The legal route

The High Court will soon make a decision about whether or not to grant conditional release to inmate Iosu Uribetxeberria, who is suffering from terminal cancer. The former ETA terrorist is serving sentences for his part in a number of crimes, including the 532-day kidnapping of prison director José Antonio Ortega Lara. The chance of his early release has caused public outcry, not least among victims associations, which accuse the government of "betraying the victims and the rule of law," and of having "given in to blackmail" by the terrorist group following the hunger strike staged by a number of its other inmates.

But that action by ETA, which is always trying to appear as though it is playing a determining factor in events, came when the procedures stipulated by the law for cases such as this were already in motion. Uribetxeberria had been taken to a hospital in San Sebastián for a medical examination when he and other ETA inmates declared themselves to be on hunger strike. The tests confirmed his illness is very serious and untreatable, which saw him granted third-degree status by the ministry, enabling him to apply for early release.

The associations opposed to this possibility cite the euphoria among ETA and its supporters as evidence of an error having been made. But why wouldn't they be euphoric on hearing their enemies say that the Spanish state "has given in to blackmail," causing "perhaps irreversible damage in the fight against terrorism"?

In fact, it is the rule of law itself that has emerged from this even stronger. The episode means that inevitably there will be comparisons between the humanitarian attitude of the law and the cruelty and indifference of the kidnappers of Ortega Lara, and makes characters from the Basque radical left look ridiculous, such as the future candidate Laura Mintegi, who has accused the government of using the "law of an eye for an eye" against Uribetxeberria.

The application of the law without stridency is the shortest route to ensuring the breaking of the link between the prisoners and the other ETA forces that are on standby. And that uncoupling is one of the conditions for a dynamic of reinsertion to get started that will ensure there is no return to violence. In the face of the idea that the best thing to do is nothing, today there are more favorable conditions than on previous occasions to set out initiatives that will stimulate that uncoupling, such as the measure being prepared by the Interior Ministry to allow members or former members of the group who fled to other countries, but do not have outstanding warrants against them, to return to Spain.

In the 1980s there were active policies of reinsertion for members of ETA who no longer believed in violent means and were on the run, and they produced good results. Attempts to do the same with the military wing of ETA failed (among other reasons due to the assassination of former ETA leader Dolores González Catarain, "Yoyes," who was murdered by the group after leaving it and returning to Spain from exile in Mexico). But since the definitive end to ETA violence there are conditions to enable the initiative catches on and serves as an effective demonstration for inmates who, sooner or later, will end up rebelling against those who prevent them from observing the legal steps for reinsertion into society.