ETA

:For other meanings of ETA, see Eta.

Tactics

See also List of ETA attacks.

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ETA's tactics include:

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• Assassination and murder, especially by car bombs or a gunshot to the nape of the neck. Before bombings, ETA members often make a telephone call so that people can be evacuated, although these calls have sometimes given incorrect information, leading to increased casualties.
• Anonymous threats, often delivered in the Basque Country by placards or graffiti, and which have forced many people into hiding; an example was the harassment of Juan María Atutxa, member of the Basque Nationalist Party, and one-time head of the department of justice for the Basque Country.
• The so-called "revolutionary tax", paid by many businesses in the Basque Country and in the rest of Spain and enforced by the threat of assassination. In 2002 the judge Baltasar Garzón seized the herriko tabernas (people's taverns) which were reportedly collecting these "revolutionary taxes".
• Kidnapping (often as a punishment for failing to pay the "revolutionary tax").

ETA operates mainly in Spain, particularly in the Basque Country, Navarre, and (to a lesser degree) Madrid, Barcelona, and the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast of Spain. ETA has generally focused on so-called "military targets" (in which definition it has included police and politicians), but in recent years it has also sometimes targeted civilians.

Related Topics:
Spain - Madrid - Barcelona - Mediterranean coast of Spain

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A police file, dating from 1996, indicated that ETA needs about 15 million pesetas (about 90,000 Euros) daily in order to finance its operations{{fact}}. Although ETA used robbery as a means of financing in its early days, it has since been accused both of arms trafficking and of benefiting economically from its political counterpart Batasuna. Kidnapping and extortion are other key methods that the organization has used to obtain finances. ETA have also occasionally burgled or robbed storehouses of explosives. They have often maintained large caches of explosives, often over the French side of the Basque border rather than within the Spanish jurisdiction.

Related Topics:
Euro - Arms trafficking - Batasuna - Kidnapping - Extortion

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ETA victims have included, among others:

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• Luis Carrero Blanco, president of the government under Franco (1973)
• Members (and relatives of members) of the army and the security forces of the Spanish state, including Guardia Civil, Policía Nacional, and police of the autonomous regions, such as the Ertzaintza (Basque police) or mossos d'esquadra (the police force of Catalonia).
• Parliamentarians, members of city councils, sympathizers and partisans of other parties, including the socialist PSOE (such as Fernando Buesa, killed February 22, 2000 in Vitoria and Ernest Lluch shot through the neck November 21, 2000 in Barcelona), the conservative Partido Popular (such as Miguel Ángel Blanco and Gregorio Ordóñez) or even conservative Basque nationalists such as (Navarrese fuerista Tomás Caballero, assassinated in 1998).
• Judges and lawyers
• Businessmen, such as Javier Ybarra.
• Functionaries of the prison and judicial systems.
• Philosophers and intellectuals.
• University professors, such as Francisco Tomás y Valiente, killed in 1996.
• Journalists, such as José Luis López de la Calle, killed in May 2000.
• Foreign tourists in Spain.