasteries. According to the US researcher Robert P. Clark, 73% of Basque priests were members of ETA in 1968. ETA was also able to survive because of profound sympathy it found in the French Basque Country, and the support of local Basque nationalists and clergy granted ETA safe haven in France, where it was beyond the reach of Francoist security forces.

Basque clergy was also important in terms of ideology of the organization, as it provided ETA with both new members as well as influences of the far-left liberation theology. Largely protected from Francoist persecution, Basque-speaking priests educated members of ETA in the Basque nationalist faith and were considered the guardians of Basque language and culture, heavily influencing Basque nationalism. Basque nationalism acquired a religious character, as evidenced by the motto of Basque Nationalist Party, 'Jaun-Goikua eta Legi Zarra' (God and Old Laws). Sabino Arana, the father of Basque nationalism, argued that the Basque Country could not be truly Catholic as long as it was dependent on Spain, and portrayed his struggle for independent Euskadi not as a political project, but rather as something that was 'about saving souls'.

ETA-supportive clergy accepted the violence of ETA, following the beliefs of liberation theology and seeing it as a part of the oppressed people's aspiration for freedom and independence. The Archbishop of San Sebastián José María Setién repeatedly justified the actions of ETA in his statements, causing consternation and even indignation in Spain. His statement that dialogue with ETA should have begun before it even stopped the attacks was condemned by the Filipino cardinal Jose Tomas Sanchez. Catholic clergy then played an important role in trying to mediate the conflict; in 1998 the Catholic organisation Community of Sant'Egidio offered to negotiate with the Spanish government on behalf of ETA, but it was turned down by the Minister of Interior Jaime Mayor Oreja. ETA still enjoyed support of the Basque clergy in the 2000s, with sympathetic priests such as Joseba Segura Etxezarraga consistently encouraging the Spanish government to enter dialogue.

Opinion polls

The Euskobarometro, the survey carried out by the Universidad del País Vasco (University of the Basque Country), asking about the views of ETA within the Basque population, obtained these results in May 2009: 64% rejected ETA totally, 13% identified themselves as former ETA sympathisers who no longer support the group. Another 10% agreed with ETA's ends, but not their means. Three percent said that their attitude towards ETA was mainly one of fear, 3% expressed indifference and 3% were undecided or did not answer. About 3% gave ETA "justified, with criticism" support (supporting the group but criticising some of their actions) and only 1% gave ETA total support. Even within Batasuna voters, at least 48% rejected ETA's violence.

A poll taken by the Basque Autonomous Government in December 2006 during ETA's "permanent" ceasefire showed that 88% of the Basques thought that all political parties needed to launch a dialogue, including a debate on the political framework for the Basque Country (86%). Sixty-nine percent support the idea of ratifying the results of this hypothetical multiparty dialogue through a referendum. This poll also reveals that the hope of a peaceful resolution to the issue of the constitutional status of the Basque region has fallen to 78% (from 90% in April).

These polls did not cover Navarre, where support for Basque nationalist electoral options is weaker (around 25% of the population); or the Northern Basque Country, where support is even weaker (around 15% of the population).

History

During Franco's dictatorship

ETA grew out of a student group called Ekin, founded in the early 1950s, which published a magazine and undertook direct action. ETA was founded on 31 July 1959 as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Homeland and Liberty" or "Basque Country and Freedom") by students frustrated by the moderate stance of the Basque Nationalist Party. (Originally, the name for the organisation used the word Aberri instead of Euskadi, creating the acronym ATA. However, in some Basque dialects, ata means duck, so the name was changed.)

ETA held their first assembly in Bayonne, France, in 1962, during which a "declaration of principles" was formulated and following which a structure of activist cells was developed. Subsequently, Marxist and third-worldist perspectives developed within ETA, becoming the basis for a political programme set out in Federico Krutwig's (an anarchist of German origin) 1963 book Vasconia, which is considered to be the defining text of the movement. In contrast to previous Basque nationalist platforms, Krutwig's vision was anti-religious and based upon language and culture rather than race. ETA's third and fourth assemblies, held in 1964 and 1965, adopted an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist position, seeing nationalism and the class struggle as intrinsically connected.

