Over a year without murders or attacks, a drop in street violence and an end to the extortion of Basque businesses. Looking at those bald facts, ETA would seem to have come a long way since making its ceasefire announcement in September 2010 - an announcement that the organisation hoped would lead to a new peace process with the Spanish government. But ETA’s ambition of returning to the negotiating table currently looks as difficult to achieve as ever. The last year has seen some extraordinary developments in the Basque Country, yet the terrorist group appears to have been marginalised from the most momentous events. That ceasefire declaration itself was symptomatic of ETA’s … [Read more...] about In Basque Country, ETA’s silence is democracy’s gain
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ETA stumbles to ceasefire but can it convince?
ETA’s latest ceasefire announcement may have captured the headlines, but it did not surprise anyone who has been following Spanish politics in recent months. Pressure has been building on the group to offer a convincing sign that it is committed to peaceful politics ever since it declared in the vaguest of terms on September 5 that it had ceased “offensive armed actions”. Much of that pressure has come from ETA’s own political support, the izquierda abertzale. Arnaldo Otegi, the most visible figure within that collective, is one of many key players who have stressed the need for the terrorist group to end its campaign of violence. In addition, there has been a degree of coercion on an … [Read more...] about ETA stumbles to ceasefire but can it convince?
Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
When Nobel Peace Prize laureates F.W. de Klerk, Desmond Tutu and John Hume all back an initiative together with the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, it is bound to carry some weight. It is also likely to be a project with major international repercussions. But when South African human rights lawyer Brian Currin presented to the European Parliament a resolution backed by the above and another 17 figures from the world of politics and conflict mediation on March 29, the issue at hand was the relationship between the Basque Country, the small region in northern Spain, and Madrid. The statement sought to contribute to resolving what it called “the last remaining conflict in … [Read more...] about Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
How long can ETA ride on?
Few pieces of news can have more effectively conveyed the notion that ETA is on its knees than the arrest in mid-February of an alleged member of the violent separatist group while he was cycling through Guipúzcoa with a handgun and false papers in his backpack. Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba insisted that Ibai Beobide was on no innocent jaunt. “He wasn’t practicing sport, because nobody does sport with a gun and a pen-drive,” he said, adding that the detained man had “the worst intentions.” With Spanish and French security forces making a seemingly never-ending string of arrests of ETA militants and leaders over recent years, often in stolen vehicles, this seemed to be an … [Read more...] about How long can ETA ride on?