The Basque Region and the ETA: Overview Their language, known as Euskera, has no clear links with any other known  Basques have lived in Europe since before Roman times. The protection and promotion of Euskera has always been at the heart of the Basque struggle  About 30% of the 2.5 million Basque people speak it  Radio and television stations

Fishermen: whales and cod. Columbus's crew was largely Basque.

Franco Regime

Franco’s Regime Strong opponents of Franco's Nationalist troops during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s  During Franco's 40-year rule region is punished. Franco on the Basque region : "traitor provinces.” Franco bans the speaking of Euskera in public.

Franco’s Regime Little economic investment in the region. From 1959 ETA fights war for independence for the Basque country- seven regions in northern Spain and southwestern France

ETA first emerged as a student resistance movement ETA kills more than 800 people  Their targets were mostly police, judges and politicians. Terrorist activities funded through kidnappings, robberies, and extortion

ETA has made an explicit commitment to the “action-reaction theory”  insurgents carry out attacks to provoke arbitrary and indiscriminate government reprisals against the population, calculating that this will increase resentment and win insurrectionary forces more support

Post-1975 Transition to democracy in Spain brought Basque home rule  own parliament and police force, education policy, collects own taxes. ETA's legal political wing Herri Batasuna gained 18 percent of the vote in regional elections in 1998  youth vote key 2003 Batasuna banned under Spanish law for supporting terrorism

2006 Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government began negotiations with ETA after the organization declared a "permanent" cease-fire  Truce ends when ETA set off a bomb in Madrid's Barajas Airport killing two. Zapatero's government takes harder line  no new peace process until ETA turns over its weapons or announced its dissolution January 2011 ETA announced that it was declaring a "permanent and general cease-fire.” From the declaration: a solution to the Basque conflict will come "though a democratic process that takes the will of the Basque people as its maximum point of reference, and dialogue and negotiation as its tools."

ETA Today Outside observers will confirm that ETA longer purchases weapons or engages in the extortion Brian Currin, the international mediator who helped to achieve piece in Northern Ireland and South Africa: "This is what we've been waiting for…The fact that they have agreed to verification by the international community has huge implications."