A Wave of Basque Terror

Serving the right

They train in the mountains of Spam's Basque region with weapons bought from the proceeds of bank robberies and extortion. They are mostly young, middle class, Marxist-Leninist in ideology. They carry out their bloody missions skillfully--eight political killings so far this year 63 last year--if sometimes reluctantly Says the mother of one: "My son did not enjoy killing, but he thought that otherwise nothing could be accomplished." Their acronym, ETA (for Euzkadi ta Azkatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Liberty), has become synonymous with terror in Spain. Their goal: an independent state composed of the four predominantly Basque provinces in Spam and the three in France.

ETA killers are responsible for most, but not all, of Spain's current wave of terrorism. Last week, for example, Supreme Court Justice Miguel Cruz Cuenca was killed by gunfire on a busy downtown Madrid street. His murder, according to police was the work not of ETA but of another group of Marxist terrorists, GRAPO (for Oct 1 Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups), which the authorities had thought was in decline. But ETA was responsible for the assassination two weeks ago of General Constantino Ortin Gil, 63, Madrid's military governor, and the shooting of a policeman who died last week. Then, at week's end, bombs of ETA manufacture killed two more policemen.

The relatively small size of the ETA organization is misleading. It can probably call on no more than 300 men for terrorist activity at any time; another 300 provide intelligence, cover and shelter. But as Carlos Garaicoechea, president of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party says, "You cannot minimize the strength of ETA." Its resources include an estimated $3.5 million stolen from banks and factory payroll offices last year, as well as uncalculated amounts of revolutionary taxes" exacted from frightened Basque businessmen.

Part of ETA'S present strategy of violence may be directed toward the country's March 1 general elections. ETA would like to provoke the largely conservative military leadership into seizing power and cracking down on the Basques, thereby increasing ETA's support in its home provinces and bolstering its cause. The terrorists are probably not powerful enough to set off a widespread revolt on their own, but they can cause considerable unrest, particularly in army and among right-wing groups. At the funeral of General Ortin two weeks ago, a throng of restive officers grabbed the casket and carried it through downtown Madrid. The spectacle greatly embarrassed their commander in chief, King Juan Carlos, 41, who later told a group of generals, "An army that has lost discipline cannot be saved."

At the height of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's repression of the region, sympathy for ETA ran high among Spain's 2 5 million Basques. But continuing terrorism has eroded that feeling. At present, says Nationalist Party President Garaicoechea: "ETA is not serving the interests of the Basques; instead it is helping the right." Garaicoechea's party wants taxes, social security, education, communications and law-and-order to be the responsibilities of the Basque people within something akin to a federal system. Under the new constitution, Basques are likely to get more of that than they have had in decades of repression--but not all of it. That could keep ETA destructively busy for some time to come.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.