Eta Análisis

Mario E. Isaza
10thB
11/09/2012
ETA: Is it terrorism?

Euskadi Ta Akatasuna, most known as ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) was an armed Basque separatist movement that operated in European countries like France but its most important activities took place in Spain. (Goiz, 2002) ETA, conformed in 1959 was considered itself as a “Liberation army” whose goal consisted in gainingindependence from the Greater Basque Country. (Goiz, 2002) According to different countries such as France, Spain and The United States, ETA was considered as a terrorist group however, before giving a verdict, its pertinent to analyze this movement and its characteristics to determine if it can be considered as a terrorist organization based on the parameters that Walter Laqueur says, are characteristicfrom a terrorist movement. In first place, Laqueur considers that a basic component that every terrorist organization, needs to be considered as such, is the use of violence to achieve its means, and ETA is not the exception. According to statistics, this movement has caused the death of 829 people, mostly constituted by civilians and security forces, but also employees from governmental andpublic institutions. (Nuñez, 2010) Laqueur, also establishes that a terrorist institution must be in disagreement or against something, the members of the group consider is somehow oppressing them and in most of the cases these groups are fighting a government or an economy. ETA, was at its time a separatist group, that looked to gain independence from Spain, which clearly shows the inconformity thisorganization had. Even though, separatist groups that seek for freedom or are said to be liberation armies, are often classified as guerrilla movements and it isn’t a clear difference between these two types of organizations, now that it depends a lot in the point of view that is given about the situation. According to Laqueur, there are some other aspects that represent an organization, as aterrorist group. It is essential for a terrorist movement to have some kind of funding or economic sustainability in order to finance its operations. ETA, that had around 200 members and 400 collaborators between 2010 and 2011 financed their activities mainly by arms trafficking and also by benefiting by its political counterpart in the Basque conflict, Batsuana. (El imparcial.es,2008). So, it can besaid that according to what Laqueur plants about terrorist organizations, This group in particular, can be considered as a terrorist organization.

To comprehend ETA as a terrorist group its essential to analyze the context in which this organization emerged. This group was conformed in 1958 at Spain, and it’s a time that has a lot of relevance with the creation of this movement. At this time,Spain was going through the period of Franco´s dictatorship, setting up the perfect scenario for different revolutionary movements to emerge. As Laqueur had said before, Terrorist groups often appear when a certain group of people is feeling oppressed, in most cases by government itself and ETA wasn’t an exception; ETA, Began like any other revolutionary movement, It started as a student groupcalled Ekin that published a magazine against the government at that time. When ETA was officially formed in 1959 and the students that had found this movement that centered their ideologies against “The Basque Nationalist Party” and at this moment this group began to commit criminal actions against the government, but at that time the term “terrorism” wasn’t implemented with frequency. (DailyTelegraph, 2011) However the inconformity felt by these students was not the only influence they had to transform into a terrorist group almost immediately, since the burst of the Spanish Civil War, many other guerrillas had emerged and were still active during this era, and it was easy for people to feel inspired by revolutionaries this but specially younger generations felt more eager to participate....