Madrid Bombings March 11, 2004

1
Madrid BombingsMarch 11, 2004
2
Madrid Bombing OverviewMarch 11, 2004

• Between 0730 and 0745 local time, 10 explosive
  devices were detonated in 4 trains along the C-2
  commuter train line, which runs from Guadalajara
  to the Madrid Atocha, Station.
• The total number of IEDs was 13 (backpacks).
  Ten detonated on the trains, and the Spanish
  National Police EOD team detonated the remaining
  three. The bombs were placed between 0700 and
  0715, and were set to explode 35 minutes after
  being placed on the trains. Estimates are that
  up to 700 people were on each of the trains, with
  an average of 100 people in each of the passenger
  cars.
• The first explosives, a total of three,
  detonated at 0739 on a commuter train that had
  already arrived at the Madrid Atocha Train
  station, with 34 deaths. The second explosion
  occurred at 0742, on a commuter train that was
  running 2 minutes behind schedule. This train
  was actually moving into the main station, and
  was approximately 500 meters away from the first.
  The train came to a halt near the C/ Tellez, as
  four bombs exploded causing 64 deaths. The
  third train, with two bombs detonating at 0742,
  was approximately 1000 meters from train 2, at
  the Pozo del Tio Raimundo station. This was the
  bloodiest, with at least 67 deaths. Finally, the
  fourth train was several hundred meters away at
  the Sta. Eugenia station, where one bomb exploded
  at 0742, causing 16 deaths.

3
Madrid Bombing OverviewMarch 11, 2004

• Three further explosive devices hidden in
  backpacks were destroyed in police-controlled
  explosions. Open sources report that the IEDs had
  been planted to hit emergency services as they
  arrived on the scene.
• 198 Casualties and 1,247 wounded. No reports yet
  of American deaths. But he says the embassy is
  aware of three American citizens who were
  injured. Currently, 14 foreigners are among the
  dead - three Peruvians, two Hondurans, two Poles,
  and a person each from France, Chile, Cuba,
  Ecuador, Colombia, Morocco and Guinea-Bissau.

4
(No Transcript)
5
Atocha Station Attacks
Debris and the bodies of victims lie next to a
destroyed train car after a bomb exploded in the
Atocha railway station in Madrid Thursday, March
11, 2004, killing at least 62 people.
Specialists disable high voltage electronic
cables on the rail track near the wreckage of a
bombed train near Madrid's Atocha station, March
11, 2004.
6
El Pozo del Tio Raimundo Train Station Attacks

• Two bombs exploded on a Ceranías train in el
  Pozo del Tio Raimundo, a working class district
  in the outskirts of Madrid.

7
Santa Eugenia Train Station Attacks

• One bomb exploded on a Ceranías train at the
  Santa Eugenia train Station.

8
Spanish Rail Guide
Madrid has two principle long distance railway
stations, Atocha and Chamartín. Atocha is used
for most destinations to the south and west of
the country, the high speed AVE trains which
travel to Cordoba and Sevilla and also serves as
the hub of the Cercanías local train network.
Atocha is the largest and most used train
station.
9
Spaniards Mourn the Attacks
People show their emotions as they fill a central
square in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday March 11,
2004, during a demonstration to protest the bomb
attacks that rocked three different railway
stations in Madrid killing at least 173 rush-hour
commuters and injuring hundreds more in what
officials called the deadliest attack ever by the
Basque separatist group ETA.
10
Immediate Ramifications in Spain Friday, March 12

• Increased police presence in transportation hubs,
  tourist attractions, and government and
  diplomatic locations
• Decrease in commuter rail traffic
• Delays caused by added security measures and/or
  bomb threats or hoaxes
• Disruption of businesses services due to closures

