ETA fights for its independence

Many other terrorist groups that are not affiliated with the widely known terrorists group, Al-Qaeda, from the Middle East, are present around the globe. Out of the many other foreign terrorist groups, ETA happens to be one of the largest from Europe. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) is a leftist organization from northern Spain and southwest France who strive for independence from the seven regions of the Basque area.

After visiting Spain and seeing ETA spray painted on walls and Basque flags displayed on t-shirts and souvenirs, I was motivated to uncover who ETA is and what their goals are. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna stands for Basque homeland and freedom, which is what the Basque people strive for: freedom from the Spanish government to be an independent country.

It all started in 1937 when Franco took full control of the Basque regions and denied self-government to the Basque people. As time passed, people were becoming enraged because they were not allowed to speak their native language, Basque, or practice their own choice of religion. Soon in 1959 a group of young student activists who were furious at Franco’s containment of the Basque language and culture joined to create what is now known as ETA. Their one goal was, to regain independence. Before ETA began to be noticed as a terrorist group, they mainly protested, destroying infrastructure and Spanish symbols and hanging forbidden Basque flags.

Over the last four decades, ETA has killed over 800 people (abc news). In July of 1961, ETA attempted to derail a train on its way to San Sebastian carrying Franco’s supporters to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the occurrence of the Civil War. The attempt to derail the train did not result in any deaths although it did give police lead to some prime suspects and many were tortured and arrested. It is said the first known deadly attack took place in 1968 by ETA member Txabi Etxebarrieta, a native of Bilbao, was killed by Meliton Manzanas (wikipedia). Manzanas who was the chief of the secret police in San Sebastian and also known as a torturer for Franco, rid of Etxebarrieta while stopping him at a road check. Later Manzanas was gunned down on the doorstep of his own home. That was the stroke that led to a deadly retribution, which was the first assassination for ETA. In December of 1973, Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid on account of the execution by the government of Basque militants. Placing a bomb under the sewer in a spot where Blanco usually parked every day did the assassination. Once again, ETA succeeded. On September of 1998, ETA confirmed its first truce on cease-fire. Unfortunately ETA continued to take action and attack on account of lack of communication or agreements between them and the Spanish government.

Although nowadays ETA does take part in deadly attacks, they target mostly national and regional officials and government buildings in Spain. Unfortunately there are occasions where ETA makes an attack and innocent bystanders are wounded and killed. A distinctive action ETA does on some occasions to distribute them from most terrorist groups is they call authorities with just enough time ahead to give innocent bystanders time to evacuate and not do extensive damage. Not only do they assassinate but they also perform abductions and their most used tactics are car bombings. It was interesting to see red wet paint plastered on a government building one night in San Sebastian. As we passed the building I wondered if it had anything to do with ETA and brought even more interest to me.

In recent activities, Last year of March 2006, ETA announced a permanent cease-fire with the objective being to compel the democratic process. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish president, took a brave stand and decided to make negotiations with ETA. Spain’s conservative party did not agree to take such actions and withdrew support for the peace talks and began protesting against the negotiations in Madrid. In December 2006, after months of heavy peace talks and no steady ground, ETA attacked again in a parking garage at the Madrid Barajas international airport killing two men in a car bomb. Consequently in June 2007, ETA announced to end the cease-fire and that they are planning attacks for late summer. One of the biggest bombings to occur recently in Madrid that brought direct attention around the globe was the metro bombing. On March 11, 2004, between Alcala de Henares and the Atocha stations in Madrid, with ETA being responsible by a backpack bombing, they took the lives of 30 bystanders and wounded many. This went down as one of most destructive bombings in Europe since the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.

So is it a fight for freedom and independence, or is it just another burden to our world? I believe it could be both, although it does take the cost of innocent blood shed to grasp what you think is rightfully yours from the beginning. ETA is an organization standing up for their people and their cultures lineage. If only peace could be that easy, the world would be a safer place.
One night in San Sebastian Paul and I came across graffiti possibly done by ETA supporters.

http:///abcnews.go.com/Internaational/wireStory?id=3345798.

“BBC NEWS ETA: Key events.” 2007/01/02. 10 Jul 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/545452/.stm.

“Basque Fatherland and Liberty.” Council on Foreign Relations. 2007. 10 Jul 2007
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9271,

“ETA,” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 10 Jul 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETA#During_Franco.27s_dictatorship.

Katz, Samuel M., (2004). At any cost: national liberation terrorism. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications,

Kurlansky, Mark, (1999). The Basque history of the world. New York: Walker.

Nunez, Luis C., (1997). The Basques: their struggle for independence. [Cardiff] Wales: Welsh Academic Press.