Spain: ETA developments - timeline
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Timeline
- June 2007. The militant Basque separatist organisation ETA formally ends its 15-month ceasefire, blaming the government for the decision, claiming that it had responded to the group's ceasefire with “arrests, torture and persecution”.
- May 2007. The supreme court prevents candidates of the Patriotic Socialist Union (ASB) from running in regional elections, ruling that the party is linked to Batasuna, the outlawed political wing of ETA.
- March 2007. Hundreds of thousands of protesters take to the streets of Madrid (the capital) demanding the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero for what they see as the government's appeasement of ETA.
- February 2007. The supreme court provokes outrage when it reduces the prison sentence of José Ignacio de Juana Chaos, the former head of the “ Madrid commando” of ETA, who had been on hunger strike for 98 days and was thought to be close to death.
- December 2006. Prime Minister José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero calls off peace talks with ETA after it ended its nine-month ceasefire by detonating an 800-kg bomb at Barajas airport in Madrid.
- May 2006. Six suspected ETA members are extradited from Mexico to Spain.
- March 2006. ETA declares a permanent ceasefire and renounces violence.
- February 2006. The government and main political parties dismiss a call from ETA for negotiation and dialogue to achieve a permanent ceasefire, insisting that the organisation must first lay down its arms.
- December 2005. ETA detonates five bombs next to motorways surrounding Madrid thereby causing traffic chaos.
- November 2005. The trial opens in a court in Madrid of 56 people charged with belonging to or aiding ETA. June 2005. An estimated 300,000 demonstrators march through north-east Madrid in opposition to plans by Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to open talks with ETA.
- March 2004. The worst peacetime attack on civilians in Spain's modern history takes place in Madrid when 10 bombs explode on commuter trains during the morning rush hour.
- July 2003. ETA claims responsibility for two hotel bombings, signalling the start of an annual summer intensification of activity targeting Spain's tourist industry.
- May 2003. US President George W. Bush includes Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, on the US list of designated terrorist organisations.
- March 2003. The supreme court outlaws the Basque separatist party Batasuna, arguing that it is the political wing of ETA.
- February 2003. The Basque newspaper Egunkaria is closed down following allegations that it is linked to ETA.
- August 2002. A specially convened session of the legislature votes to petition the supreme court to outlaw Herri Batasuna (HB), the former political arm of ETA.
- November 2001. An ETA car bomb explodes in a busy residential area of Madrid, injuring as many as
- August 2001. ETA continues its campaign of violence, including a car bomb in the tourist resort of Salou, which injures 13 people.
- January 2001. Two suspected members of ETA's Barcelona commando are arrested as they allegedly prepared a bomb attack.
- October 2000. In the worst attack by ETA in Madrid for nearly five years, the president of the military section of the supreme court, Gen. José Francisco Querol, is killed in a car bomb attack, along with his driver and his police bodyguard.
- September 2000. Co-ordinated Spanish and French efforts lead to the arrest in Spain and France of 37 people, all of whom are alleged to have links to ETA.
- May 2000. ETA is blamed for the murder of a Basque journalist and peace activist, who is killed outside his home in the Basque town of Andoain.
- January 2000. Massive nationwide demonstrations take place to protest against renewed violence by ETA.
- November 1999. ETA announces that it will end a 14-month truce and could renew its campaign of violence within a week.
- June 1999. Prime Minister José María Aznar announces that the government and ETA have held their first direct talks since the guerrillas declared a ceasefire in September 1998.
- November 1998. Prime Minister Aznar announces that he has authorised officials to hold contacts with individuals close to ETA in an attempt to secure a lasting end to political violence.
- September 1998. ETA announces an “indefinite and total” unilateral truce.
- June 1998. The autonomous Basque police, the Ertzaintza, carries out an operation designed to destroy the restructured Vizcaya commando of ETA; ETA is blamed for the assassination of a councillor in Rentería, Manuel Zamarreño, who was killed by a car bomb.
- January 1998. ETA launches a series of attacks against local councillors, killing three people.
- August 1997. The government steps up its offensive against ETA.
- July 1997. Spain is subject to a huge display of public grief and anger in response to the murder of a hostage by ETA separatists.
- April 1997. ETA is held responsible for a number of bomb attacks and attacks against individuals.
- February 1997. Moderate Basque parties of the right and left indicate a willingness to support a dialogue with ETA following an upsurge in violence which is widely blamed on the separatist organisation.
- July 1996. ETA renews its bombing campaign, designed to hit the tourist industry and to demonstrate the group's ability to strike at several areas in Spain.
- June 1996. ETA announces a one-week ceasefire; the government announces that it is prepared for a “minimal dialogue” with the political wing of the militant Basque separatist movement if certain conditions are met by ETA.
