Spain: Information on the Euzkadi ta Azkatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty, ETA)

Please find attached some documents that provide information on the Euzkadi ta Azkatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty, ETA). The ETA is described by a variety of sources as a terrorist organization that has frequently resorted to assassination and placing of bombs in public places.

The ETA reportedly formed in 1959 as a breakaway group from the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party, PNV), the latter remaining a legal autonomist party opposed to violence (Hobday 1990, 147; Degenhardt 1988, 342). A number of factions or branches of ETA emerged through the years, including a "political-military" group (referred to as ETA-pm in the available sources) that initially seemed to have renounced violence but later engaged in a bombing campaign and other violent actions (Ibid., 343-344). The "military" wing of ETA (ETA-m or ETA-VI in the available sources) apparently has continuously engaged in murder and other acts of violence (Ibid.; Hobday 1990, 147-148). ETA-m later became known simply as ETA (Hobday 1990, 148).

ETA allegedly received funding from Libya, the Soviet Union and China, and its members reportedly trained in Algeria, South Yemen, Lebanon, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Cuba and Uruguay (Ibid.). ETA has reportedly cooperated with the Irish Republican Army and maintains relations with Irish, Breton and Corsican nationalist movements (Ibid.). ETA is also reported to have links with the Action Directe (Direct Action or AD) organization of France (Ibid., 76-77). Police raids in France have reportedly resulted in the arrest of a number of ETA members living and actively participating in the organization inside France (Degenhardt 1988, 345). The captures included the discovery of weapons, attack plans and money obtained through robberies, kidnapping and extortions, including "revolutionary taxes" demanded by ETA from Basque companies (Ibid.).

In 1983 ETA members attacked the residence of the British ambassador in Costa Rica, demanding the release of an ETA member who was arrested in that country in relation to an assassination plot (Ibid.). In retaliation for the government of Belgium extradition of two ETA suspects in 1984, the organization reportedly carried out a bomb attack on the Palace of Justice in Antwerp (Ibid.).

More recently, about a dozen alleged members of ETA were arrested in Uruguay after a continuing investigation that is now searching for possible links between ETA and the Uruguayan Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros (also known as MLN-T or Tupamaros). A leader of the Tupamaros, now a legal political group and member of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front or FA) coalition of political parties, has denied any links between ETA and the MLN-T (RNE-1 22 May 1992). The personal relations that exist between members of both organizations apparently originated in France, where many Latin Americans went into exile after fleeing from military dictatorships in the 1970s (Ibid.). A Spanish source reports that most ETA members who have taken refuge in Latin America are believed to be in Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and possibly Argentina (Ibid.).

For more recent information on ETA, please find attached three articles from El País (listed below). These articles indicate that ETA reportedly threatened to disrupt the Olympic Games at Barcelona. Spanish police captured a number of ETA members before the Olympic Games, while important members were captured by the French police in France, where some members of ETA have been sentenced to prison. In the wake of the arrest of a number of important figures, ETA offered a two-month truce that would include the Olympic Games. The government of Spain's only comment to ETA's offer was that ETA should stop killing, while Basque parliamentarians reportedly viewed the offer with scepticism and suggested that the real intentions behind the offer should be investigated (El País 13 July 1992, 1, 11).

Additional and/or corroborating information is currently unavailable to the DIRB.

References

Degenhardt. Henry W., ed. 1988. Revolutionary and Dissident Movements: An International Guide. Burnt Mill, Essex: Longman Group UK Ltd.

El País [Madrid], Weekly International Edition. 13 July 1992. "ETA Ofrece una Tregua y Exige Negociaciones," "ETA Exige Una `Negociación Política' a Cambio de Una Tregua que Incluiría los Juegos Olímpicos," "Francia Decide Confinar a Azkoiti en Perpiñ n," and "Baldo y Dos Dirigentes Etarras, Condenados a Ocho Años en París."

Hobday, Charles. 1990. Communist and Marxist Parties of the World. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press.

RNE-1 Radio Network [Madrid, in Spanish]. 22 May 1992. "Spain's ETA, Tupamaros Link Investigated." (FBIS-LAT-92-101, 26 May 1992, p. 53)

Attachments

Degenhardt. Henry W., ed. 1988. Revolutionary and Dissident Movements: An International Guide. Burnt Mill, Essex: Longman Group UK Ltd, pp. 342-346.

EFE [Madrid, in Spanish]. 20 May 1992. "Lacalle Himself Decided Upon ETA Operation." (FBIS-LAT-92-099, 21 May 1992, p. 28)

. 16 May 1992. "Former Tupamaros Reject ETA Members' Arrest." (FBIS-LAT-92-097 19 May 1992, p. 44)

El País [Madrid], Weekly International Edition. 13 July 1992. "ETA Ofrece una Tregua y Exige Negociaciones," "ETA Exige Una `Negociación Política' a Cambio de Una Tregua que Incluiría los Juegos Olímpicos," "Francia Decide Confinar a Azkoiti en Perpiñ n," and "Baldo y Dos Dirigentes Etarras, Condenados a Ocho Años en París."

Hobday, Charles. 1990. Communist and Marxist Parties of the World. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, pp. 147-148.

RNE-1 Radio Network [Madrid, in Spanish]. 22 May 1992. "Spain's ETA, Tupamaros Link Investigated." (FBIS-LAT-92-101, 26 May 1992, p. 53)