Some sources attributed the 1960 bombing of the Amara station in Donostia-San Sebastian (which killed a 22-month-old child) to ETA, but statistics published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior have always showed that ETA's first victim was killed in 1968. The Amara station attack was claimed by the Portuguese and Galician left-wing group Directorio Revolucionario Ibérico de Liberación (DRIL), together with four other very similar bombings committed that same day across Spain – all attributed to DRIL. Attribution of the 1960 attack to ETA has been considered to be unfounded by researchers. Police documents dating from 1961, released in 2013, show that the DRIL was indeed the author of the bombing. A more recent study by the Memorial de Víctimas del Terrorismo based on the analysis of police diligences at the time reached the same conclusion, naming Guillermo Santoro, member of DRIL, as the author of the attack.

ETA's first killing occurred on 7 June 1968, when Guardia Civil member José Pardines Arcay was shot dead after he tried to halt ETA member Txabi Etxebarrieta during a routine road check. Etxebarrieta was chased down and killed as he tried to flee. This led to retaliation in the form of the first planned ETA assassination: that of Melitón Manzanas, chief of the secret police in San Sebastián and associated with a long record of tortures inflicted on detainees in his custody. In December 1970, several members of ETA were condemned to death in the Burgos trials (Proceso de Burgos), but international pressure resulted in their sentences being commuted (a process which, however, had by that time already been applied to some other members of ETA).

During the transition

During the Spanish transition to democracy (which began following Franco's death), ETA split into two separate groups: ETA political-military or ETA(pm), and ETA military or ETA(m).

Both ETA(m) and ETA(pm) refused offers of amnesty, and instead pursued and intensified their violent struggle. The years 1978–1980 were to prove ETA's most deadly, with 68, 76, and 98 fatalities, respectively.

During the Franco dictatorship, ETA was able to take advantage of tolerance by the French government, which allowed its members to move freely through French territory, believing that in this manner they were contributing to the end of Franco's regime. There is much controversy over the degree to which this safe-haven policy continued even after the transition to democracy, but it is generally agreed that after 1983 the French authorities started to collaborate with the Spanish government against ETA.

The transition to democracy did not undermine core reasons for the existence of ETA, with a large part of its members remaining committed to armed struggle and local Basque community remaining supportive of it into the 1990s. This was caused by the character of Spanish transition, as it was based on the 'pact of forgetting' (Spanish: pacto de olvido). Francoist officials in the army, police and judiciary retained their posts, and no attempt was ever made to hold the representatives of the Francoist regime responsible for political violence and oppression. Left-wing Basque nationalist Rafael Díez Usabiaga recalled: "We confront the flagrant contradiction that in the Spanish state they still have not addressed something so fundamental as the crimes of Francoism."

ETA members were further radicalized by the shifting position of leading left-wing parties, the Communist Party of Spain and Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, on the issue of self-determination. In 1974 self-determination for the Basque Country was a part of PSOE platform, and the party asserted that "all nationalities and regions had the right to break free from the Spanish state". However, the party moved towards centralist position after 1976, and Spanish parties "abandoned all pretensions to support self-determination within a constitutional drafting committee". Basque parties connected to ETA such as KAS and the MLVN created a new far-left Herri Batasuna coalition to push for a statute of autonomy for Euskadi.

Under democracy

ETA performed their first car bomb assassination in Madrid in September 1985, resulting in one death (American citizen Eugene Kent Brown, employee of Johnson & Johnson) and sixteen injuries; the Plaza República Dominicana bombing in July 1986 killed 12 members of the Guardia Civil and injured 50; on 19 June 1987, the Hipercor bombing was an attack in a shopping centre in Barcelona, killing 21 and injuring 45; in the last case, entire families were killed. The horror caused then was so striking that ETA felt compelled to issue a communiqué stating that they had given warning of the Hipercor bomb, but that the police had declined to evacuate the area. The police said that the warning came only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.

