ETA and state action: the development of Spanish antiterrorism

Abstract

On 20 October 2011 ETA announced the 'definitive cessation of its armed activity', which had been increasing since shortly after its inception in 1959. On 8 April 2017 it disarmed by handing over its weapons to intermediaries from civil society. On 2 May 2018 ETA announced its dissolution. This was the end of the last ongoing armed conflict in Europe from the wave of political violence -linked to national and class disputes -that swept over the continent starting in the 1960s. This article analyses the development of Spanish antiterrorism in relation to the Basque conflict, observing how a free and democratic Spanish state has responded to the challenge of an armed insurgency that has continued to the present. While the history of the organisation is well known, less so is the development of the reaction to deal with it. ETA's progression cannot be understood in isolation, but rather needs to be placed into the context of the measures taken by the state, which influenced, shaped, and was shaped by it throughout the course of the conflict.

Surveillance Punitivism: Colonialism, Racism, and State Terrorism in Spain

“…In this sense, another representative example of Spanish surveillance punitivism is exemplified by the repressive and terrorist strategies deployed by the Spanish State against, for example, leftists, Basque, Galician, Andalusian, and Catalan political activists. The state crimes committed by the Spanish State include (but are not limited to) extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, illegalisation of political parties, closure of media, prisoner dispersal, and the incarceration of political representatives, including those effectively governing entire nations such as Catalonia (Bernat and Whyte 2020;Ubasart-González 2019;Naiz 2014;Tremlett 2010). The deployment of such strategies, especially in those territories challenging Spanish State sovereignty, draws on a continuum of repressive practises aimed to destroy political mobilisation, ranging from soft forms of cultural assimilation to the physical destruction of activists.…”

The Culture of Emergency in Italy and Spain: State Antiterrorism

“…On the other, the punitive pressure on the ‘environs’ (supporters and groups of the Abertzale left who did not participate in armed struggle), particularly by the judiciary but also by the police, created tensions and rifts within the Abertzale left and ETA. On December 30, 2006, ETA broke the ceasefire, putting an end to the last round of negotiations (Ubasart-González, 2019). From this moment on, ETA’s attempts to abandon armed action could only be achieved unilaterally (Zabala and Saratxo, 2015).…”

“…The state of emergency not only failed to end armed violence, it instead prolonged it and made it more difficult to arrive at a negotiated conflict resolution process (Conversi, 2006). The last major attempt to make it possible, the negotiations during the Zapatero era, came to nothing partly due to the continued escalation of repression (Ubasart-González, 2019).…”

Conflicto territorial y cambios en la cultura política: Cataluña-España

“…Por primera vez en la historia de España, se consolida un sistema democrático estable y duradero, tan sólo empañado por la pervivencia de la violencia política protagonizada por ETA. Sin embargo, con el inicio del nuevo milenio, el conflicto vasco parecía tocar a su fin, lo que quedó certificado con el anuncio del cese definitivo de la actividad armada de ETA el 20 de octubre de 2011 (Ubasart-González, 2019).…”