For other meanings of ETA, see ETA (disambig).

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

Goals

In general, ETA has two demands:

• The creation of an autonomous Marxist government in Basque-inhabited areas of Spain and France (Euskal Herria). In Spain, these are known collectively as the Basque Country and included the areas of Vizcaya (Bizkaia), Guipúzcoa (Gipuzkoa), Álava (Araba), and Navarre (Nafarroa). In France, these are known collectively as the French Basque Country and include Lower Navarre, Labourd (Lapurdi) and Soule (Zuberoa), all located in southwestern France in the département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
• That imprisoned ETA members currently awaiting trial or serving prison sentences in Spain be released.

During the 1980s, the Basque Revolutionary Left summarized its claims in the KAS Alternative. Four decades after its creation, the idea of creating create of a Socialist state in the Basque Country is off-balance, and it resonates utopic and impractical. Hence ETA has adjust its agenda by opening to other possibilies. Other demands of the terrorist band are:

• That the Spanish Government reallocate ETA imprisoned members closer to the Basque Country and their families.
• To have a referendum (following the Quebec example) where the Basque Country would decide if they want or not belong to Spain.

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

Tactics

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

A police file, in 1996, indicated that ETA needed 15 million pesetas (about 90000 euros) daily in order to finance its operations. Althrough ETA did use robbery in its begginings, and it is been acused of both arms trafficking and benefit economically from its political counterpart Batasuna, the two most important means that the organization has used to obstain economical input are kidnapping and extortion, this last in form of "revolutionary taxes" (which are also common to other organizations such as FARC). In 2002 the judge Baltasar Garzón seized the herriko tabernas (people's taverns), which were reported to collect the "revolutionary taxes".

Attacks by ETA

ETA has conducted many high-profile attacks over the years. Among the most significant have been:

• 1961: First ETA attack, an unsuccessful attempt to derail a train.
• 1968: First death due to ETA activities. The victim is Melitón Manzanas, a secret police chief in the Basque city of San Sebastian.
• December 1973: Assassination of Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in Madrid in retaliation for the government's execution of Basque separatists.
• September 13, 1974: A bomb placed inside "Rolando" cafeteria in Madrid kills 12 civilians.
• September 1985: First ETA car bomb in Madrid kills an American citizen and wounds 16 Civil Guards.
• July 14, 1986: A car bomb on República Dominicana square in Madrid explodes at the passing of a microbus carrying young Civil Guards, killing 12 of them and injuring 50 people.
• June 19, 1987: A car bomb explodes in the underground car park of an Hipercor hypermarket in Barcelona, killing 21 civilians and injuring 45.
• December 11, 1987: 250 kg of explosives inside a car bomb explode next to the Civil Guard's Casa Cuartel in Zaragoza, killing 11 people and injuring 40.
• May 29, 1991: A car bomb loaded with 70 kg of explosives is detonated inside the Civil Guard's Casa Cuartel in Vic (Barcelona), located next to a school, killing 10 people (4 of them children) and injuring 28.
• June 21, 1993: A car bomb explodes at the passing of a military van at the junction of López de Hoyos and Joaquín Costa streets in Madrid, killing 6 military men and 1 civilian and injuring 20 people.
• 1995: Assassination plot on King Juan Carlos of Spain foiled.
• April 19, 1995: Nearly successful attempt to kill José María Aznar, the leader of Spain's right-wing opposition and future Prime Minister. A car bomb loaded with 40 kg of explosives is detonated at the passing of his official car. He is saved by his vehicle's armor plating.
• December 11, 1995: A car bomb explodes at the passing of military van in the Vallecas borough of Madrid, killing 6 civilians who worked for the Army.
• 1997: Abduction of Basque councillor Miguel Angel Blanco, prompting six million Spaniards to join mass demonstrations against ETA. The terrorist organization ask the government to allocate all imprishioned ETA terrorist in prisions close to the Basque Country. When the government didn't accept this demand, Miguel Angel Blanco is assasined.
• December 21-22, 1999: The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts en route near Calatayud (Zaragoza) a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives; the next day, another van loaded with 750 kg is found not far from there. The incident is known as "la caravana de la muerte" (the caravan of death). Shortly after 9/11, ETA confirmed their plan had been to use those 1,700 kg to blow down Torre Picasso (online report with video in Spanish [3] (http://www.terra.es/actualidad/terrorismo/historial/081101-4.htm)).
• December 18, 2000: A bomb is placed inside an elevator of the Faculty of Journalism of the University of the Basque Country in Lejona (Vizcaya). The bomb was detected in time by Prof. Edurne Uriarte's bodyguard, and then deactivated.
• May 12, 2001: Thirteen people are injured when a car bomb explodes in Madrid days before regional elections in the Basque County. Eight minutes before the bomb exploded, an anonymous ETA caller warned authorities.
• May 24, 2001: Santiago Oleaga Elejabarrieta, 54, the chief financial officer of El Diario Vasco (The Basque Daily), the most widely circulated newspaper in the Basque region, dies instantly after being shot in the head. The attack was likely motivated by the anti-ETA editorials of El Diario.
• July 10, 2001: Luis Ortiz de la Rosa, 33, a police officer, is killed at 8:30 PM in a southern neighborhood in Madrid when a car bomb explodes. The blast also injures twelve. A call from ETA 45 minutes before had been made, and police were clearing the area when the bomb detonated.
• July 14, 2001: Twin attacks by ETA claim the lives of two within hours of each other. Jose Javier Mugica, 50, a regional councilor and member of the center-right Union of the People of Navarra party, dies after a car bomb is placed in his van in the northern village of Leiza; Mikel Uribe, 44, a plainclothes police officer, dies after being shot from behind in his car in the town of Leaburu.
• July 27, 2001: Three people were injured at 2:30 AM when a powerful explosion occurred in front of the La Caixa bank in downtown Madrid. In the same day, Spanish authorities deactivated what was described as a "massive" car bomb in an airport in Malaga, a major tourist destination. An ETA caller warned ahead of time that the bomb was set.
• August 27, 2001: Days after a series of raids, ETA warns the authorities about a bomb they set to explode at around 8 AM in Madrid Barajas Airport. The 40 to 50 kg of explosives placed inside a stolen car explode on the second floor of Terminal 2 (national flights) car park, only causing material damage.
• September 2, 2001: A home-made bomb explodes at 9 AM in Vitoria in an electronics store owned by an officer of the Ertzaintza (regional police force). The bomb damages cars but causes no personal injuries.
• December 24, 2003: ETA attempts to blow 50 kg of explosives inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station at 3:55 PM on Christmas Eve. The police thwarted the attempt when they stopped Garikoitz Arruarte trying to board 28 kg of explosives into a Madrid-bound train in San Sebastián. Another bomb with over 20 kg of explosives was then found inside another train passing near Burgos, already several hundred kilometers on its way to Madrid.