In 1986, 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 political violence. Also in 1986, in Ordizia, ETA gunned down María Dolores Katarain, known as "Yoyes", while she was walking with her infant son. Yoyes was a former member of ETA who had abandoned the armed struggle and rejoined civil society: they accused her of "desertion" because of her taking advantage of the Spanish reinsertion policy which granted amnesty to those prisoners who publicly renounced political violence (see below).

On 12 January 1988, all Basque political parties except ETA-affiliated Herri Batasuna signed the Ajuria-Enea pact with the intent of ending ETA's violence. Weeks later on 28 January, ETA announced a 60-day "ceasefire", later prolonged several times. Negotiations known as the 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.

2008 to present

In January 2008, ETA stated that its call for independence is similar to that of the Kosovo status and Scotland. In the week of 8 September 2008, two Basque political parties were banned by a Spanish court for their secretive links to ETA. In another case in the same week, 21 people were convicted whose work on behalf of ETA prisoners actually belied secretive links to the armed separatists themselves. ETA reacted to these actions by placing three major car bombs in less than 24 hours in northern Spain.

In April 2009 Jurdan Martitegi was arrested, making him the fourth consecutive ETA military chief to be captured within a single year, an unprecedented police record, further weakening the group. Violence surged in the middle of 2009, with several ETA attacks leaving three people dead and dozens injured around Spain. Amnesty International condemned these attacks as well as ETA's "grave human rights abuses".

The Basque newspaper Gara published an article that suggested that ETA member Jon Anza could have been killed and buried by Spanish police in April 2009. The central prosecutor in the French town of Bayonne, Anne Kayanakis, announced, as the official version, that the autopsy carried out on the body of Jon Anza – a suspected member of the armed Basque group ETA, missing since April 2009 – revealed no signs of having been beaten, wounded or shot, which should rule out any suspicions that he died from unnatural causes. Nevertheless, that very magistrate denied the demand of the family asking for the presence of a family doctor during the autopsy. After this, Jon Anza's family members asked for a second autopsy to be carried out.

In December 2009, Spain raised its terror alert after warning that ETA could be planning major attacks or high-profile kidnappings during Spain's European Union presidency. The next day, after being asked by the opposition, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said that warning was part of a strategy.

On 5 September 2010, ETA declared a new ceasefire, its third after two previous ceasefires were ended by the group. A spokesperson speaking on a video announcing the ceasefire said the group wished to use "peaceful, democratic means" to achieve its aims, though it was not specified whether the ceasefire was considered permanent by the group. ETA claimed that it had decided to initiate a ceasefire several months before the announcement. In the part of the video, the spokesperson said that the group was "prepared today as yesterday to agree to the minimum democratic conditions necessary to put in motion a democratic process if the Spanish government is willing".

Victims, tactics and attacks

Victims

ETA's targets expanded from military or police-related personnel and their families to a wider array, which included the following:

Francoist leaders, such as Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's successor was killed in a bombing on 20 December 1973.

Spanish military and police personnel, active duty or retired. The barracks of the Guardia Civil also provide housing for their families, thus, attacks on the barracks have also resulted in deaths of relatives, including children. As the regional police (Ertzaintza in the Basque Country and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia) took a greater role in combating ETA, they were added to their list of targets.

Businessmen (such as Javier Ybarra and Ignacio Uria Mendizabal): 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: most prominently Luis Carrero Blanco (killed in 1973). Dozens of politicians belonging to the People's Party (PP) and Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) were assassinated or maimed. Some Basque nationalist politicians from the PNV party, such as Juan Mari Atutxa, also received threats. Hundreds of politicians in Spain required a constant bodyguard service. Bodyguards are contingent victims as well. In 2005 ETA announced that it would no longer "target" elected politicians. Nonetheless, ETA killed ex-council member Isaías Carrasco in Mondragon/Arrasate on 7 March 2008.

Judges and prosecutors. Particularly threatened were the members of the Spanish anti-terrorist court: the Audiencia Nacional.

University professors who publicly expressed ideas that countered armed Basque separatism: such as Manuel Broseta or Francisco Tomás y Valiente. In the latter case, the shooting resulted in more than half a million people protesting against ETA.

Tactics

ETA's tactics included:

Direct attacks: killing by shooting the victim in the nape.

