Originally posted by GmanJoe
Neve rquite understood why the Basque are so violent. Are they persecuted people by the Spanish government? In the US, we rarely hear about the "why it led to that"....just the explosions.
ETAs goals:
The group aims to secure an independent Marxist state comprising the Basque-inhabited areas of Spain and France (Euskal Herria). This region includes the Spanish provinces of Vizcaya (Biscay), Guipuzcoa, Alava and Navarre (often referred to collectively as the Basque Country) and the French areas of Lower Navarre, Labourd (Lapurdi) and Soule(Zuberoa), all located in southwestern France in the département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Because of its allegiance to Marxist ideas, ETA has in the past been sponsored by communist regimes such as Cuba, as well as by Libya and Lebanon, and some of its members have found political asylum in Mexico and Venezuela. It has had links with other left-wing terrorist movements in Europe and elsewhere, such as the IRA.
Tactics
The ETA group operates mainly in Spain and was founded in 1959, positioning itself as a resistance movement to General Franco\'s often violent suppression of the Basques.
It often uses terrorist tactics, attacking both civilian and military targets. It employs bombings and assassinations, mainly aimed against politicians opposed to Basque nationalism, journalists, intellectuals, businessmen and the Guardia Civil and other Spanish and Basque security forces. It has killed an estimated 800 people since the 1960s. Its activities have mostly been confined to Spain, particularly the Basque Country, Madrid, Barcelona and the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Although it has not carried out attacks in France, ETA units have nonetheless been active there.
ETA finances its operations through kidnapping, extortion, robbery, arms traffic and "taxes" . It is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and all EU countries, as of December 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETA
