ETA, an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, was an armed Basque nationalist and far-left separatist organization in the Basque Country between 1959 and 2018, with its goal being independence for the region. The group was founded in 1959 during the era of Francoist Spain, and later evolved from a pacifist group promoting traditional Basque culture to a violent paramilitary group. It engaged in a campaign of bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings throughout Spain and especially the Southern Basque Country against the regime, which was highly centralised and hostile to the expression of non-Castilian minority identities. ETA was the main group within the Basque National Liberation Movement and was the most important Basque participant in the Basque conflict.
The 2004 Madrid train bombings were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 200 people and injured around 2,500. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since 1988. The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spanish involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
On 30 December 2006, a van bomb exploded in the Terminal 4 parking area at the Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain, killing two and injuring 52. On 9 January 2007, the Basque nationalist and separatist organisation ETA claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack, one of the most powerful carried out by ETA, damaged the airport terminal and destroyed the entire parking structure. The bombing ended a nine-month ceasefire declared by the armed organisation and prompted the government to halt plans for negotiations with the organisation. Despite the attack, ETA claimed that the ceasefire was still in place and regretted the death of civilians. The organisation eventually announced the end of the ceasefire in June 2007.
José Ignacio de Juana Chaos, better known as Iñaki de Juana Chaos, is a member of the Basque separatist group ETA. He was convicted of killing 25 people in 1987 and was originally sentenced to 3,000 years in prison. As a result of complicated sentencing guidelines, he became eligible for release in late 2004 after only serving 17 years. However, the Spanish Government prevented his release by accusing him of making terrorist threats in two articles written from prison. In August 2006, he started a hunger strike protesting his continued imprisonment but it ended after sixty-three days. Another hunger strike occurred from November 2006 until March 2007, it ended after he was moved from a hospital in Madrid to one in his home region of Gipuzkoa. After he left the hospital he was to be placed under house arrest, but on 6 June 2007, after the end of ETA's ceasefire he was sent to Aranjuez prison. On 2 August 2008, de Juana Chaos was released from prison.
ETA's 2006 "permanent ceasefire" was the period spanning between 24 March and 30 December 2006 during which, following an ETA communiqué, the Spanish government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on one side, and the militant group on the other, engaged in talks as a means to agree on a formula to voluntarily disband the latter. It was terminated as a result of the 2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport bombing.
Francisco Javier López Peña alias Thierry was a member of Basque separatist group ETA. He headed its political leadership. On 20 May 2008, López Peña was arrested in Bordeaux, France, during a joint operation between French and Spanish police officials.
Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso is a member of the armed Basque nationalist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). He is best known as the head of the military/commando unit of the group since late 2008 until April 18, 2009, when he was arrested by French police. He is considered to be one of the most dangerous members of ETA, considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, with police describing him as "extremely violent".
The 2009 Palma Nova bombing occurred on 30 July 2009, when a limpet bomb went off outside a Civil Guard barracks in the town of Palma Nova, Majorca, Spain. The bomb was placed under a patrol car and two Civil Guard officers died as a result of the explosion. A second device was found under another Civil Guard vehicle at nearby barracks and safely exploded by police. On 9 August, the Basque nationalist and separatist organisation ETA claimed responsibility for the attack, while four other bombs exploded around restaurants and shopping centres in Palma, Majorca, causing no injuries.
A car bomb attack was carried out on 19 June 1987 at the Hipercor shopping centre in Barcelona, Spain, by the Basque separatist organisation ETA, which was classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and numerous nations. The bombing killed 21 people and injured 45, the deadliest attack in ETA's history. Controversy surrounded the timing of telephone warnings made before the attack and the authorities' response to them.
The Basque conflict, also known as the Spain–ETA conflict, was an armed and political conflict from 1959 to 2011 between Spain and the Basque National Liberation Movement, a group of social and political Basque organizations which sought independence from Spain and France. The movement was built around the separatist organization ETA, which had launched a campaign of attacks against Spanish administrations since 1959. ETA had been proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish, British, French and American authorities at different moments. The conflict took place mostly on Spanish soil, although to a smaller degree it was also present in France, which was primarily used as a safe haven by ETA members. It was the longest running violent conflict in modern Western Europe. It has been sometimes referred to as "Europe's longest war".
A van bomb went off on 19 May 2008 outside a boat club in the town of Getxo, Biscay in the Basque Country, Spain. The attack caused serious damage to the club, as well as nearby buildings and structures. No one was killed or injured after a warning call from the Basque separatist organisation ETA. On 31 May, the organisation claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Arkaitz Goikoetxea Basabe is a member of the Basque separatist organisation ETA. He began his violent activity at the age of 15 as a member of the street violence groups known as kale borroka. He was arrested several times between 2001 and 2002, and joined ETA in 2005.
A car bomb attack was carried out by the Basque separatist organisation ETA on 11 December 1987. A vehicle containing 250 kilograms (550 lb) of ammonal was parked beside the main Guardia Civil barracks in the city of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain; its explosion killed 11 people, including 5 children. Another 88 people were injured, the majority of them civilians.
A car bomb attack was carried out by the armed Basque separatist group ETA in Madrid, Spain, on 14 July 1986, which killed 12 people and injured another 32. The dead were all members of the Guardia Civil studying in the nearby traffic school on Príncipe de Vergara. The ETA members later convicted of participation in the attack included significant figures in the group, including Antonio Troitiño and Iñaki de Juana Chaos.
A car bomb attack was carried out by the armed Basque separatist group ETA in the Puente de Vallecas district of Madrid, Spain on 11 December 1995, which killed 6 people and injured a further 19. The target was a camouflaged army vehicle which was transporting nine civilian employees of the army towards the nearby motorway.
Car bomb attacks were carried out by the armed Basque separatist group ETA in Madrid, Spain on 21 June 1993, killing 7 people and injuring a further 29. The target was an army vehicle transporting members of the army. The dead included four lieutenant colonels, a commander, a sergeant and the civilian driver of the vehicle. This was ETA's deadliest attack of 1993.
María Soledad Iparraguirre Guenechea, known as "Marisol" until 1994 and "Anboto" thereafter, was a senior figure in the Basque separatist group ETA and the second woman, after Dolores González Cataráin, to be a member of ETA's executive. Arrested in October 2004, in December 2010 she was sentenced by French courts to 20 years in prison. On May 3, 2018, she, together with Josu Urrutikoetxea, voiced the final statement with which the terrorist organization announced its dissolution.
The Monbar Hotel attack was carried out by the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), a Spanish state-sponsored death squad, on 25 September 1985 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. The targets were four members of the Basque separatist terrorist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), whom the Spanish government believed to be senior figures in the organization, itself proscribed as a terrorist group in Spain and France. All four people were killed, with a fifth person, apparently unconnected to ETA, injured in the shooting. This represented the deadliest attack carried out by the GAL. Although two of the participants were apprehended shortly after the shooting, controversy surrounded the possible involvement of senior figures in the Spanish police.
Women in ETA in Francoist Spain were few in numbers. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) grew out of a Basque nationalist movement with roots that pre-dated the Second Spanish Republic. When Franco seized power, the new regime cracked down on Basque nationalism, imprisoned and killed many activists and made traditional women's activism difficult to continue. Basque nationalists began to stockpile weaponry following the end of World War II. ETA was created in 1952 by students in Bilbao, creating a fissure in the Basque nationalist community by the mid-1950s. Their attitude towards women was patriarchal and informed by their conservative Roman Catholicism. There would be few women in the movement in this period.
