Behind the Basque Terrorism

...In line with this view, last year eta sought to prevent approval of the new Constitution by going on a terrorist rampage aimed at scaring people away from the voting booths and provoking a military coup...

...But following the nation's first free elections in four decades, in 1977, eta declared: "There is no democracy in Spain...

...The plan provides that the three Basque provinces be given virtual autonomy, including control of local taxation, education, police, public works, and industrial development...

...The more successful the new political leadership of Spain has been in finding a compromise between secession and the continuation of central control, the more active the terrorists become...

...Most telling of all, though, was the offer Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin made early this year to Spain's Foreign Minister Marcelino Oreja Aquirre...

...In 1973 eta assassinated Franco's Prime Minister and intended successor, Carrero Blanco-An action that nearly triggered a Right-wing repression which would have rolled back the liberalization already under way...

...There are two possible explanations...

...This may be partly explained by the dynamics of extremism that seems to grip most groups using murder as a political weapon...

...So it is expected that the separatist terrorists will step up their attacks on the military and political leadership in that province during the coming months...

...President Suarez, for instance, was on his way to meet with the genuinely democratic political groups in Central America when the murder in San Sebastian created such a furor in military ranks that he had to postpone his trip...

...We have the same military dictatorship, only with a smile...

...As the modern Spanish state was formed from diverse regions and duchys over the last five centuries, the Basques and Catalans were incorporated in it against their will...

...Yet the opposite has been true...

...Moderation, compromise and the recent referendum have essentially resolved the issue of bringing together the Basque people and their country...

...For as long as terrorism renders the liberalizing process open to reversal by the ultra-Right, Spain is partially neutralized as an alternative to the politics of violence...

...Beneath the unity of many contemporary European countries lies a record of conquest and subsequent cultural domination that has been a source of continuing friction...

...Conversely, if Carrillo's participation contributed to the strengthening of a parliamentary government unable to cope with the terrorists, this would be a valuable precedent for France and Italy...

...the context of the postwar prosperity, a growing number of the absorbed peoples began asserting the value of their heritage and demanding greater autonomy for their communities...

...Basques were in what is now Spain before the Celtic invasions, before the Romans and before the Moslem conquest...

...Then, in 1967, Marxism was declared eta's official ideology and its tactics became increasingly violent...

...Their tongue predates the Indo-European languages spoken in the Western world...

...it most closely resembles, in fact, the Etruscan language prior to the Roman conquest...

...Some observers had hoped that the transition to genuine democracy led by King Juan Carlos, with the cooperation of the military and most political parties, would prompt eta to halt its campaign of murder...

...Founded in 1951 to promote Basque language and culture, it evolved by 1963 into an organization that supported a cadre of liberatos-paid, professional armed militants-And provided them with false documents, money and safe houses...

...From the Basque perspective, the Guardia Civil and the Army were occupation forces sent by Madrid to keep them in line...

...In addition, the plan calls for a future referendum in Navarre, a province with half a million Basques that is to decide whether it wants to be Basque, Navarese or something else...

...The problem of separatist terrorism, however, has not been resolved, and will probably not be-because an entirely different historical imperative is at its core...

...This murder-Along with that of two other military officers the same week-was part of a campaign to block the October 25 home rule referendum in the three Basque provinces, Giiipuzcoa, Alava and Vizcaya...

...They then jumped into a waiting car and disappeared...

...General Gonzales-Valles y Sanchez, the military governor of a Basque province, strolled with his wife along the promenade of San Sebastian, a beautiful Spanish resort...

...A Rightist coup would isolate both Spain and Portugal, and encourage the French and Italian Left to mobilize against the "return of facism...

...In addition, evidence exists that Cuba and the PLO (among others who are themselves propped up by the USSR) -have funded, trained and armed several of the Spanish terrorist groups...

...Especially in Const antin k C...

...And they gave overwhelming approval to the compromise that had been negotiated by the government of President Adolfo Suarez and the moderate Basque Nationalist Party...

...First, from Moscow's perspective, either a Rightist regime or a Spanish coalition including the Communists would help the Communist parties in France and Italy...

...Meanwhile, on the subterranean level, the Kremlin is supporting the terrorists?who could bring about the military takeover Carrillo would rather avoid until his party is stronger...

...Thus, in Spain, the Soviets are once again demonstrating their classic twotrack diplomacy...

...Suddenly, the couple was approached from behind by two men who drew pistols and shot the husband point-blank in the head...

...the elections were nothing more than a fraud to legitimate as democratic a regime that is fundamentally a military dictatorship...

...Above ground, Moscow is cordial to the new democratic government even as its spies are deported after attempting to find out more about the Polaris base at Rota and the military facilities on Gibraltar...

...Yet despite the terror and intimidation, more than 1 million of Spain's 2.5 million Basques dared exercise their right to vote...

...Mtsi.i s, a former research associate ot the Hudson Institute ami the Rand Corporation, tie quenily writer on international affairs...

...But many in Spain, including members of the government, the Democratic Socialist Party and the military, see the various radical Left terrorist groups as regional branches of a Soviet effort to bring about a military coup or give the Kremlin bargaining leverage with the current government...

...The Kremlin, Kosygin said, would help "turn off the terrorists if Spain would pledge not to join nato...

...But the leader of eta's civilian ally, the People's Unity Party, has already declared: "We don't accept the definition of the Basque country by vote or balloting...

...Both groups fought the monarchy, two republics and two dictatorships of this century...

...The eta terrorists, it is noted, have received much of their military and covert training in Algeria and Libya...

...Examples are the troubles with the Scotch, Irish and Welsh in Great Britain, the Flemish in Belgium, and the Basques and Catalans in Spain...

...Two unrelated issues have become tangled at the root of the Basque region's turmoil: 1) the destiny of one of Europe's oldest cultures, and 2) Soviet-encouraged covert action designed to weaken Western Europe and prevent Spain from consolidating its new democratic institutions...

...Second, by igniting terrorism the Soviets may be hoping to undermine the Spanish example of peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, an example that could have strong impact in Latin America...

...Similarly, Spanish Communist Party head Santiago Carrillo proclaims his intention to work within the rules of parliamentary competition...

...The terrorist eta (Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna, Basque Nation and Liberty) had just added another name to the list of hundreds it has killed since the end of the Franco regime in 1975...

...President Suarez' success in evolving a viable autonomy arrangement also gave rise to the hope that there would be a reduction in the fervor of the various terrorist organizations ostensibly fighting for the independence of the Basque provinces, Catalan, Galicia, the Canary Islands, and Andalucia...

...The long-repressed language is to be reintroduced into Spanish public life and into the nation's school system...

...After the War a few political groups sprang up to press Basque claims, eta was among the most prominent of these...

...With a 4,000-year-long history, the Basques are one of Europe's oldest cultural entities...

...The demands have been strongest, of course, where the language of the group is not that of the country as a whole...