11
Who is to Blame? ETA?

• Forensic evidence The three devices that failed
  to explode suggest that the explosives and
  technology match those previously used by ETA.
• Possible splinter group Younger, less
  experienced ETA supporters may have carried out
  the bombings independently of the group's
  weakened mainstream, which has been decimated by
  police operations over recent months.
  Comparisons might be drawn to the Real IRA.
• Increasing activity by a younger wing of ETA
  Officers from the Guardia Civil (armed police
  force) on 29 February arrested two suspected ETA
  members in Cañaveras (Cuenca, about 94 miles
  (150km) from Madrid) carrying 1,115lb (506kg) of
  chloratite explosive and 66lb (30kg) of titadyne
  (dynamite) in a truck. Both were young and
  inexperienced.
• Precedent for a coordinated ETA attack on trains
  24-26 December 2003, police intercepted and
  deactivated two bombs that had been placed by two
  young Basque terrorists on a train from Irun to
  Madrid. The bomb was primed and set to detonate
  as the train reached Madrid's Chamartín station.
  The two men on the same day placed a device under
  a railway track in Zaragoza (Aragon), which
  exploded and caused minor damage to a train. A
  further bomb was planted at a station in Samper
  de Calanda, on the line linking Zaragoza to
  Barcelona (Catalonia).

12
Who is to Blame? al-Qaeda?

• Al-Qaeda Hallmark Simultaneous, coordinated
  bombings to cause mass casualties is a hallmark
  of al-Qaeda.
• Al-Qaeda Plots Revealed January 2003, Spanish
  Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar announced that
  Spanish police had thwarted a major terrorist
  attack after arresting 16 suspected al-Qaeda
  militants in northeastern Catalonia.
• Al-Qaeda has issued numerous threats to attack
  Spain and Spanish targets. Last May a group
  affiliated with al-Qaeda killed 41 people in a
  series of suicide bombings in Casablanca,
  Morocco. One of the targets was a Spanish
  cultural centre. More than 40 al-Qaeda suspects
  have been arrested in Spain since the attacks,
  although many have been released for lack of
  evidence.
• September 11th planning At least some of the
  planning for the September 11, 2001 attacks took
  place in Spain. Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of
  the 19 hijackers in the September 11 attacks,
  made two trips to Spain - one just two months
  before the attacks - to make final plans with
  al-Qaeda leaders.
• Spanish Support of U.S. Spain has been a vocal
  US ally in the war on terrorism
• ETA Denies Responsibility Party leader Arnaldo
  Otegi said he "refused to believe" that ETA was
  responsible for the apparently coordinated bombs
  and blamed the Arab Resistance.

13
Cooperation Among ETA and Radical Islamic
Extremists?

• Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is not
  ruling out any possibilities
• Yusuf Galan, a Spanish national who was indicted
  last year on charges of involvement with
  al-Qaeda, was a former ETA member who converted
  to Islam.

14
Supplemental Information

• Statement by Colin Powell, Slide 16
• Warden Message U.S. Embassy Madrid, Slide 17
• Deadliest European Attacks, Slide 18 19
• Patterns of Global Terrorism, ETA Description,
  Slide 20
• Q A about ETA from the Guardian News, Slides 21
  24
• ETA Chronology of Key Events 2004 1937, Slides
  25 - 34
• U.K. Foreign Commonwealth Office Travel Advice,
  Slide 35

15
Statement by Secretary Colin L. Powell   Bombing
in Madrid   The United States vehemently condemns
the outrageous and appalling terrorist attacks
that took place in Madrid today.  I offer deepest
condolences to the families of the victims and to
the people of Spain.  In my telephone call with
Foreign Minister Palacio this morning, I extended
our sympathies and complete support to the
Spanish government.  The United States stands
resolutely with Spain in the fight against
terrorism in all its forms and against the threat
that Spain faces from the evil of ETA terrorism. 
No political pretext can justify this
premeditated murder of the innocent.  We will
assist the Spanish government in any way we can
to find those responsible for these heinous acts
and bring them to certain justice.
16
U.S. Embassy MadridWarden Message

