The ‘Basque Country’ straddles the western end of the Pyrenees and comprises of some 20,000 sq km spanning the geo-political boundaries of France and Spain. Basque society contains a rich vein of genetic and ethnic-cultural constitution, boasting one of Europe’s oldest pre Indo-European unique tongues still spoken today, Euskara.
Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna, ETA, (Basque Homeland and Freedom) have been waging a war of parity of esteem against their Spanish colonists since the 1960’s. Their over-riding goal has been the formation of a separate Basque sovereign state.
ETA was founded in 1953 as a student discussion group in Bilbao’s University of Deusto. Over the last 50 years the militant group has went through several significant transformations to maintain their quest for Basque sovereignty. ETA’s inception filled a political void as a democratic Basque voice to challenge the Franco dictatorship of the time. Although originally affiliated to the PNV, they created their own political identity because they considered the PNV stance as being too moderate in confronting Franco’s dictatorship. This radical approach and tendency for militant action was in keeping with the revolutionary ethos of an era where global national liberation wars raged (e.g. Algerian anti-colonial war).
Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) Formation
ETA conducted their first assembly meeting in Bayonne, France in 1962, on this historic occasion their leadership called for a collective strategy of Basque "historical regenerationism." This regeneration plan was to have the Basque language, Euskara, as its central focal point. In another break with religious tradition, ETA opted to adopt an "aconfessional" (religiously pluralistic) stance whilst keeping Roman Catholic doctrine to refine their new social program. The slogan for their new socialist agenda read;"Independence for Euskadi, compatible with European federalism".
- 1968 ETA effected its first high profile assassination by killing Spanish police chief Melitón Manzanas, a suspected torturer, in the Basque city of San Sebastián.
- 1970 witnessed the Spanish Proceso de Burgos ("Trial of Burgos") where captured ETA members were sentenced to death but only after several were executed did the Franco government succumb to international revolt over the draconian measures.
- 1973 ETA carried out their most daring strike at the Franco regime by assassinating Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco by car bomb in Madrid. The government President was perceived by the dictatorial regime as the natural successor to Franco. Many regarded the direct strike at the heart of the aggressor was a reprisal for the execution of Basque independentistas.
Following Franco's death, Spain embarked on a transition towards democracy which resulted in the factional splitting of ETA into two separate organizations: the vast majority of ETA’s members reformed as ETA political-military or ETA (pm), whilst the remainder formed the ETA military or ETA (m). The former ETA (pm) denounced all forms of violence and aligned themselves to a purely democratic path whilst accepting the Spanish government's offer of a total amnesty for ETA prisoners. Their new political vehicle was named Euskadiko Ezkerra ("Left of the Basque Country") which was itself to fracture in the subsequent years. One ETA faction kept the party name Euskadiko Ezkerra for several years, before self-integrating into Partido Socialista de Euskadi (PSE), the Basque affiliate of the national PSOE); the other faction renamed themselves Euskal Ezkerra (EuE, "Basque Left") before merging into Eusko Alkartasuna.
- 1978-80 Meanwhile, ETA (m) took over the mantle for Basque Freedom and in the subsequent years adopted even more radical and ruthless stance against their Spanish oppressors with deadly consequence. This 3 year period, 1978–80, were to prove ETA's most violent and extreme resulting in 68, 76, and 91 fatalities, respectively.
- 1985 Madrid witnessed ETA’s first car bomb assassination resulting in one fatality and 16 others injuries.
- 1986 Yet another Madrid bomb attack claimed the lives of 12 Guardia Civil and police officers are killed in Madrid and 50 wounded. Juan Manuel Soares is sentenced to 1,401 years in jail in 2000 for the killings.
- 1987 ETA’s Hipercor bomb on attack in a Barcelona shopping centre represented their bloodiest atrocity, killing 21 shoppers. Their statement in the aftermath of the attack claimed that an advance warning went unheeded by Spanish police.
1986 also witnessed the formation of Gesto por la Paz (Association for Peace in the Basque Country) which held numerous silent demonstrations throughout the Basque Country direct after any violent killing perpetrated by either ETA or by GAL.
In the same year María Dolores Katarain, "Yoyes", a former ETA director was assassinated for abandoning armed struggle and was branded as a "desertion".
- 1988 all Basque political parties except the ETA-affiliated Herri Batasuna joined the Ajuria-Enea pact designed to establish a lasting peace for the Basque Country. Within weeks of its implementation ETA announced a 60-day "ceasefire.” Further peace negotiations Mesa de Argel ("Algiers Table"), convened in Algeria between ETA (represented by Eugenio Etxebeste, "Antxon") and Spain then ruling PSOE government could not reach as satisfactory conclusion. This failure signalled a familiar to violent opposition by ETA.
- 1992 seen the capture by Spanish authorities in the French Basque town of Bidart off three of ETA's top leaders; their military leader Francisco Mujika Garmendia ("Pakito"), political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina ("Txelis") and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe ("Fiti").
- 1995 again witnessed the Basque separatist group involve themselves in peace negotiations. The Democratic Alternative round of negotiations replaced the previous KAS Alternative as a minimum requirement for the formation of Euskal Herria. The Democratic Alternative proposed an ETA cessation of violence in return for Spanish government recognition of Basque sovereignty people the right to self-determination of its peoples. This proposal was emphatically denounced by the Spanish government.
- 1998 ETA declared yet another ceasefire and entered into constructive dialogue with Spain's PP government.
- 2000 However, given the lack of political breakthrough in the Lizarra/Estella Pact negotiations, ETA again resorted to violent assassinations whilst accusing the Spanish government of being "inflexible""not wanting dialogue" and .
- Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent toughening of global anti-terrorist measures appeared to many to have spelt the beginning of the of ETA’s campaign for Basque autonomy. The freezing of bank accounts, a concerted worldwide pooling of International police anti-terrorist resources and a public intolerance of such terrorist groups all culminated to seriously damage ETA’s effectiveness.
- 2002 Jarrai, the Basque nationalist youth movement and Herri Batasuna, ETA’s "political arm" of ETA even though it was under Spanish judicial investigation headed by judge Baltasar Garzón.
- 2003 Two policemen are killed by a bomb in the northern town of Sangüesa.
- 2006 In the aftermath of ETA’s bomb attack in Madrid's Barajas airport which killed two Ecuadorians, Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero called off Spain’s ceasefire agreement.
- 2008 Former Socialist party councillor, Isaías Carrasco, is assassinated two days prior to Spain’s general election. In the same year a car bomb attack on a military academy in the northern town of Santona results in one fatality and several injuries.
- 2009 A senior investigating officer on combating ETA is killed by a car bomb in Bilbao
- 29 July 2009 a massive car bomb aimed at a Guardia Civil barracks in Burgos injured scores of people.
- 30 July 2009 a car bomb in the holiday resort of Mallorca leaves two police officers dead.
It further underlines the group’s commitment towards the establishment of a separate Basque State and these attacks are a chilling re-iteration of their 2006 statement when they declared;
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