ETA, Basque separatist organization in Spain that used terrorism in its campaign for an independent Basque state.
ETA grew out of the Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco; PNV), which was founded in 1894 and which managed to survive, though illegally, under the fascist regime of Francisco Franco by maintaining its headquarters in exile in Paris and keeping quietly out of sight in Spain. In 1959 some youthful members, angered at the party’s persistent rejection of armed struggle, broke away and founded ETA. During the next few years the new organization developed groupings associated increasingly with Marxist positions and set revolutionary socialism as their goal. In 1966, at ETA’s fifth conference, the organization divided ideologically into two wings—the “nationalists,” or ETA-V, who adhered to the traditional goal of Basque autonomy, and the “ideologists,” or ETA-VI, who favoured a Marxist-Leninist brand of Basque independence and engaged in sabotage and, from 1968, assassination. The Franco regime’s attempts to crush ETA in the Basque provinces were severe, involving arbitrary arrest, beatings, and torture. By 1969–70 the principal leaders had been rounded up by the police and subjected to military trials in the city of Burgos.
Factionalism plagued ETA in the 1970s and ’80s, with various internal groups alternating between violence and political action. After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain’s democratic governments moved to establish regional autonomy for the Basque provinces and to offer pardons to ETA members who renounced terrorism. In the following decade, however, the number of ETA killings by bombing and assassination multiplied tenfold compared to the occurrences under Franco’s ironhanded repression. Most of those assassinated were high-ranking Spanish military officers, judges, and government officials.
ETA came to rely financially on robberies, kidnappings, and “revolutionary taxes” extorted from businessmen. It formed political front organizations—such as Herri Batasuna, which generally was considered the political wing of ETA—to contest elections in the post-Franco period while continuing to engage in assassinations and car bombings to achieve its goals. Successive ETA leaders were captured by the Spanish government or killed in factional disputes, but the organization remained active. In 1983 two ETA members were kidnapped and murdered by Spanish security forces as part of what many considered a “dirty war” against the group. In 2000 two government officials were convicted for their role in the murders and sentenced to more than 70 years in prison.
In September 1998 ETA called a cease-fire, but it lasted only 14 months. Continued violence by ETA at the beginning of the 21st century once again led the Spanish government to attempt to suppress the organization, and in March 2006 ETA announced a permanent cease-fire. In December 2006, however, ETA members carried out a bombing at Madrid’s international airport that killed two people, and in June 2007 it officially lifted its cease-fire. Although increased policing efforts and the arrests of several high-ranking ETA leaders in subsequent years weakened the organization, violent attacks continued. Bombings occurred in the city of Burgos and on the island of Majorca in July 2009, less than a month before the 50th anniversary of ETA’s founding. In 2010, however, the organization announced that it would not carry out “armed actions.” The cease-fire was dismissed by the Spanish government, which called for ETA to renounce violence and to disarm. In October 2011 a conference was held to discuss the conflict, and the attendees, who included former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, urged ETA to renounce violence and called on France and Spain to open talks. Shortly thereafter ETA declared the definite cessation of its armed activities, though it vowed to continue to seek an independent Basque state. In May 2018 ETA announced that it was formally disbanding. The move marked the end of a half-century of violence that had claimed the lives of more than 800 people.