Bombings (often with car bombs). When the bombs targeted individuals for assassination they were often surreptitiously rigged in the victim's car. The detonating systems varied. They were rarely manually ignited but instead, for example, wired so the bomb would explode on the ignition or when the car went over a set speed limit. Sometimes the bomb was placed inside a stolen car with false plates, parked along the route of the objective, and the explosive remotely activated when the target passed by (e.g. V.I.P. cars, police patrols or military vehicles).

These bombs sometimes killed family members of ETA's target victim and bystanders. When the bombs were large car-bombs seeking to produce large damage and terror, they were generally announced by one or more telephone calls made to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA. Charities (usually Detente Y Ayuda—DYA) were also used to announce the threat if the bomb was in a populated area. The type of explosives used in these attacks was initially Goma-2 or self-produced ammonal. After several successful robberies in France, ETA began using Titadyne.

Shells: hand-made mortars (the Jo ta ke model) were occasionally used to attack military or police bases. Their lack of precision was probably the reason their use was discontinued.

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

Extortion or blackmail: called by ETA a "revolutionary tax", demanding money from a business owner in the Basque Country or elsewhere in Spain, under threats to him and his family, up to and including death threats. Occasionally, some French Basques were threatened in this manner, such as footballer Bixente Lizarazu. ETA moved the extorted funds to accounts in Liechtenstein and other fiscal havens. According to French judiciary sources, as of 2008 ETA exacted an estimated €900,000 a year in this manner.

Activity

With its attacks against what they considered "enemies of the Basque people", ETA killed over 820 people since 1968, including more than 340 civilians. It maimed hundreds more and kidnapped dozens. ETA was opposed to Lemóniz Nuclear Power Plant.

Its ability to inflict violence had declined steadily since the group was at its strongest during the late 1970s and 1980 (when it killed 92 people in a single year). After decreasing peaks in the fatal casualties in 1987 and 1991, 2000 was the last year when ETA killed more than 20 in a single year. After 2002, the yearly number of ETA's fatal casualties was reduced to single digits.

Similarly, over the 1990s and, especially, during the 2000s, fluid cooperation between the French and Spanish police, state-of-the-art tracking devices and techniques and, apparently, police infiltration allowed increasingly repeating blows to ETA's leadership and structure (between May 2008 and April 2009 no less than four consecutive "military chiefs" were arrested).

ETA operated mainly in Spain, particularly in the Basque Country, Navarre, and (to a lesser degree) Madrid, Barcelona, and the tourist areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. To date, about 65% of ETA's killings were committed in the Basque Country, followed by Madrid with roughly 15%. Navarre and Catalonia also registered significant numbers. ETA cooperated with the Catalan nationalist movement, which had its own far-left separatist organization that based itself off ETA – Terra Lliure; Terra Lliure was ultimately less successful and also avoided violent actions – excluding deaths amongst its members, Terra Lliure only had a single, accidental victim.

Actions in France usually consisted of assaults on arsenals or military industries to steal weapons or explosives; these were usually stored in large quantities in hide-outs located in the French Basque Country rather than Spain. The French judge Laurence Le Vert was threatened by ETA and a plot arguably aiming to assassinate her was unveiled. Only very rarely have ETA members engaged in shootings with the French Gendarmerie. This often occurred mainly when members of the group were confronted at checkpoints.

Despite this, on 1 December 2007 ETA killed two Spanish Civil Guards on counter-terrorist surveillance duties in Capbreton, Landes, France. This was its first killing after it ended its 2006 declaration of "permanent ceasefire" and the first killing committed by ETA in France of a Spanish police agent since 1976, when they kidnapped and assassinated two Spanish inspectors in Hendaye.

Financing

In 2007, police reports pointed out that, after the serious blows suffered by ETA and its political counterparts during the 2000s, its budget would have been adjusted to €2,000,000 annually.

Although ETA used robbery as a means of financing its activities in its early days, extortion represented ETA's main source of funds from the 1970s onwards, while it has also been accused both of arms trafficking and of embezzling funds from schools run by its political counterpart, Batasuna.

