ETA

ETA is a militant political group in the Basque area of Europe (three districts in southern France and four provinces in Spain). Known by its acronym, which stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, meaning “Basque homeland (Euskadi) and freedom” in Euskera, the Basque language, ETA was formed in 1959 by dissident student members of the Basque National Party (Partido Nacional Vasco), which had been in existence since 1894. ETA forged a militant reaction to the repressive policies of the General Francisco Franco dictatorship. The members of ETA continued their pressure on Spain's central government until March 2006 when they agreed to a permanent cease-fire. Outside of Basque Country, ETA is usually known simply as a terrorist, separatist, clandestine group that has been responsible for taking some 800 lives.

The reasons for this group's continued 4-decade existence lie in the relationship between the Basque region and the central government of Spain. Euskadi (the Basque region and its people) suffered some of the worst destruction of the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. Pablo Picasso's painting, Guernica, depicts the horrendous pain caused by the systematic pulverization on April 1937 of the Basque town by that name. The Franco regime, which lasted from the end of the war until 1975, was particularly punitive toward the provinces of Biscaya and Guipúzkoa. In 1932, these two provinces selected self-rule, an option offered to the four provinces of Euskadi by the central government of the time. Navarra had opted out, and shortly thereafter Alava also chose to stay out. Choosing autonomy threw Guipúzkoa and Biscaya to the side of the legally constituted government of the time—the Republic. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Biscaya and Guipúzkoa remained loyal to the Republic, earning them severe punishment both during and after the war.

After brutally subduing these provinces militarily, the Franco dictatorship set out to hurt them politically and economically, as well. Franco abolished their self-rule and the remaining valuable economic and social privileges of traditional law known as fueros. As particular targets for punishment and oppression, it is not surprising that Guipúzkoa and Biscaya would be two provinces of Spain with sustained and violent opposition to the Franco regime. The death of Franco led to a transition, not a revolution; therefore, subsequent central administrations of Spain, until the Zapatero government (2004–2010), had ambivalent relationships with the Basque region.

The ETA movement coalesced around a clandestine newspaper called Ekin (action), set up by university students. In 1961 its members carried out their first terrorist operation, an attempt to derail a train taking Francoist veterans to a rally in San Sebastián (Donostia). The response by the police was savage. More than 100 were arrested. Many were tortured. Some were charged, tried, and given up to 20-year sentences. However, the leaders escaped to France, and there began ETA's periodic cycles of violence that persisted for 4 decades. Those targeted for killings included police officers, mayors, and other political figures. The numbers of dead are cited at 800, with additional hundreds wounded in the attacks, carried out through bombings, sabotage, and assassinations.

...