-
• Idealogy of Basque Nationalism and Christian Democracy
• Wanted restoration of self government and defend the Basque race, AUTONOMY
• Relatively peaceful group with peaceful demonstrations -
German bombers sent by Hitlers army destroy the Basque city of Guernica to assist Franco's Nationalist army take over the last of the Basque Republican ruled regions.
-
Spanish Civil War comes to an end as Francisco Francos Nationalist movement gains power.
-
Franco began his drive to consolidate Spain as a Monolithic nation state passing harsh laws against minorities, primarily Basques, aimed at wiping out their cultures and languages.
-
-
-Left wing nationalist students break away from the non-violent PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Political Party)) to form the ETA -Students believed that the PNV was failing to resist the rule of General Francisco Franco's right winged dictatorship and fight for an independent homeland.
-
After following the PNV and remaining peaceful for less than a decade the new ETA kills its first victim, police chief Meliton Manzanas in the Basque city of San Sebastian.
-
Franco's Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco killed when his car passes over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid.
-
Francisco Franco's dictatorship comes to an end as he passes away from illness
-
Spanish Constitution autonomy to regions of Spain.The plan conducted by the Basque president Juan José Ibarretxe to reform the status of the Basque Country in the Spanish state was rejected by the Spanish Courts, on the grounds that it amounted to an implicit reform of the Constitution.
-
ETA's bloodiest year, nearly 100 killed, despite Spain's recent return to democracy.
-
-The continued killings spark a new political group, GAL, to lash out at the ETA -GAL operated in the Basque country, mainly on the French side -GAL targeted ETA members and supporters
-
- Gesto por la Paz (known in English as Association for Peace in the Basque Country) was founded
-
-Assassination of Juan Carlos García Goena -There were no connections found between García and ETA but mercenaries arrested for the kill claim the order came from GAL
-
-the French government adopted a harsher attitude towards Basque refugees, denying political refugee status to new applicants, and facilitating extraditions requested by Spanish judges -ETA is weakend, believing that the existance of GAL was helping to preserve the image of an authoritarian state at war with the Basque people
-
-all Basque political parties except ETA-affiliated Herri Batasuna signed the pact with the intent of ending ETA's violence
-
-ETA announced a 60-day "ceasefire" -Negotiations known as the Mesa de Argel took place between the ETA representative Eugenio Etxebeste, and the then PSOE government of Spain but no successful conclusion was reached -During the "ceasefire" Spain and French governments started shipping ETA prisoners over seas or to far ends of either Spain and France as a way to desperse the members -ETA eventually resumed violent tactics
-
-ETA's three top leaders , "military" leader Francisco Mujika Garmendia, political leader José Luis Alvarez Santacristina and logistical leader José María Arregi Erostarbe, often referred to collectively as the "cúpula" of ETA or as the Artapalo collective, were arrested -These arrest led to changes in ETA's leadership and direction -ETA adopted even more radical positions by some of its youngest memebers
-
-The Democratic Alternative offered the cessation of all armed ETA activity if the Spanish-government would recognize the Basque people as having sovereignty over Basque territory, the right to self-determination and that it freed all ETA members in prison -Spain ultimately rejected the peace offer
-
The Popular Party defeats the Socialist Party (PSOE) in the general election, and Jose Marie Aznar becomes prime minister.
-
Eta announces its first indefinite ceasefire. A former interior minister, Jose Barrionuevo, is jailed for ten years for his part in the Gal operation
-
Former Socialist health minister Ernest Lluch shot dead in Barcelona. Nearly a million demonstrate.
-
Eta announces that visitors to Spain are "legitimate targets".
-
ETA calls for dialogue with Spain's incoming socialist government but pledges to maintain its armed campaign.
-
New socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero appeals to ETA to give up the fight after the arrest of its suspected leader, Mikel Albisu Iriarte, alias "Mikel Antza".
-
Spain's parliament rejects Basque premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe's plan for virtual Basque independence.
-
Parliament gives Spain's government permission to open peace talks with ETA if it lays down its arms
-
- ETA declares permanent ceasefire, which comes into force two days later.
-
Car bomb explodes at Madrid's airport killing two Ecuadorians and forcing Zapatero to break off peace process.
Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards march through major cities for peace, two weeks after the car bomb. -
Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the ETA-linked Batasuna party says that ETA will not demand major concessions from Spain to restart abandoned peace talks.
-- Zapatero dismisses the offer and says ETA and its supporters had to convince Spain they had given up violence. -
ETA says it is ready to make new commitments to the troubled peace process if Spain stops its "attacks" in the Basque region where police have been arresting ETA suspects.
-
ETA says it will end its 15-month-old ceasefire, blaming lack of progress in talks with the Spanish government.
-
ETA suspects shoot and kill a Spanish Guardia Civil policeman working on an undercover operation in France -- ETA's first victim since it abandoned a ceasefire in June.
-
Zapatero rules out any chance of peace talks with ETA and says its only option is unilateral surrender
-
ETA claims responsibility for 10 bombings and says it will press its campaign for Basque rights
-
ETA vows to keep fighting as it marks its 50th anniversary.
-
Spain's police have arrested 36 members of a banned youth group with alleged links to ETA, in the latest strike against the weakened Basque separatist movement
-
Radical separatists burned a bus and set fire to an underground station in Spain's Basque region overnight