Basque nationalist context

ETA was considered to form part of what is informally known as the Basque National Liberation Movement, a movement born much after ETA's creation. This loose term refers to a range of political organizations that are ideologically similar, comprising several distinct organizations that promote a type of leftist Basque nationalism that is often referred to by the Basque-language term Ezker Abertzalea (Nationalist Left). Other groups typically considered to belong to this independentist movement are the political party Batasuna, the nationalist youth organization Segi, the labour union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB), and Askatasuna among others. There are often strong interconnections between these groups, double or even triple membership are not infrequent.

There are Basque nationalist parties with similar goals as those of ETA (namely, independence) but who reject their violent means. They are: EH Bildu, EAJ-PNV, Eusko Alkartasuna, Aralar and, in the French Basque country, Abertzaleen Batasuna. Also, many left-wing parties, such as Ezker Batua, Batzarre and some sectors of the EAJ-PNV party, also support self-determination but are not in favour of independence.

French role

Historically, members of ETA took refuge in France, particularly the French Basque Country. The leadership typically chose to live in France for security reasons, where police pressure was much less than in Spain. Accordingly, ETA's tactical approach had been to downplay the issue of independence of the French Basque country so as to get French acquiescence for their activities. The French government quietly tolerated the group, especially during Franco's regime, when ETA members could face the death penalty in Spain. In the 1980s, the advent of the GAL still hindered counter-terrorist cooperation between France and Spain, with the French government considering ETA a Spanish domestic problem. At the time, ETA members often travelled between the two countries using the French haven as a base of operations.

With the disbanding of the GAL, the French government changed its position on the matter and in the 1990s initiated the ongoing period of active cooperation with the Spanish government against ETA, including fast-track transfers of detainees to Spanish tribunals that are regarded as fully compliant with European Union legislation on human rights and the legal representation of detainees. Virtually all of the highest ranks within ETA –including their successive "military", "political" or finances chiefs – have been captured in French territory, from where they had been plotting their activities after having crossed the border from Spain.

In response to the new situation, ETA carried out attacks against French policemen and made threats to some French judges and prosecutors. This implied a change from the group's previous low-profile in the French Basque Country, which successive ETA leaders had used to discreetly manage their activities in Spain.

Government response

ETA considered its prisoners political 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 group and going through reinsertion programs.

The Spanish Government passed the Ley de Partidos Políticos. This is a law barring political parties that support violence and do not condemn terrorist actions or are involved with terrorist groups. The law resulted in the banning of Herri Batasuna and its successor parties unless they explicitly condemned terrorist actions and, at times, imprisoning or trying some of its leaders who have been indicted for cooperation with ETA.

Judge Baltasar Garzón initiated a judicial procedure (coded as 18/98), aimed towards the support structure of ETA. This procedure started in 1998 with the preventive closure of the newspaper Egin (and its associated radio-station Egin Irratia), accused of being linked to ETA, and temporary imprisoning the editor of its "investigative unit", Pepe Rei, under similar accusations. In August 1999 Judge Baltasar Garzón authorized the reopening of the newspaper and the radio, but they could not reopen due to economic difficulties.

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

A trial against a little-known organization called Xaki, acquitted in 2001 as the "international network" of ETA.

A trial against the youths' movement Jarrai–Haika–Segi, accused of contributing to street violence in an organized form and connivance with ETA.

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

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

International response

The European Union and the United States listed ETA as a terrorist group in their relevant watch lists. ETA has been a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 29 March 2001. The Canadian Parliament listed ETA as a terrorist group in 2003.

France and Spain have often shown co-operation in the fight against ETA, after France's lack of co-operation during the Franco era. In late 2007, two Spanish guards were shot to death in France when on a joint operation with their French counterparts. Furthermore, in May 2008, the arrests of four people in Bordeaux led to a breakthrough against ETA, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.

In 2008, as ETA activity increased, France increased its pressure on ETA by arresting more ETA suspects, including Unai Fano, María Lizarraga, and Esteban Murillo Zubiri in Bidarrain. He had been wanted by the Spanish authorities since 2007 when a Europol arrest warrant was issued against him. French judicial authorities had already ordered that he be held in prison on remand.

