The Basque National Liberation Movement and the Cease of ETA’S Armed Activity
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The Basque National Liberation Movement and the Cease of ETA’s Armed Activity. Leonor González Valencia Master Thesis in Peace and Conflict Studies Department of Political Sciences University of Oslo Spring 2012 II The Basque National Liberation Movement and the Cease of ETA’s Armed Activity. Leonor González Valencia III © Leonor Gonzalez Valencia 2012 The Basque National Liberation Movement and the Cease of ETA’s Armed Activity. Leonor Gonzalez Valencia http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo IV Abstract This thesis aims to shed light on the Basque National Liberation Movement strategy and why its armed front –ETA- decided to announce the definitive cessation th of its armed activity on the 20 October 2011. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of interviews and document data I conclude that ETA responded rationally to a contradiction of its room for manoeuvre. Three main factors made it difficult for the Basque radical nationalist to uphold their ideological paradigm. (1) Loss of legitimacy in the Basque population. (2) Increased coordination by Spanish and French authorities. (3) Effective counter-insurgency methods by the Spanish security forces Keywords: ETA, MNLV, Basque terrorism, room for manoeuvre. Bilduma Tesi honen helburua da, hain zuzen, M.N.L.V.ren estrategia aurkeztea, bere alde armatuak E.T.A.k behin betiko erabakitzen duelako aditzera ematea behin betiko amaitze 2011ko urriaren 20an. Ikerlan hau oinarritzen da, erdi-egitaraututako elkar hizketen bidez eta bigarren mailako datuen analisietan. Aldagarriak adierazten dute izan diren oztopoak mantentzeko M.N.L.V.ren paradigmak non zegoen eratua leku murriztea zela eta bere leku eragiketarako. V Abbreviations BAC Basque Autonomous Community CAA Autonomous Anticapitalist Commandos ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ETA (m) Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (military) ETA (pm) Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (politico-military) EPPK Collective of Basque Political Prisoners ICG International Contact Group HB Herri Batasuna KAS Koordinadora Abertzale Socialist MNLV Basque National Liberation Movement PNV Basque Nationalist Party PP Popular Party PSE-EE Socialist Basque Party PSOE Socialist Spanish Party VI Foreword I would like to thank, Kristian Helland-Hansen, my supervisor at the University of Oslo, thank you for your support, dedication, great talent and knowledge. A special gratitude to my informants, who helped me immensely. Thank you all for your time, valuable information and collaboration. Many thanks to the Mancunian group Doreen, Blanca, Rob and Inigo for your help, comments and positive energy. And last but not least, to my comrades in the long days of writing, Line, Tone, Salomé and especially to Johannes. Leonor González Valencia, Oslo. VII Table of Content Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... V Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... VI Foreword ................................................................................................................................. VII Table of Content .................................................................................................................... VIII 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Definitions ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 The author’s motivation and outlook. ........................................................................... 5 1.4 Structure of the paper .................................................................................................... 7 2 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................. 8 2.1 Territorial setting. .......................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Basque nationalism as a political movement. ............................................................... 9 2.3 The Civil War (1936-39) and the Franco dictatorship (1939-75) ............................... 11 2.4 Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. .............................................................................................. 12 2.4.1 Internal Splits ....................................................................................................... 13 2.4.2 The Basque National Liberation Movement ........................................................ 14 2.4.3 The Strategy of ETA ............................................................................................ 14 2.5 The Spanish Constitution and the Gernika Statute of Autonomy. .............................. 16 2.6 Divisions represented by political parties ................................................................... 17 2.7 From the Brussels Declaration to the end of the armed activity by ETA ................... 18 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................... 20 3.1 Realist and Humanist schools ...................................................................................... 20 3.2 Realism ........................................................................................................................ 21 3.3 Humanism ................................................................................................................... 23 3.4 Hybrid theories ............................................................................................................ 25 3.4.1 Constructivism ..................................................................................................... 25 3.4.2 Relative deprivation theories ................................................................................ 27 3.5 Previous findings. ........................................................................................................ 28 3.6 Conceptualization of “room of manoeuvre” ............................................................... 29 4 METHOD ........................................................................................................................... 31 4.1 Primary sources: Interviews. ....................................................................................... 33 VIII 4.1.1 Unit selection ........................................................................................................ 34 4.1.2 The interviews ...................................................................................................... 34 4.1.3 The standardised interview. .................................................................................. 35 4.1.4 Control variables .................................................................................................. 43 4.1.5 The open-ended interviews .................................................................................. 46 4.1.6 Dependent variable (y) ......................................................................................... 47 4.1.7 Independent variables (x) ..................................................................................... 48 4.2 Secondary sources. ...................................................................................................... 49 4.2.1 Statistical data. ...................................................................................................... 49 4.2.2 Documents ............................................................................................................ 51 5 FINDINGS ......................................................................................................................... 52 5.1 The standardised interview .......................................................................................... 52 5.2 Open-ended interviews. ............................................................................................... 58 5.2.1 Dependent variable (y): ETA’s strategy ............................................................... 58 5.2.2 Independent variable: self identification. ............................................................. 65 5.3 Secondary Sources. ..................................................................................................... 69 5.3.1 Statistical data. ...................................................................................................... 69 5.3.2 Documents. ........................................................................................................... 74 5.4 Models ......................................................................................................................... 75 6 ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................ 79 6.1 Realist approach .......................................................................................................... 79 6.1.1 Summary of realist explanation. ........................................................................... 84 6.1.2 Critics of the realist explanation. .......................................................................... 85 6.2 Humanist approach .....................................................................................................