Overview

Since Basque separatists launched their violent campaign for independence from Spain in 1968 over 900 people have died in the conflict. Hundreds more have been imprisoned. Few Americans know of the Basques, or ETA terrorists, nor realize that Basques populate large areas of the western U.S. where they maintain their language and culture far from their ancient homeland.

The Basques are one of oldest ethnic groups in Europe and live in northern Spain along the Bay of Biscay, the western Pyrennes Mountains and into adjacent areas of southern France. The foundation of the Basque identity is the ancient language (Euskara) and culture, which pre-dates modern European nation-states. The Basque homeland is known as “Euskadi.” In the early 20th Century, a thriving regional economy, based on steel and shipbuilding attracted substantial in-migration, diluting the population and influence of native Basques. Basque culture is traditionally provincial or rural in character and thus in conflict with the modern, urban and Spanish culture associated with industrialization.

In recent years, ETA emulted the Irish Republican Army (IRA) practice of issuing warnings before bombs go off, apparently in an effort to avoid creating casualties. Its last fatal attack occurred in May 2003, when a car bombing killed two policemen.

Many Spaniards believed that after the March 11, 2004, terror attacks in Madrid, carried out by Islamic extremists, ETA had effectively been stymied. The belief was that popular revulsion over terrorism made deadly violence politically unthinkable for the group.

The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire, bringing a dramatic end to a decades-long campaign of violence and closing the door on one of Western Europe's last active armed separatist movements. In a statement sent to television and newspaper outlets, ETA said it "has decided to declare a permanent cease fire as of March 24, 2006."

The annuncement continued, "The aim of (the cease-fire) is to promote a democratic process in the Basque country and to build a new framework in which our rights as a people will be recognized," the statement said. "ETA also calls on the Spanish and French authorities to respond positively to this new situation, leaving their repressive ways behind."

ETA has traditionally had close ties to the IRA and like their Irish counterparts, is expected to shift its focus to the political arena.

Background

During the regime of Dictator General Franco (1939-1975), the Spanish government repressed or banned virtually all expressions of the Basque national identity or political expression. In 1959, a Basque separatist movement emerged called Euskadi Ta Aaskatasuna—ETA (meaning Basque Fatherland and Freedom). In 1968, a faction known as ETA-Militar (ETA-M) resorted to an armed struggle for independence. One of their first efforts was an attempt to derail a train carrying Spanish Civil War veterans to a celebration. The Franco regime clamped down with road closures, house searches, and arrests and torture of suspected civilians. As is usually the case, these tactics encouraged support for the militant separatists.

ETA-M later developed a political wing known as Herri Batasuna (HB). In 1970 the Burgos trials focused attention on ETA-M, when 6 of 16 ETA defendants were sentenced to death for killing a policeman. The verdict provoked pro-Basque demonstrations and strikes, and after ETA kidnapped a German diplomat, Franco declared a state of emergency, before being forced to grant a public reprieve. ETA-M launched a campaign of targeted political assassinations and bombings and killed Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973. General Franco died in 1975 and the new government granted the Basques partial autonomy, however the nationalist movement had taken root and ETA-M continued its violent struggle for complete independence.

Until 1983, ETA/M had been able to operate from bases within France, but when France began cooperating with Spanish authorities the net tightened on ETA activities and a new right-wing group appeared, the Antiterrorist Liberation Group (GAL). It’s reported the GAL is a typical reactionary paramilitary group supported by state forces to facilitate extra-judicial assassinations and were responsible for the deaths of 28 suspected ETA members. By 1987, the death toll related to the violent separatist movement exceeded 700 when police arrested senior ETA-M members and captured major weapons caches. Meanwhile, two bomb attacks that killed 29 civilians helped erode popular support for the separatists.

Since 1988 there have been attempts at a negotiated settlement. After the failure of secret talks in Algeria in 1992, Spain renewed its hard-line strategy and in 1997 arrested and convicted 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna, the pro-ETA political party. This targeting of Basque nationalist political undermined prospects for a peaceful settlement. Herri Batasuna has since distanced itself somewhat from ETA-M, which has successfully reorganized, recruited new activists and improved its bomb-making capabilities. Basque separatists have developed relations with Irish Republicans and occasionally adopt similar strategies or tactics. Hence the progress of the Northern Ireland peace process may have an important influence on the prospects for conflict resolution in Basque Country.

Just months after adoption of the Northern Ireland’s Peace Agreement, ETA announced a cease-fire in September 1998, to facilitate talks between Herri Batasuna and the Spanish government. After 14 unproductive months, ETA announced that its activists would resume their armed struggle.

A Perspective:

The Basques have not suffered the degree of economic deprivation, exploitation or collective political oppression usually associated with separatist movements. As a result, their cause and aspirations have not gained broad international attention or support. Opponents argue that Spain’s grant of even partial autonomy was a significant compromise that has marginalized ETA and rendered their movement selfish and bankrupt. This viewpoint does not, however, capture the depth of the emotion surrounding Basque identity.

In 1843, Victor Hugo observed, that, “the Basque language is the land itself, almost a religion.”  He also wrote that, “A Basque is neither a Spaniard nor a Frenchman. He is a Basque.”  It is difficult for modern, urban Westerners to fully grasp the importance of a language and a culture to a group’s identity.

Yet, in the vast empty spaces of Idaho and Nevada, one can find the Basques, tending their sheep, speaking their language and maintaining their unique culture. To deny or deprive a people of those things that give meaning and value to their life is to deny them life itself. We may find it as implausible in the year 2000 that Lakota Indians would want to return to a buffalo hunting tradition and society, as that Basques would wage a war for a language and culture. But if Euskara dies, as it nearly did, the Basques feel they too will perish…it is for them a life and death issue.

Opponents will argue that the Basque language is no longer banned that it can be taught in schools. The same can be said for Latin, but Latin has all but vanished from use, extinct in a modern world and Basques can envision the same outcome, as Spanish and French make a second language and hence the Basque people archaic and redundant. Their solution is to create an independent state where the state language is Euskari the cultures and traditions Basque. Perhaps not everyone is compelled to accept the vision of a homogenous world of hyphenated peoples and perhaps this is what is meant by their rights of self-determination.  

Related Resources:

Euskal Herria Indymedia
http://euskalherria.indymedia.org/

Euskal Historia
http://buber.net/Basque/History

Spain Ministry of Interior
http://www.mir.es/

Basque Fatherland and Liberty Q&A
Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9271/

ETA Manifesto
http://www.elkarri.org/pdf/AlternativaDemocratica.pdf#search=%22Euskadi%20Ta%20Askatasuna%20(ETA)%22

EuskalHerria.com
http://www.euskalherria.com/