Married To The Mob Methods

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In announcing the start of peace talks with the Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero did so with his usual caveat: "The process will be long, hard and difficult." No one could argue with that. This is the third time since the restoration of democracy in post-Franco Spain that a government has tried to initiate talks with the terrorists. In the 1980s, the socialist government of Felipe González met with member of ETA in Algiers for abortive talks, and in 1999 the Popular Party government of José María Aznar sent envoys to Switzerland for talks with the top ETA leaders. Both attempts failed, because neither side could agree on a road map to peace.

There are key differences this time. In the past three years, ETA members have laid many bombs, extorted many businesses and been caught red-handed with highly incriminating evidence, including 500 kg of explosives in February 2004. But since 2003 they haven't killed anyone. And in March the group announced that it was calling off its armed struggle, which has killed more than 800 people over the last 38 [an error occurred while processing this directive] years, in hopes of taking a negotiated route to their goal of independence for the Basque country.

How did ETA fizzle? Their preferred method of terror was horribly trumped and devalued by the jihadist bombings of Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004. More than 200 arrests over the last year, both in Spain and across the border in France, have left the ETA command structure riddled with gaps. While there were cease-fires before, there is strong evidence that this time, ETA really does mean this one to be permanent.

But another difference is that the standing agreement among Spain's democratic parties to stand together in dealing with the terrorists has broken down. Zapatero cannot count on the support of the main opposition, conservative Popular Party, who alone in the parliament have declared their opposition to peace talks. PP leader Mariano Rajoy refused to even visit the parliament Friday as Zapatero made his announcement.

He preferred to watch on television in the party headquarters and afterwards accused Zapatero of entering into political negotiations with ETA before the terrorists have dissolved their organization. Rajoy predicted that the talks would involve Batasuna, ETA's banned political front, and would therefore be "illegal, immoral and inefficient".

While polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of Spaniards favor talks with ETA, the difficulties were graphically brought home in the trial last week of two ETA members, Francisco Javier García Gaztelu and his girlfriend Irantzu Gallastegi, for the 1997 killing of a PP municipal councilor that catalyzed popular outrage against the group's depredations.

In handing down the maximum sentence of 50 years apiece, the judge recalled the total lack of cooperation or respect from the pair as they sat behind the bulletproof glass walls of their courtroom cage. They refused to stand when asked to, turned their back to the judge, laughed and joked together, and waved at friends in the court. Their behavior was seen by many as further evidence of ETA's fundamental intransigence.

Irreversible

Nevertheless, Basque terrorist victim Gorka Landáburu believes that PP has made a bad mistake by continuing to oppose Zapatero's "dialogue" with the terrorists. "With all its rhetoric PP has been caught on the wrong foot, and now it can't go back," he says. Landáburu is convinced the process is serious in part because of the drop in extortion demands for businesses in the Basque country, who have long been forced to pay a so-called "revolutionary tax." "Extortion has practically disappeared 100%, and the kale barroka has gone the same way," he says, referring to ETA-organized street violence. "There may be some cases of attacks on a bank or a building by youthful thugs on a Saturday night, but this will not be ordered or supported by ETA."

Landáburu is confident that if there are any splinters, they will be minimal. "The process is irreversible, inexorable. We know that ETA realizes it is defeated and has lost its way," he says. Confirmation will come only after many hard months of negotiations over where ETA prisoners are housed, under what conditions its outlawed support party, Batasuna, can be re-legalized, and what further elements of autonomy can be assured to the Basque country.