ETA and its organization, as an activist network, have caused more than 10,000 violent actions between 1978 and 2000 according to a study published by Francisco J. Llera Ramo in the book “The blood of nations. National identities and political violence”, which includes different studies about the violence practised by different radical nationalist organizations.
The book has been coordinated by Antonio Robles Gea and has counted on the participation of Antonio González Alcantud, Enric Porqueres, Jean François Gossiaux, Juan José Solozabal, Jean Louis Briquet, Rogelio Alonso, Francisco J. Llera Ramo and the editor himself, Antonio Robles Gea, who have referred to “The mystic of patriotism in the French thought”. “Marriage and redefinitions of the Basque identity”. “Republican identity / ethnic identity: the Macedonian paradigm”. “Collective rights from the Spanish constitutional perspective”. “Nationalist protest and the criminalization of policy. The case of Corsica”. “Nationalism in Northern Ireland”. “The terrorist network: subculture of violence and nationalism in Euskadi”. And “Radical nationalism: millenarism and political violence”.
According to Francisco Llera Ramo, “terrorism, irrespective of its ideological or political matrix, generates a subculture of violence that provides a series of motivations and rhetoric, allows to structure a social network of cooperation and support and impacts on the moral of the social tissue, the political elites, the media y and the institutions by using fear.”
According to Francisco Llera, the 10,000 actions carried out by ETA such as bombs, sabotages, robberies, fires, destruction of street furniture and public transports, as well as all kind of aggressions and intimidations, are part of their terrorist strategy, which acquired a special intensity in 1995, as 45 per cent of these actions took place between this date and the signing of the Lizarra-Garazi Pact.
“In the lat years –according to the researcher– the terrorist network has managed to reinforce their strategy of kale borroka (street riots), a way of diffused terrorism, in substitution of their operative incapacity to kill after the police blows of the nineties. This way of sabotage terrorism, together with the violence against companies and the attacks against the Ertzantza (Basque police), has been the way for ETA to pressure the civil tissue of the governing nationalism and force them to sign the Lizarra-Garazi Pact”.
Professor Antonio Robles, responsible for the edition of the book, maintains that “unexpected terrorist attacks, regional war conflicts and nationalist tensions are mainly based on ideological causes of religious nature and deep religious beliefs”. In accordance with the professor and researcher of the Universidad de Granada, “the violent nature of Basque nationalism comes from its concordance with Christianity and its heresies, this is, as regards persecution and sacrifice as a way to salvation”.
Further information: Prof Antonio Robles Egea
Department of Political and Administration Science
Universidad de Granada
Phone number: 958 246323. E-mail. aroblese@goliat.ugr.es