• On March 11, 2004, the U.S. Embassy in Madrid,
  Spain released the following Warden Message This
  Warden Message is to alert Americans that the
  media and police are reporting multiple
  explosions between 730 a.m. and 800 am, today,
  Thursday, March 11, 2004, at the Atocha rail
  terminal in central Madrid and two different
  Cercanías commuter rail stations, El Pozo and
  Santa Eugenia, serving east and southeastern
  Madrid. All the stations are on the number 2
  Cercanías line, primarily a commuter line.
• We have no reports yet of any Americans killed or
  injured. Initial media reports quoting police
  reports are that there are a number of dead and
  hundreds of injured. The Embassy is in contact
  with the Spanish authorities and is attempting to
  determine whether any Americans were involved.
  Also as of yet there has been no claim of
  responsibility or determination of cause of the
  explosion.
• We request that all Americans in Spain and
  especially the Madrid area contact their families
  to assure them of their well-being.
• The Department of State continues to monitor
  security conditions overseas, and, as always,
  will promptly disseminate information affecting
  the safety of Americans abroad through its
  consular information program. These documents are
  available on the Department's Internet website at
  www.travel.state.gov. The Department of State
  encourages all American citizens residing abroad
  to register their presence and obtain up-to-date
  information on security conditions at the nearest
  American Embassy or Consulate.
• The American Embassy in Madrid is located at
  Serrano, 75 telephone (34) (91) 587-2303 the
  American Consulate General in Barcelona is
  located at Paseo Reina Elisenda 23-25 telephone
  (34) (93) 280-2227 and fax (34) (93) 205-5206.
  Our Embassy website address is www.embusa.es.
• Please share this information with Americans and
  other interested parties in your area. Americans
  traveling and residing abroad should monitor
  closely the Department's Internet web site at
  http//travel.state.gov, particularly the
  Department's Worldwide Caution-Public
  Announcement of January 9, 2004.

17
Deadliest European AttacksTimeline 1974-2004
18
Deadliest European AttacksTimeline 1974-2004
19
Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) a.k.a.
Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna

• Description
• Founded in 1959 with the aim of establishing an
  independent homeland based on Marxist principles
  in the northern Spanish Provinces of Vizcaya,
  Guipuzcoa, Alava, and Navarra, and the
  southwestern French Departments of Labourd,
  Basse-Navarra, and Soule. Recent Spanish
  counterterrorism initiatives are hampering the
  group?s operational capabilities. Spanish police
  arrested 123 ETA members and accomplices in 2002
  French authorities arrested dozens more. In
  August, a Spanish judge placed a provisional ban
  on ETA?s political wing, Batasuna.
• Activities
• Primarily involved in bombings and
  assassinations of Spanish Government officials,
  security and military forces, politicians, and
  judicial figures in December 2002, however, ETA
  reiterated its intention to target Spanish
  tourist areas. In 2002, ETA killed five persons,
  including a child, a notable decrease from 2001?s
  death toll of 15, and wounded approximately 90
  persons. The group has killed more than 800
  persons and injured hundreds of others since it
  began lethal attacks in the early 1960s. ETA
  finances its activities through kidnappings,
  robberies, and extortion.
• Location/Area of Operation
• Operates primarily in the Basque autonomous
  regions of northern Spain and southwestern
  France, but also has bombed Spanish and French
  interests elsewhere.

20
The Guardian News Q A About ETA

• Was it ETA?
• If it was, it marks a dramatic change of
  methods. In recent years ETA has murdered local
  politicians and policemen and waged a car-bombing
  campaign against the tourist towns of the Costa
  Blanca, but it has never killed so
  indiscriminately, nor on such a huge scale. It
  was also believed to be weakened after the
  arrests of many of its most important members and
  split over its future direction. The Madrid
  commuter train bombs would mark a new brutality -
  or the emergence of a dangerous splinter group. A
  senior member of Batasuna, the banned party
  alleged to be ETA's political wing, has said that
  the style of the attacks - simultaneous, without
  prior warning and against soft, civilian targets
  - suggested the work of the "Arab resistance".
  But, for the moment at least, ETA is being
  blamed. Police intercepted and arrested two
  suspected ETA members at the end of last month as
  they brought an 500kg bomb to Madrid, prompting
  fears that the group would attempt to strike
  during the current general election campaign.
  Spain goes to the polls on Sunday, though all
  political parties have now suspended campaigning.

