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.
Bernardo Atxaga, pseudonym of Joseba Irazu Garmendia, is a Spanish Basque writer and self-translator.
GAL were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government during the Basque conflict to fight against ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 to 1987 under Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)-led governments.
José Miguel Beñaran Ordeñana was a Basque militant and a key figure in the political evolution of the Basque separatist organization Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA). Often known by his nom de guerreArgala (Slim), he took part in the so called Operation Ogre, which consisted in the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco, Spain's Prime Minister, in 1973. Five years later, he was in turn assassinated by a car bomb in Anglet, French Basque Country, by a group directed by far right members inside the Spanish Navy. This group reportedly received assistance from people such as former OAS member Jean Pierre Cherid, former Triple A Argentine member José María Boccardo and Italian neofascist Mario Ricci, member of Avanguardia Nazionale.
Kirmen Uribe is a Basque language writer. He won the National Prize for Literature in Spain in 2009 for his first novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao, which has been translated into over 15 languages. His poetry collection Meanwhile Take My Hand, translated into English by Elizabeth Macklin, was a finalist for the 2008 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. His works have been published in The New Yorker, Open City and Little Star.
Lluís Maria Xirinacs i Damians was a Spanish politician, writer, catholic cleric and advocate for the independence of Catalonia.
Joxe Azurmendi Otaegi is a Basque writer, philosopher, essayist and poet. He has published numerous articles and books on ethics, politics, the philosophy of language, technique, Basque literature and philosophy in general.
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.
The murder of Lasa and Zabala was one of the first acts carried out by the GAL, a state sponsored death squad, Basques José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala were kidnapped, tortured and executed in 1983.
María Pilar Zabala Artano, commonly known as Pili Zabala is an odontologist, professor and Spanish politician, as well as Elkarrekin Podemos candidate for Lehendakari in the 2016 Basque parliamentary election.
Arantxa Iturbe Maiz, is a Basque journalist, announcer, and writer in the Basque language.
Mariasun Landa Etxebeste is a Spanish writer. Most of her literary production has been developed in the Basque language in the field of children's and young people's literature. She is one of the writers in Basque language more translated to other languages.
Joanes Urkixo Beitia is a Basque language writer, and film and television writer.
Miren Nekane Balluerka Lasa is a Basque psychologist and university professor.
Enrique Rodríguez Galindo was a Spanish brigadier general of the Civil Guard, who was sentenced to 71 years in prison in 2000 for the kidnapping and murder of the alleged ETA members José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala in the so-called Antiterrorist Liberation Groups case.
Mikel Zabalza Garate, also known as Mikel Zabaltza Garate, was a Basque bus driver, and employee of the San Sebastian Municipal Trolley Service. In 1985, he appeared dead in the river Bidasoa. After 35 years of inaction by the Spanish tribunals, it was concluded that Zabalza died as result of torture inflicted on him by Civil Guard operatives at the headquarters of Intxaurrondo in San Sebastián.
Nahikari Rodríguez Martínez is a Spanish film, theater and television actress.
Katixa Agirre Miguelez is a Spanish writer of Basque origin.
Uxue Alberdi Estibaritz is a Basque writer and bertsolari.
Imanol Larzabal Goñi, known as Imanol, was a Basque Spanish singer and composer, and a champion of Basque language and culture. He went into exile from the Spanish Basque Country twice: first during the Franco dictatorship, and again in the last years of his life due to conflict with Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a violent Basque separatist organization.
