Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Mar 23, 2006 - 01:32 PM CrimeAndSafety

ETA has announced a "permanent ceasefire," beginning on March 24, 2006. In a video communiqué members of the Basque separatist organization said that the intention of the ceasefire was to encourage a "democratic process" in the Basque Country, by means of “dialogue, negotiation and agreement." The text of the communiqué and a second, longer message have been published by the Basque newspaper Gara. Read on or visit the Basque Country.

The ceasefire is generally seen as an important achievement by the Spanish government, particularly José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the socialist president of the government. Moves towards a truce have been expected, and the conservative opposition party, the PP, has been trying to offset the socialist government's success by whipping up sentiments against hypothetical pardon for terrorists and still more hypothetical concessions to their demands. It is true, however, that ETA has specifically called for a positive reaction to the ceasefire from the French as well as the Spanish government, so deliberately underlining its cross-border nature.

ETA has had a dramatic, negative effect on both life in the Basque Country and Spanish politics for the last forty years. Though less bloody and far less undiscriminating in its murders than similar groups like the IRA, its protection-racket style impuesto revolucionario has driven businesses away and notably depressed the Basque economy, and its annual campaign against the Mediterranean tourist sector has been disruptive and, on occasion, lethal. But it was known that ETA has been hard hit by police successes on both side of the Pyrenees, lacks the popular support it once had, and is severely cash-strapped. This ceasefire is not the first, and is by no means the end of ETA, but it may well be the beginning of the end.