Daavon's Blog
ETA: Separatist Terrorism in SpainBackground & Analysis
In my first post I identified the issue of ETA in Spain, but I would like to elaborate more on that. The conflict began an unknown amount of years ago when the Basque people or vascos came to Spain from some unknown place. In recent years the conflict has increased in severity for the shear fact of separatist, nationalist (of the Basque Country) acts of terrorism being seen throughout Spain. These acts of terrorism have been committed by an organization that once was a “student resistence movement” in the 60′s “opposed to Franco’s repressive military dictatorship, under which the Basque people were not allowed to speak in their native tongue nor show any signs of their different culture according to BBC News. They also stated that over 820 people have died in the past 40 years. This group means serious business. They have called two ceasefires in the past decade only to break them soon after.
The group has proven to be a truly volatile one, but their “efforts” as I shall call them will never be ignored by the government. The Basque Region is actually the most autonomous or free autonomies or states in all of Spain. They are allowed to have their own ruler, have their own constitution, and many more things. They have attempted murder on many famous and important Spaniards, like the King, Juan Carlos II among others. There audacity will be surpassed only when their needs are met or another major force stops them. This is a problem whose routs are older and tensions greater; one must see the big picture. What does the group really want? If the Basque Region were separate of Spain, they would not have as many of the resources that are equally available to them being a part of main-land Spain. One must also realize that the members of ETA receive a great deal of money from the business and private sectors. It is an issue embedded deeply in the Spanish society that will only be solved when the government takes a firm stance, which would most likely spark a civil war, or an outside force takes a role in preventing them, but I can not yet call for a plan to action seeing as so much information from this topic is yet to be unearthed for this blog.
-D.Avon
3 Comments»
ameleo wrote @
Wow! I had no idea that the Basques were even discriminated against. You did a great job bringing this problem to the light. I hope that one day the Basques and the rest of the Spaniards can get along.
[...] October 24, 2009 in Uncategorized http://daavon.wordpress.com/background-analysis/#comment-5 [...]
I have been interested in the Basque region of spain for a few years and I have never read this much about the ETA in one place. I will look forward to learning more from your blog!