How radical Basque left forced ETA's hand

ETA broke their last ceasefire on June 6, 2007. On that day, Arnaldo Otegi, the leader of the Basque Country's radical pro-independence groups - known collectively as the izquierda abertzale - found himself in prison. Over the following months he watched from Martutene jail in San Sebastián as ETA nosedived. Their leaders fell one by one - the police made as many as four consecutive arrests - and their organizational structures collapsed.

At this point, Arnaldo Otegi began a period of reflection, in order to come up with a new strategy for the illegalized izquierda abertzale, which would distance them from ETA. Both he and his political movement were badly damaged by the failure of the 2006 negotiations, which ended with a deadly bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport. Otegi had dedicated a huge amount of time (five years) and effort to this peace process, and its collapse provoked huge frustration in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government.

This latest peace process began in a novel way, very different to those that preceded it. For the first time in history, the abertzale is trying to impose its will on ETA. And, also for the first time, there has been no prior negotiation of concessions from the Spanish government.

When Otegi left prison at the end of August 2008, following key meetings with the abertzale inner circle, he had a new plan of action: the creation of a fresh independence grouping for all Basque separatists and a unilateral advance towards sovereignty by peaceful means - in other words, without prior negotiation between ETA, the abertzale and the government - in direct contrast with other peace processes initiated in the past.

Otegi sought out the support of Sinn Fein, which was then practically his only international ally. Its executive was present at the launch of the peace project in 2009, at a press conference in Bilbao.

Meanwhile, ETA was engaged in a directly opposing strategy. The terrorists had just finished conducting an internal poll and decided to boost terrorist activity. They killed four people in 2008, and three more in 2009. The last victims, two Civil Guards, died on July 30. Soon after, Otegi went back into prison for "glorifying terrorism."

At this point Rufi Etxeberria came out of jail to take over the leadership of the movement with a mandate to stop all complicity with violence and set the abertzale on an exclusively political path. This time the leadership's inner circle was determined that they would not cave in to ETA.

Etxeberria made contact with South African lawyer Brian Currin, who mediated in both the South African and Irish peace processes, and who advised the abertzale in 2006. Currin encouraged public gestures rejecting violence to win credibility in Basque society and in their own ranks, which were skeptical after the failure of the 2006 peace talks.

Leaders took the first significant step toward this on November 14, 2009 with simultaneous meetings in Navarre, where they presented the document Zutik Euskal Herria (or, the Basque Country stands up), which highlighted that "the democratic process must be allowed to operate in the total absence of violence and without interference."

Next the abertzale began a three-month internal debate among its grassroots members. The key discussion centered around the adoption of a new strategy to proceed with "the total absence of violence." This constituted a direct challenge to the vanguard of Basque separatists but without dramatically breaking with them, to avoid a split. The strategy was to advance step by step, without provoking desertions.

The hardliners put up some resistance through members of ETA allies, the street agitator group Ekin who caused some incidents in plenary meetings. But Otegi's strategy triumphed. When the consultation ended in February 2010, the new strategy was passed with 80 percent support.

With this backing, abertzale leaders felt they could start demanding that ETA lay down arms. Etxeberria announced that ETA must obey the wishes of the grassroots in Berriak, a daily paper close to the movement. Brian Currin took the next step. On March 29, four Nobel Peace Prize winners (including former South African president F. W. de Clerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Irish President Mary Robinson) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation demanded that ETA call a "unilateral, permanent ceasefire that is verifiable by international observers" at a press conference in Brussels.

As ETA failed to respond, the abertzale made a direct appeal. At a large rally in Pamplona on April 24, they read out a statement critical of ETA, in which they said the "renewal of armed conflict, far from solving blocks in dialogue, has in fact only made them worse."

A month later, police arrested Mikel Carrera, ETA's principal active leader still at large. This detention was key because Carrera was the last operational head who was in power when ETA broke the last ceasefire. Indirectly, the abertzale leaders were boosted by his arrest. A month later they organized an event in Bilbao with Basque nationalist party Eusko Alkartasuna, where they called for the same as the Nobel Peace Prize winners: a permanent, unilateral and verifiable ceasefire.

Independence party Aralar was the next group to join the platform. In September they called for ETA to lay down arms for good. In October Arnaldo Otegi fleshed out his rejection of violence in all forms, including street fighting and extortion, writing a text from his prison cell, which was published in full in EL PAÍS.

Etxeberria launched the final salvo on November 27, in Pamplona, when he announced his plan to set up a new party, which both rejects and condemns violence. There was speculation that the statutes could even be copied from the ruling Socialist Party.

If the new process is genuine, in the next couple of months the abertzale will do battle for its legalization and to change the prison policy regime for ETA prisoners. Its leaders have laid their arguments on the table. And they insist that this time, whatever happens, their commitment to peace is irreversible.