21
The Guardian News Q A About ETA (2)

• What is ETA's cause?
• It wants to establish an independent socialist
  Basque state straddling northern Spain and the
  southern end of France's Atlantic coast. The
  Basques consider their culture distinct from
  those of their neighbors and speak a language
  unlike any other in Europe. The Basque language
  (called Euskara) is believed to predate the
  arrival of the Indo-European languages to the
  continent, of which French, Spanish, German,
  Icelandic, Welsh, Serbo-Croat and almost all
  others are the modern descendants. The Basque
  region, home to large fishing ports, heavy
  industry and wealthy banks, has historically been
  one of the richest in Spain. Euskadi Ta
  Askatasuma (Basque Homeland and Freedom) was
  established in 1959 under the fascist Franco
  dictatorship, when the Basques' language was
  banned, their culture suppressed and
  intellectuals imprisoned and tortured for their
  political and cultural beliefs. ETA's most
  spectacular success was the assassination of
  Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973. He was
  Franco's most likely successor and his death may
  have hastened the end of Spanish fascism when
  Franco died two years later. In the post-Franco
  democratic settlement an autonomous region was
  set up in three out of the four provinces
  separatists consider Basque (Alava, Vizcaya and
  Guipuzcoa, but not Navarra), with its own
  parliament, police force, control over education
  and tax-raising powers. But that was not enough
  for ETA.

22
The Guardian News Q A About ETA (3)

• What do they do?
• ETA is best known for car bombs and sniping. Its
  victims have included politicians, journalists,
  businessmen, soldiers, judges, policemen and
  academics. It also targets tourists, announcing
  in 2001 that visitors to Spain were "legitimate
  targets" in an attempt to destroy an industry
  that accounts for 5.5 of the country's economy.
  The group also engages in kidnapping and
  extortion and has threatened foreign-owned
  businesses in Spain.
• How does the Spanish government deal with ETA?
• It lists it as a terrorist group (as do the EU
  and US, which have frozen its assets) and refuses
  to talk to ETA until its leaders renounce
  violence. Recent Spanish governments have taken
  a consistently hard line against the group. The
  immediate post-Franco administration (composed
  largely of former Francoists) continued with many
  of the old methods until Felipe Gonzalez's
  socialists superseded them. Though Gonzalez has
  denied under oath that he authorized it, the
  anti-terrorist group Gal was set up in the early
  years of his administration to fight a dirty war
  against ETA. Gal carried out assassinations of
  known ETA members (and several who were not),
  kidnappings, bombings and torture. In total, Gal
  agents, many of who were mercenaries, killed 27
  people in the 1980s. With the election of the
  centre right Partido Popular in 1996, the new
  prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, set out on a
  mission to destroy ETA that has included
  introducing the anti-terror laws used to ban
  Batasuna.

23
The Guardian News Q A About ETA (4)

• Why was Batasuna banned?
• It is the only political party in Spain that
  refuses to condemn ETA's deadly attacks. In its
  34-year campaign for an independent Basque state,
  ETA has claimed responsibility for the deaths of
  more than 800 people. A 23-point government case
  against the party also alleged that many Batasuna
  members were also members of ETA.
• Does ETA have links elsewhere?
• It operates largely out of France (though France
  is extraditing an increasing number of suspected
  ETA members for trial in Spain). Its members have
  also received training in the past in Libya,
  Lebanon, and Nicaragua. There is a widespread
  view among American analysts that the group is
  part of a web of Marxist militant organizations
  that includes the Colombian FARC guerrillas.
  Similarities between ETA operations and those of
  the Provisional IRA suggest that the two groups
  have swapped information, techniques and -
  according to some reports - arms and explosives.
  There are also links between Batasuna and Sinn
  Fein. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, has
  visited the area many times to meet the leaders
  of Batasuna.

24
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• 10 March 2004 The National High Court has
  sentenced Asier Ormazabal to 50 years'
  imprisonment for taking part in the attack
  committed by ETA in 1995 on the premises of the
  DNI identity card offices in Bilbao in Basque
  Country, in which one National Police officer
  died and another was seriously injured.
• 29 February 2004 - 2 ETA suspects were arrested
  driving towards Madrid in a van with more than
  500 kilograms of explosives. Events may be linked
  to the Spanish general elections on 14 March.
• 18 February 2004 ETA's announcement that it is
  suspending its attacks in Catalonia has put on a
  state of "maximum alert" the antiterrorist
  services, which are convinced that the truce in
  Catalonia "will surely be confirmed" with "an
  attack, or at least an attempted attack"
  elsewhere in Spain before the elections on 14
  March.
• 11 February 2004 Juan Trecet, a former ETA
  member sentenced at the beginning of the 1980s
  for attempted murder, attacking a member of the
  security forces, causing serious damage and other
  offences, was sentenced yesterday to eight years'
  imprisonment for having bought electronic
  components for the terrorist group in March 2000,
  with which circuits were built that it then used
  in explosive devices.
• 3 February 2004 The main foreign tour operators
  that include Spain as a holiday destination
  yesterday expressed their "absolute calm" over
  the threats they have received from ETA. They
  were reacting to the statements by Interior
  Minister Angel Acebes on Tuesday 3 February
  2004 reporting the new extortion campaign the
  terrorist group has begun against the tourism
  sector, similar to the one it conducted in
  January and February last year.