- August 1995. ETA member Juan José Rego Vidal tells a judge, hearing charges against him, that the organization had planned to assassinate King Juan Carlos on the island of Majorca.
- April 1995. Prime Minister Felipe González Márquez announces a major police offensive to defeat ETA; ETA says it will stop its campaign of killings in return for a referendum on Basque independence.
- August 1994. In what is reported as a bid to reclaim control over its 600 imprisoned members, the ETA leadership orders them to go on hunger strike in September.
- August 1993. ETA's kidnapping in July of Julio Iglesias Zamora, the head of a family owned engineering company, gives impetus to a rapidly expanding campaign among Basques against ETA and against terrorism.
- February 1993. French and Spanish police arrest leading ETA members.
- July 1992. The government apparently rejects an offer of a two-month truce made by ETA officials.
- December 1991. There is speculation that the government is contemplating re-opening a dialogue with ETA after the interior ministry releases transcripts of two ETA prisoners’ conversations in which they condemn the use of violence.
- September 1990. ETA suffers a serious setback when its second-in-command, José Javier Zabaleta Elosegui, is arrested by French police in Biarritz.
- April 1989. A series of bomb attacks brings ETA’s ceasefire to an end.
- January 1989. ETA agrees to extend for two months an unconditional and unilateral 15-day truce.
- April 1981. It is reported that 126 people were killed in political violence in Spain in 1980.
- October 1979. In a regional referendum held in the Basque region, statutes granting regional autonomy are approved by an overwhelming majority of voters.
- March 1979. Herri Batasuna, the newly founded coalition of political parties affiliated to ETA, contests legislative elections for the first time.
- December 1978. Under a new constitution Spain becomes a constitutional monarchy, political parties are granted wide-ranging freedoms, and the death penalty is abolished; the constitution is rejected by the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).
- June 1977. In Spain’s first legislative elections since 1936, the centre-left coalition Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) wins more seats than any other party.
- October 1976. ETA accepts responsibility for the murder of Juan Maria Araluce Villar, a member of the Council of the Realm and president of the provincial council of Guipúzcoa, who is shot dead in the city of San Sebastian.
- March-May 1976. ETA members are involved in a series of bomb attacks, kidnappings and murders.
- November 1975. King Juan Carlos I pardons several political prisoners.
- November 1975. General Francisco Franco dies, aged 82; Prince Juan Carlos I is inaugurated as the King and head of state.
- August-September 1975. 11 people, including several ETA members, are sentenced to death by military courts for their involvement in the murder of police officers and civil guards.
- April 1975. The government declares a state of emergency for three months in the Basque provinces of Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya, following the murder of police officers by ETA members.
- December 1973. Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco is killed in a car bomb attack in Madrid; ETA members accept responsibility for the assassination.
- July 1973. A military tribunal in the city of Santander sentences eight suspected ETA members to prison terms of between 15-30 years after convicting them of terrorism offences.
- December 1972. ETA claims responsibility for five bomb attacks carried out in the province of Guipuzcoa.
- January 1973. The trial on kidnapping charges of 15 Basque nationalists opens before a military court in the city of Bilbao.
- December 1971. Suspected ETA members launch a series of bomb attacks and bank robberies in the Basque provinces.
- January 1971. Around 100 suspected ETA members are arrested in the Basque provinces of Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa.
- January 1971. The international community responds to the handing down of death sentences against six ETA members convicted of murder with widespread criticism.
- December 1970. The trial of 16 people accused of being members of ETA, some of who are charged with murder and some of who are charged with terrorism, opens in the northern city of Burgos.
- May 1962. Widespread industrial action spreads to the Basque provinces, despite anti-strike legislation and the proclamation by the government of a limited state of emergency in the three worst-affected Basque provinces of Asturias, Vizcaya, and Guipuzcoa.
- March 1954. The trial of 17 Basque nationalists on charges of organising strikes in April 1951 opens in Vitoria; three Basque nationalists are acquitted but 14 others are convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to 14 years and five months.
- June 1946. The UN Security Council describes General Franco’s regime as “fascist” and threatens to terminate diplomatic relations with Spain.
- August 1939. Following the end of the civil war, General Franco forms a new government which he leads as the president.
- March 1938. Nationalists issue a decree prohibiting the use of the Basque language.
- October 1936. José Antonio Aguirre is chosen as the first president-elect of the Basque region.
- July 1936. The Spanish civil war breaks out.
- October 1934. The government resigns amid a dispute over the question of autonomy for the Basque region.
- August 1933. Councillors from the provinces of Alava, Biscay, and Guipuzoa, approve a draft of the Basque statute, including proposals to grant autonomy to the Basque region.
