ETA’s violent campaign for Basque independence

ETA, whose name means Basque Homeland and Freedom, emerged in response to the repressive regime of General Franco. The Basque language was banned under his dictatorship and those who supported independence were jailed and even tortured.

The separatist group’s first significant attack came in 1973 when a car bomb killed Franco’s right-hand man, Luis Carrero Blanco.

His assassination played an important part in bringing down the dictatorship. But a series of high-profile kidnappings and killings over the next decades heightened public opposition to ETA.

Their campaign to make the Basque region, which stretches across northern Spain and southwestern France, an independent country has claimed more than 800 lives so far.

Their attacks often target Spanish government officials, military forces, politicians and judges.

In 1997, ETA murdered Miguel Angel Blanco, a 29-year-old councillor for the ruling Popular Party in the Basque country.

The group wanted Spain 460 prisoners held in jails to be returned to the Basque region. Madrid refused and Blanco was found shot twice in the head, dying in hospital shortly afterwards. His death prompted six million people to march across Spain and call for an end to the violence.

Madrid’s first attempts to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict began the following year. Successive governments have tried and failed to solve the crisis at the negotiating table.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced in 2006 that he would again open talks. But they ended in failure months later.

In December of that year, ETA responded by setting off a bomb in the car park of Madrid’s main airport, killing two people.

At least eight people have died since that explosion. That explains why the government and the public are sceptical about this latest announcement.

ETA has broken such ceasefires before and has still not given up its weapons – one of the Spanish government’s key demands.

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