25
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• 24 December 2003 - Two suspected members of ETA
  arrested in the Guipuzcoa province in Basque
  Country town of Hernani in a car filled with
  explosives. It was suspected that the explosives
  were going to be used to carry out an attack in
  Madrid.
• 9 December 2003 Police recapture suspected ETA
  logistics chief Ibon Fernandez Iradi in the
  French town of Mont-de-Marsan.
• 6 December 2003 - Molotov cocktail thrown at the
  home of a socialist councilor in Azpeitia
  (Guipuzcoa Province, Basque Country) causing
  slight damage.
• 20 November 2003 Spanish police arrest 12
  suspected ETA leaders in a series of raids. One
  of the suspects, Eneko Aguirresarobe, is believed
  to be a participant in five attacks in May, June
  and July," an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
  The attacks, some of which were thwarted by
  police, included a car bomb outside the offices
  of power giant Iberdrola, a bomb in a restaurant
  and a car bomb in Santander airport.
• 18 October 2003 An army barracks in the
  village of Aizoain, near Pamplona, in Navarre
  (part Basque-speaking region of northern Spain)
  hit by a grenade. The device did not explode.
• 12 October 2003 - 12 HGVs were destroyed in the
  early hours of the morning in an Irun frontier
  lorry park when two bombs exploded. No one was
  injured. The incident was associated with ETA's
  on-going "revolutionary tax" (extortion) payment
  campaign aimed at local business interests.
• 15 August 2003 - Police Detonate Suitcase-Bomb
  in Northern Spain. This is first time the
  terrorist band ETA has planted a bomb in the La
  Bureba area of Burgos Province, which is 40 km
  north of the capital and 50 km away from the
  Basque Country.

26
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• 13 July 2003 Following a telephoned warning,
  the authorities deactivated a bomb, which had
  been placed in a hotel in Pamplona. The bomb, as
  with that in a hotel in Bilbao on 23 June 2003,
  was thought to be part of ETAs campaign of
  extortion against hotel owners.
• 30 May 2003 A car bomb explosion has killed two
  policemen and injured at least two other people
  in a town in northern Spain. The explosion
  occurred around 1225 (1025 GMT) in a square in
  the town of Sanguesa in Navarra province, the
  capital of which is Pamplona.
• May 2003 The United States declares Batasuna a
  terrorist group. The European Union follows suit
  a month later.
• March 2003 Spain's Supreme Court bans Batasuna
  permanently in response to a government request.
  It is the first time since Franco died in 1975
  that a political party has been banned in Spain.

Car Bomb in Sanguesa Source Associated Press
27
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• February 2003 The Spanish Government shuts down
  Basque newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria on the
  grounds that it is linked to ETA - but a new
  Basque newspaper, Egunero, hits the stands the
  next day, under the headline "Shut but not
  silenced".
• December 2002 Suspected ETA logistics chief Ibon
  Fernandez Iradi escapes from police custody in
  southern France only three days after being
  captured near the Spanish border.
• September 2002 French police arrest a man and
  woman suspected of being top leaders of ETA
  following a joint operation with Spanish police.
  The man, Juan Antonio Olarra Guribi, is believed
  to be the group's military head.
• August 2002 Judge Garzon suspends Batasuna for
  three years on the grounds that it is part of
  ETA, which he declares "guilty of crimes against
  humanity". Parliament, meanwhile, votes to seek
  an indefinite ban on Batasuna.
• July 2002 Judge Baltasar Garzon orders the
  seizure of 18m euros in assets belonging to
  Batasuna.
• December 2001 The European Union declares ETA a
  terrorist organization - the first time all 15
  member governments have labeled ETA as such, in a
  significant diplomatic victory for the Spanish
  Government.
• November 2001 Judge Jose Maria Lidon is shot
  dead in Bilbao less than 24 hours after a car
  bomb injures nearly 100 in Madrid. Lidon - who
  was not on any known Eta hitlist - had sentenced
  six Eta sympathizers to long jail terms in 1987.
• May 2001 Senior Popular Party member Manuel
  Jimenez Abad is shot dead in the city of Zaragoza
  a week before elections to the Basque parliament.
  
