Word: terrorists
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...Spain turned toward democracy following Franco's death in 1975, the terrorists calculated that their acts would goad the military into a right-wing coup, thereby buttressing ETA'S claim that peaceful reform was impossible. The number of terrorist killings rose dramatically. And, indeed, on Feb. 23, rebellious members of the Spanish Guardia Civil took over the country's parliament and held it for 18 hours. The insurgents were backed by high-ranking army officers and had the support of shadowy right-wing financiers. The main demand of the rebels: more freedom to combat Basque terrorism...
...reforms have undercut a great deal of ETA's backing, particularly from the middle class, which is weary of the terrorist tactics. There is a grudging recognition, even among the most anti-Castilian of nonterrorist Basques, that conditions have improved decisively. Says Angel Amigo, a young writer and film maker who joined ETA in 1972, aided in a terrorist kidnaping, was captured, tortured and subsequently released: "There has been a change in the scale of values among the young since Franco's day. Under repression, all life turned on politics. War was heroism, but all that is over...
...growing number of Basque businessmen are taking the courageous step of refusing to pay ETA-imposed revolutionary "taxes"-extortion payments that have long been a source of millions of dollars in terrorist revenue. Typically, an industrialist would be "invited" by ETA to visit the adjoining Basque regions of France, where levies would be collected. In the past, businessmen who did not co operate were "kidnaped" or "kneecapped" (shot in the legs). Others fled the region. Recently, however, one industrialist refused to pay up and merely sent the extortion note to the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, which controls the regional parliament...
From time to time, frustrated Spaniards have wondered about a possible Soviet hand behind ETA. In May, Prime Minister Calvo-Sotelo spoke vaguely of the "international" dimensions of the terrorist problem. But he has not repeated that statement. The question asked more frequently by moderate politicians in Madrid is why ETA keeps trying to provoke a right-wing coup that would take back everything the Basques have gained since Franco's death. Answers a Basque nationalist in exile in France: "It would only demonstrate what they already believe, that Spain is basically fascist, that they were right all along...
...dirty war was eventually won: there have been no major terrorist incidents since late 1979. But not all Argentines who fell into the paramilitary vortex were terrorists by any means, and that fact has left ugly scars on the nation and its people...