Other ETA-related events

• Spring/Summer 1959: A group of young Basque nationalists form ETA. Many members come from youth groups of the Basque Nationalist Party, or PNV, a political party formed in 1895 by Sabino Arana in 1895 to keep Euskadi, the Basque country, ethnically and culturally "pure."
• October 8, 1999: ETA is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTA) by the U.S. government for the first time.
• May 25, 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."
• July 11, 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 the ETA’s actions.
• July 15, 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 separatist group ETA. The cities include Pamplona, Vitoria, and Zaragoza.
• August 24, 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."
• February 26, 2002: U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announces that the U.S. has frozen assets of 21 people associated with ETA.
• December 22, 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.
• October 8, 2003: 34 suspected ETA members are arrested in the early morning. Twenty-nine are apprehended in northern Spain and five in France.
• December 9, 2003: Police in southwestern France arrest Gorka Palacios, 29, the alleged military commander of the ETA. Three people who the police said were collaborator were also arrested in the 6 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 Angel Acebes characterized the arrests as of "great significance" and of "first magnitude."
• January, 2004: A controversy surrounds ERC's leader Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira and Spanish prime minister José María Aznar. Carod-Rovira attended a meeting in France with ETA earlier in December, which he claimed was an attempt to drive ETA away from violence and that he claimed ended with no results. The opposition then accused Aznar of being behind the leak to the media of the intelligence report detailing that meeting and he refuses to clarify whether he knew about this meeting before the leaking. He was also questioned why the ETA members who attended that meeting were not detained.
• February 18, 2004: ETA announces on regional radio that a cease-fire in the Catalonia region had been in place since January 1 because of "a desire to unite the ties between the Basque and Catalan peoples." ETA did not say when it would end.
• February 20, 2003: Nine men and a woman are, making the number of ETA suspects detained this week to 33. They worked on a Basque-language newspaper, Euskaldunon Egunkaria, published statements from ETA.
• March 21, 2004: A spokesmen for the newly elected Socialist Party government of Spain rejects a preposal from ETA for negotiations because ETA was not prepared to surrender its weapons.

Counterterrorism

Members of ETA have often taken refuge in southwestern France, especially the French Basque Country and Aquitaine. Although this used to be tolerated by the French government, especially during the Franco dictatorship when ETA members were often regarded as political refugees, in recent years the French have been extremely active against ETA. A number of ETA members have been captured on French soil and extradited to Spain to stand trial. During the 1970s and the 1980s, ETA members and its suspected supporters had been the target of right-wing and state terrorism (such as GAL). Several ETA members were executed during the Franco era.

Political issues

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

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

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

History

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other armed organizations acting in the Basque Country

• Right wing
  • ATE
  • Batallón Vasco Español
• Left wing
  • Iraultza
  • Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas
  • Iparretarrak

External links

• ETA (http://www.amnesty.org/results/is/eng?query=eta) according to Amnesty International
• Basta Ya (http://www.bastaya.org/), Basque organization protesting against perceived persecution by Basque nationalism.
• Fotos del horror (http://clientes.vianetworks.es/personal/angelberto/fotos.htm), extensive collection of photographs of ETA members, their attacks and the popular protests
• on GAL (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/spain/cesid.htm)
• Non-fictional films about ETA
  • Ogro (1979) (http://akas.imdb.com/Title?0079655), about the murder of Luis Carrero Blanco.
  • Escape from Segovia (1981) (http://akas.imdb.com/Title?0082424), ETA prisoners escape from the Segovia prison.
  • Yoyes (2000) (http://akas.imdb.com/Title?0242154), María Dolores Katarain a.k.a Yoyes tries to abandon ETA and is murdered by her former fellows.
  • Asesinato en febrero (2001) (http://akas.imdb.com/Title?0291024), about the families of Basque politician Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard, both killed by ETA.
  • La pelota vasca (2003) (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0382898/), interviews about Basque nationalism and politics. Includes testimonials of ETA victims and relatives of ETA prisoners.
  • Lobo (2004) (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0385842/), based on the life of Mikel Lejarza, who, prompted by the Spanish police, entered ETA to be a double agent.

• ETA is also an acronym meaning 'estimated time of arrival'.
• ETA is also Estonian Broadcasting Agency (Eesti Teadete Agentuur /ETA/). Link: http://www.etamonitor.ee