• March 2001 Socialist party politician Froilan
  Elexpe is shot dead in an apparent Eta attack
  near the city of San Sebastian.

28
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• 27 July 2003 - A car bomb exploded in the car
  park of the airport at Santander in northern
  Spain. Prior to the bombing, a warning was
  received and the area safely evacuated. This
  incident followed two explosions on 22 July 2003,
  in resorts on the Costa Blanca the first inside
  the Hotel Bahia in Alicante and the second inside
  the Hotel Nadal in Benidorm. Although warnings
  were given and the hotels evacuated, both bombs
  exploded prematurely causing injuries to some
  police officers and those being evacuated
  including, in Alicante, one British woman.

Alicante Source BBC News
Santander Airport Source BBC News
29
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• Patterns of Global Terrorism, U.S. Department of
  State, 2000
• Spain was wracked by domestic terrorism in 2000.
  After abandoning its cease-fire in late 1999, the
  terrorist group Basque Fatherland and Liberty
  (ETA) began a countrywide bombing and
  assassination campaign, killing 23 and wounding
  scores more by year's end. ETA traditionally
  targets police, military personnel, and
  politicians, as well as journalists and
  businessmen. As 2000 progressed, however, the
  group appeared to become increasingly
  indiscriminate in its attacks, targeting, for
  example, intersections and shopping areas. The
  public responded with huge demonstrations in
  major cities, demanding an end to the violence.
  Also in 2000, the Spanish and French Basque youth
  groups united and continued their campaign of
  street violence and arson. Spanish authorities
  diligently prosecuted ETA members on terrorism
  and criminal charges, and the Aznar government
  reiterated its determination to eliminate
  terrorism and not negotiate over independence for
  the constitutionally autonomous Basque provinces.
  After difficult discussions over the role of
  moderate Basques represented by the Basque
  Nationalist Party (PNV), the governing and
  opposition Socialist parties signed a common
  anti-ETA pact at year's end.

30
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• November 2000 King Juan Carlos strongly condemns
  ETA in a speech on the 25th anniversary of his
  accession to the throne. The king's unusually
  political address comes two days after a former
  government minister is killed in Barcelona.
• 30 October 2000 Spanish police officers inspect
  the remains of a passenger bus set ablaze after a
  car bomb, blamed on the ETA, exploded near Madrid
  on 30 October. The attack killed three persons,
  including a Spanish Supreme Court judge, injured
  more than 60 others, and destroyed dozens of
  cars.
• August 2000 Thousands of people demonstrate in
  support of ETA in the city of Bilbao after four
  members of the group die in a blast caused by
  explosives in a car they are driving.
• May 2000 King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia lead
  thousands of Spaniards in a nationwide silent
  vigil to protest against the killing of
  journalist Jose Luis de la Calle. It is the first
  time the king has made such a gesture, a royal
  spokesman says.

Passenger Bus Set Ablaze Source Patterns of
Global Terrorism
31
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• Spring 2000 The Spanish film Yoyes, a fictional
  film based on the story of real-life ETA
  operative Dolores Gonzalez Catarian, breaks the
  long-standing taboo in Spanish cinema against
  dealing with the separatist movement.
• January and February 2000 Car bombs explode in
  Madrid and the Basque capital Vitoria heralding a
  return to the violent separatist campaign.
• November 1999The separatist group announces an
  end to its 14-month ceasefire in a Basque
  newspaper, blaming lack of progress in talks with
  the Spanish Government.
• August 1999 Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar
  accuses ETA of being "scared of peace" and calls
  on the group to prove its commitment. ETA
  subsequently confirms that contact with Madrid
  has been severed.
• May 1999 The first and only meeting to date
  between ETA and the Spanish Government in Zurich,
  Switzerland.
• September 1998 ETA announces its first
  indefinite ceasefire since its campaign of
  violence began, effective from 18 September.
• June 1998 Car bomb kills Popular Party
  councillor Manuel Zamarreno.
• April 1998 Northern Ireland peace agreement
  signed. ETA is understood to have been heavily
  influenced by the Northern Ireland peace process.
  ETA has traditionally had relations with the
  Irish republicans and the political wing Herri
  Batasuna has been schooled by Sinn Fein on
  strategy for negotiation.
• March 1998 Spain's main political parties engage
  in talks to end violence in the Basque region.
  The government is not involved.
• February 1998 Herri Batasuna elects new
  provisional leadership.