Spain has also sought cooperation from the United Kingdom in dealing with ETA-IRA ties. In 2008, this came to light after Iñaki de Juana Chaos, whose release from prison was cancelled on appeal, had moved to Belfast. He was thought to be staying at an IRA safe house while being sought by the Spanish authorities. Interpol notified the judge, Eloy Velasco, that he was in either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Other related armed groups

Disbanded violent groups

Anti-ETA groups:

Acción Nacional Española

ATE (Anti-Terrorismo ETA)

Batallón Vasco Español

Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL)

Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey

Minor Basque nationalist and radical left-wing groups:

Iparretarrak

Iraultza

Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas

Euskal Zuzentasuna

Hordago

Irrintzi

International links

ETA was known to have had 'fraternal' contacts with the Provisional Irish Republican Army; the two groups have both, at times, characterized their struggles as parallel. Links between the two groups go back to at least March 1974. ETA purchased Strela 2 surface-to-air missiles from the IRA and in 2001 unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down a jet carrying the Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar. IRA member Maria McGuire stated the IRA received fifty revolvers from ETA in exchange for explosives training.

In the late 1960s, the Portuguese group Liga de Unidade e Ação Revolucionária (LUAR), which was fighting the dictatorship, brokered the contacts that allowed ETA to purchase weapons in the then Czechoslovak Republic. The partnership continued as LUAR would later assign part of the stolen passports on Portugal consulted in Rotterdam and Luxembourg, in 1971. These were used by ETA in the Ogro operation that resulted in the assassination of Prime Minister, Admiral Carrero Blanco. Later, in 1981, when Portugal and Spain were living already in full democracy, ETA exchanged weapons, explosives and provided logistical support to the Forças Populares 25 de Abril (FP-25), a Portuguese far-left terrorist group. In 1981, FP-25 received Gama 2 explosives and two dozen FireBird pistols in exchange for G3 machine guns. Additionally, ETA came to harbor, in the Basque Country, two FP-25 terrorists who needed to retreat.

ETA acquired weapons from Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez) in the early 1980s.

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

ETA had extensive ties with the Breton Liberation Front – both organizations shared intelligence, and Breton revolutionaries received training from ETA in the Basque movement's clandestine camps in the Pyrenees. Both organizations also published a joint declaration opposing the expansion of the European Economic Community and condemning the European Union as exploitative and bourgeois; the declaration also stated: "The fight against imperialism and colonialism in the Western European subcontinent calls for determined and fundamental opposition to the Common Market. The national oppression and economic exploitation suffered by the Irish, Basque, and Breton people can do nothing in effect but worsen by the development of this vast and dangerous capitalist enterprise."

In the media

Films

Asesinato en febrero, 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, where Eterio Ortega and Elías Querejeta interview local councilors threatened by ETA.

Trece entre mil, the testimony of some of ETA's victims in the last 30 years by filmmaker Iñaki Arteta.

48 horas, about the kidnapping of Miguel Angel Blanco and his murder.

ETA. Une histoire basque, about the history of ETA.

Chronique Basque, about a Basque politician who is the target of an ETA death threat.

Asier ETA biok (Asier and/ETA I, 2013), where filmmaker Aitor Merino explores his relation with his childhood friend Asier Aranguren, who had become an ETA member.

El fin de ETA, a documentary about the history of ETA.

Commando Txikia (José Luis Madrid, 1977)

Operación Ogro (Operation Ogre, 1979), Gillo Pontecorvo's film about the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco.

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

Escape from Segovia (1981), about the Segovia prison break when ETA prisoners escaped from Segovia prison.

Novels

The Sands of Time (Sidney Sheldon, 1988) ISBN 978-0-446-35683-1

The Fish of Bitterness (Los peces de la amargura) in Spanish (Fernando Aramburu, 2006) ISBN 978-8483835463

The Spanish Game (Charles Cumming, 2006) ISBN 9780718147266

A Basque Story (M. Bryce Ternet, 2009) ISBN 9781448955886

Fatherland (Patria) in Spanish (Fernando Aramburu, 2016) ISBN 9788490663196

The Absent (Los Ausentes) in Spanish (Juana Cortés Amunarriz, 2021) ISBN 9788467061277