Julen Madariaga , a main founder of ETA , along with 15 other members, was arrested in coordinated raids on June 20. French and Spanish antiterrorism police working in conjunction as part of a 1998 probe gathered intelligence on the group’s illegal financing, a long-standing extortion racket?collecting “revolutionary taxes” or “subscription fees”?that targeted Basque businesses and funded ETA’s armed campaign. French raids, which netted five men and two women, took place in Bayonne, Biarritz, Saint Pee sur Nivelle, and three other cities in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region, while Spanish raids netted five more people. Authorities confiscated some US$800,000, including property and bank accounts. However, ETA has been thought to receive upward of US$1.88 million in revolutionary taxes per year, so this recovery, while laudable, is fairly marginal. According to La Gaceta, ETA has raked in over US$153 million since 1978 for the acquisition of weaponry and to support members. The raid and the subsequent arrests will serve a severe blow to the group’s ability to raise funds. Additional raids are anticipated in both countries.
The raids, allegedly, will not impact the upcoming peace discussions between ETA and the government in Madrid. ETA, perhaps recognizing its dire situation, declared a ‘permanent ceasefire’ in March , so Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been willing to engage in peace talks, presupposing ETA’s renunciation of violence and crime. Zapatero is in the best position in history to bring about an end to ETA’s terrorism, due to global revulsion to terrorism, a weakened state of the group’s leadership and support base (WAR Report, WAR Report, and WAR Report), and the group’s trepid interest in peace talks . However, it remains unclear why he is willing to accommodate for peace talks rather than eradicate it when he, in fact, has the upper hand.
That the Popular Party (PP), one of ETA’s main targets in years gone by and the sitting government during the March 11 attack , withdrew support for peace talks in June over the inclusion of Batasuna (ETA’s political wing) may give ETA the extra push toward those talks, in a bit of unwitting reverse psychology. Large demonstrations against ETA and peace talks resulted from the withdrawal. Both the raid and the PP’s withdrawal may prove to be a hiccup in the peace process, as some ETA/Batasuna members were angered by the arrests and without opposition support a deal may be more challenging to come by. For example, the PP was outraged last week with the nonchalant attitude of an ETA prisoner for his involvement in the 1997 shooting of a PP delegate . But, it is unlikely to delay significantly any talks. Further, Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said: the raid “does nothing to alter the government’s responsibility to seize a historic opportunity to put a final stop to ETA’s violence and its acts of intimidation such as racketeering.” Some 60 percent of polled population support Zapatero’s effort to engage in talks, according to Instituto Opina.
Striking peace with ETA harkens to Northern Ireland’s integration of the IRA into legitimate politics . The declaration of a ‘permanent ceasefire’ may have bided ETA’s time and allowed it to continue surviving, right when the governments of France and Spain were at their strongest in erasing ETA. The IRA did the same, and their lesson should have been learned. The basic agreement that will be met involves ETA disarming and disavowing violence and ceasing to call for independence while the government moves ETA prisoners closer to the Basqueland and permits Batasuna into legitimate politics. Learning from the IRA case study, while the umbrella organization may disavow violence, splinter groups formed and continued launching attacks against the UK and unionists. Similarly, ETA continued after the cease-fire to levy taxes, ie raise funds, and threaten violence upon those who refused to pay. Even in 2006, well after peace was allegedly reached, IRA sympathizers were caught smuggling cigarettes and vodka, a key means of fundraising (WAR Report, WAR Report, WAR Report, and see this WAR Report). Gerry Adams has, as bird of a feather do, sided with ETA and may be advising them on negotiation tactics, to include not to decommission until ETA demands in the peace process are met (as the IRA did: WAR Report).
US policymakers are watching closely how Zapatero decides to proceed vis-?-vis ETA. Should he cow to ETA’s demands, the US confidence in a key ally in the Global War on Terrorism may diminish, as the country would illustrate its inability or unwillingness to quash a now nominal domestic terrorism threat. This would, in turn, lessen US confidence in Spain’s willingness and ability to fight alongside its allies against global terrorism, which may or may not target Spain specifically in the future but will require allied support in the form of geo-strategic backing, troops, and/or materiel. But, if Zapatero stands strong to ETA’s demands, the US will gain confidence in Spain’s democratic institutions, its decision-makers, and its dedication to the Long War.
ETA was founded in 1959 as a separatist group, wishing to form an independent Basqueland in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. Of those arrested, Madariaga co-founded ETA; Angel Iturbe Abasolo, the brother of Domingo Iturbe who led ETA in the 1980s, headed the racket; Emilio Castillo Gonz?lez de Mend?vil; and Jos? Ignacio Elos?a Urbieta, whose brother Joseba Imanol was also netted. Madariaga, though, left ETA after a short prison term in the 1990s and had, instead, joined a non-violent, pro-independence group, Aralar. The group has been responsible for upward of 800 deaths?some of whom refused to pay revolutionary taxes?since its inception some 40 years ago. Since Spain and France began cooperating in anti-ETA efforts two years ago, the group has suffered dire set backs.