32
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• December 1997 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna
  jailed for seven years for collaborating with
  ETA. The case centers on an video featuring armed
  and masked ETA guerrillas, which the party tried
  to show during general election campaign. This
  was the first time any members of the party have
  been jailed for co-operating with ETA.
• July 1997 Eta kidnaps and kills Basque
  councillor Miguel Angel Blanco, sparking national
  outrage and bringing an estimated six million
  Spaniards onto the streets.
• 1997 Start of Eta's campaign against local
  Popular Party politicians.
• March 1996 Right-wing Popular Party wins general
  election. There is speculation that the change of
  government would lead to a crackdown against Eta,
  which later proves wrong. But Eta apparently
  views the Popular Party as heir to General
  Franco's dictatorship.
• 1995 Attempt to assassinate the leader of the
  opposition Popular Party (later Prime Minister),
  Jose Maria Aznar, with a car bomb.
• June 1987 Twenty-one shoppers are killed in an
  attack on a Barcelona supermarket. Eta apologises
  for the "mistake".
• 1980 118 people are killed in Eta's bloodiest
  year so far.
• 1978 Eta's political wing Herri Batasuna is
  founded.
• December 1973 Basque nationalists assassinate
  Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in
  Madrid in retaliation for the government's
  execution of Basque militants.

33
ETA Chronology Key Events, 2004-1937

• 1968 ETA kills its first victim, Meliton
  Manzanas, a secret police chief in San Sebastian.
  
• 1961 ETA's violent campaign begins with an
  attempt to derail a train transporting
  politicians.
• 1959 ETA is founded with the aim of creating an
  independent homeland in Spain's Basque region.
  The full name of the organisation - Euzkadi Ta
  Askatasuna - means Basque fatherland and freedom.
  
• 1937 General Franco occupies Basque country. The
  Basques had enjoyed a degree of autonomy which
  they now were denied. Franco regime ruthlessly
  represses their aspirations for independence.

Meliton Manzanas
34
U.K. Foreign Commonwealth Office Travel Advice
More than 140 people are reported to have been
killed and many injured in co-ordinated
explosions on three rush hour trains in Madrid
early on 11 March. Transport is widely disrupted
in Madrid. Further details will be made available
when known. Please continue to monitor our Travel
Advice. You should be alert to the activities of
the Basque terrorist group ETA who recently
renewed their threat to attack the Spanish
tourist industry in 2004. There is a general
threat in Spain to Western, including British,
targets from terrorism. You should also be alert
to the existence of street crime. You should
therefore remain vigilant in public places,
including tourist sites. But the vast majority of
visits to Spain are trouble-free. The ETA threat
against the tourist industry was renewed this
year when tour operators in Spain and foreign
companies that include Spain in their holiday
offers received a letter stating that tourist
facilities would continue to be ETA targets
during 2004. Specific warnings have usually been
given ahead of each attack. In recent attacks,
there have not been mass casualties. But given
this active campaign and the millions of tourists
who visit Spain each year, and although the
security forces have had considerable success in
arresting ETA terrorist groups, there is a chance
that visitors will be caught up in further
attacks in tourist areas. Warnings may not always
be given or a bomb could explode prematurely.
However, ETA announced a ceasefire that applies
only within Catalunya on 18 February.As well as
tourist targets (see below for examples of past
attacks), ETA also continues to attack other
targets eg Spanish politicians, members of the
security forces, judges and journalists. When
bombs have been used to target specific
individuals, warnings have not been given. In
April 2003, one of ETA's internal bulletins
included multinational companies with operations
in Spain in a long list of possible economic
targets. Incidents of street violence in the
Basque country, involving youths sympathetic to
ETA, and directed against the security forces,
political parties and banks have dropped to all
time historical lows over the last year or so.
These incidents usually happen late at night,
more often than not at weekends, and take the
form of petrol bomb or similar home made
explosive devices against the homes or offices of
local politicians, security force buildings and
cash dispensers.