Basque Fatherland and Liberty

Basque Fatherland and Liberty (Euskadi ta Askatasuna; ETA), a group of separatists seeking Basque independence from Spain, is responsible for a 44-year-old liberation campaign whose bombings and murders have left more than 800 dead. Among its most high-profile attacks were the assassination of a Spanish prime minister and the killing of 21 shoppers at a Barcelona supermarket.

Feeling that the right-wing Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was not significantly advancing their goal of achieving Basque independence from Spain, dissidents created this extremely radical and violent faction of the Basque Separatist movement in 1959. ETA's liberation campaign has long been funded by crime, including robbery, kidnapping, and extortion. It has resorted to bombings and the murder of government officials and members of political parties to advance its cause. In 1969, several prominent leaders of the ETA were arrested for their involvement in the death of a ...