TERRORIST GROUP PROFILES DUDLEY KNOX LIBRARY Naval Postgraduate School

Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)

Other Names

Description
Founded in 1959 with the aim of establishing an independent homeland based on Marxist principles in the northern Spanish Provinces of Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa, Alava, and Navarra and the southwestern French Provinces of Labourd, Basse-Navarra, and Soule.

Activities
Primarily bombings and assassinations of Spanish Government officials, especially security and military forces, politicians, and judicial figures. In response to French operations against the group, ETA also has targeted French interests. ETA finances its activities through kidnappings, robberies, and extortion. The group has killed more than 800 persons since it began lethal attacks in the early 1960s. ETA was responsible for murdering six persons in 1998 but did not carry out any known killings in 1999. In late November, ETA broke the "unilateral and indefinite" cease-fire it had held since 16 September 1998.

Strength
Unknown; may have hundreds of members, plus supporters.

Location/Area of Operation
Operates primarily in the Basque autonomous regions of northern Spain and southwestern France, but also has bombed Spanish and French interests elsewhere.

External Aid
Has received training at various times in the past in Libya, Lebanon, and Nicaragua. Some ETA members allegedly have received sanctuary in Cuba. Also appears to have ties to the Irish Republican Army through the two groups' legal political wings.