ETA: A history of separatist violence

An old man walks past graffiti depicting the logo of Basque separatist group ETA in Goizueta, Spain. ETA (an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which roughly translates to Basque Country and Freedom) is a formerly-armed nationalist and separatist organization in the Basque Country in northern Spain and southwestern France.

A worker removes graffiti reading 'Gora ETA' (Long live ETA) in support of the group in downtown Pamplona, in northern Spain. ETA, considered a terrorist organization by the EU, was founded in 1959. Initially, it concentrated on promoting traditional Basque culture but later it evolved into a paramilitary group, engaging in a violent campaign of bombing, assassinations and kidnappings.

Part of a 14-story building seen after a car bomb explosion in July 2009, in the Spanish city of Burgos. The bombing was blamed on ETA. The group engaged in a bloody campaign to carve out an independent Basque state from parts of northern Spain and southern France between 1968 and 2010. During that time, the group carried out roughly 4,000 terrorist attacks that left 829 people dead.

ETA's first revolutionary gesture was to fly the banned "ikurrina," the red and green Basque flag. In 1973, the group targeted Luis Carrero Blanco, long-time confidant of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The assassination changed the course of Spanish history as it led to the exiled king reclaiming the throne and a shift to a constitutional monarchy.

ETA’s first known victim was a secret police chief in San Sebastian in 1968 and its last a French policemen shot in 2010. The group announced ceasefires earlier in 1989, 1996, 1998, 2006 and 2010. In 2011, ETA announced a "definitive cessation of its armed activity." The group announced on April 7, 2017 that it had given up all its weapons and explosives and would be officially disarming.

In January 2017, thousands of Spanish people protested for ETA prisoners to be relocated to jails close to their places of origin. ETA sought to negotiate its dissolution in exchange for amnesty or improved prison conditions for roughly 350 of its members held in Spain and France.

Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the former Basque independence Batasuna party, as he left the Spain's Logrono prison in March 2016. In an interview this week in the Basque seaside city of San Sebastian, Otegi welcomed the disarmament move. The 58-year-old also insisted that independence for his Basque homeland remains very much in the cards - but via peaceful means this time.

French Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said, "this stage of neutralizing an arsenal of arms and explosives is a major step." Meanwhile, Spain demanded that ETA apologize for decades of violence and then disband definitively. In a statement, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the arms cache move signaled the "definitive defeat" of ETA.