Basque Terrorist Group, ETA

Assessment of the Basque group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) depends on one's political perspective. From the point of view of the group itself and its supporters, the ETA is comprised of freedom fighters, revolutionaries seeking liberty and independence from Spain's control. From the perspective of the Spanish government, the ETA is a terrorist organization willing to use whatever means are necessary to achieve its radical political goals. Such opponents of the ETA hold that the group is violent and will remain violent even when it vows to give up its violence. To other, less extreme Basque liberation organizations, the ETA is justifiable in its ultimate goals of independence, but counter-productive in its violent tactics and strategy.

The reality is that all of these perspectives are correct to some degree, and the reason for this is that the ETA is an evolutionary as well as a revolutionary group. The changes it has gone through in its forty plus years of existence have shown the nation of Spain and the world a number of group identities as it adjusts its ideology and tactics. To be sure, the group has much extremism and violence in its history, but it has also demonstrated an ability and willingness to alter its direction and thrust on a more pragmatic basis.

An understanding of the ETA must include consideration of the contradictory portraits of observers, and these contradictions are apparent from the very beginning of the organization. The only point on which the

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the Basque culture and language. The underlying argument of the claim for independence from Spain is that continued domination by the Spanish government and people will eventually lead to the complete assimilation of the Basque people and the disappearance of their culture and language. While it is true that the ETA has engaged in violence, assassination, and terrorist activities, not all of the ETA's violence has proven unpopular. For example, before the death of Franco, the dictator's right-hand man Prime Minister Carrero Blanco was on the verge of solidifying the perpetuation of Franco's policies. The ETA assassinated him, making it possible that Spain in the post-Franco era would establish a more liberated government, Had he not been murdered by the ETA, he would have remained in office as guarantor of the regime's continuity for as long as two years after Franco's death. Thus Carerro's spectacular murder by terrorists belonging to the ETA . . . was a crucial development in Spain's political evolution. . . . (McClellan 35). As McClellan notes, the man who followed Carerro in the office of prime Minister was "a weaker and less effective figure who lacked Carerro's ability to rally the old guard against change" (McClella

Category: Foreign - B