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ETA Refuses to Go Away

Young Radicals Carry On Basque Terror

Last week's deadly terrorist attack on the island of Mallorca would seem to conflict with the Spanish authorities' assertion that the ETA terror group is significantly weakened. However, politicians and intelligence agencies argue that the bombings mark the last defiant struggle of the Basque separatists.

Last week's two bomb blasts in Spain have raised the possibility that the Basque terror group ETA could have already recovered from a series of recent setbacks and arrests. On Wednesday, a bomb blast at a police barracks in the northern city of Burgos left more than 60 people injured. Just 34 hours later, a device exploded under a police car at the Palmanova resort on the island of Mallorca killing two officers with the paramilitary Civil Guard.

Tens of thousands of holidaymakers were affected by the security measures in the aftermath of the attacks. For almost two hours the island, one of Spain's top tourist destinations, was cut off from the outside world. While ETA has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, they have already been interpreted as the group's attempt at a show of strength for its 50th anniversary on July 31. The group has killed 828 people since it commenced its armed struggle for a separate Basque state in 1968.

Most experts had believed that ETA was militarily weakened after a series of setbacks. In April police arrested Jurdan Martetegi, the third military commander of the terror group to be captured in just five months. Spanish and French security forces had discovered several hideouts in southern France, where the group were planning their attacks before driving vehicles laden with explosives across the border to Spain.

The Basque area stretches from northern Spain into southwestern France. While ETA or Euskadi ta Askatusauna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) originally fought to preserve the Basque language and culture which had been suppressed under General Franco, its goal soon became the creation of an independent state. It finally resorted to arms in 1968 with the murder of a police commander in the Basque city of San Sebastian. Many Basque people support independence but now tend to back the respectable Basque National Party, which rejects violence. Only a tiny minority now support the ETA's methods.

'Only Reacting Out of Desperation'

The two bombs last week seem to be in conflict with the Spanish authorities' assertions that the group is in terminal decline. Spanish politicians, however, have sought to reassure the public that the latest attacks are just one last defiant struggle. "We are destroying their organization, they cannot escape that," said Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez. Madrid's representative on Mallorca, Ramon Socias, sees ETA as so weakened "that they are now only reacting out of desperation."

ETA is in a paradoxical situation: There is no chance that they will ever attain their goal of independence and their popularity in the Basque region has been massively eroded. Nevertheless, all attempts to negotiate with the group have failed. A tentative peace ended in 2006 with the bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport in December of that year, which killed two people. Soon afterwards, ETA officially lifted its ceasefire.

Intelligence agencies in Spain and Germany are not surprised by the new attacks. The German government had already been warned in June that ETA was not as weak as was claimed -- at least not its military wing. Spanish anti-terror investigators told the newspaper El País that they now assume that the old leadership -- almost 600 ETA members are sitting in Spanish jails -- had set in place an underground network of attackers and that these new recruits are quite possibly still operating bomb-making factories in France. Nevertheless, ETA appears to have "put all its eggs in one basket, and put everything it still has" into carrying out the two attacks, they told the newspaper.

Royals Go Ahead with Vacation

Despite the bombing, the Spanish royal family went ahead with plans to spend their traditional summer holiday on Mallorca. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia arrived on Saturday evening to make their way to Marivent Palace, just 10 kilometers from the site of Thursday's bombing. Juan Carlos said he felt "happy and safe" to be on the island, but he added that efforts to destroy ETA must continue. "We must go on and on hitting them on the head and we must fight to stop them," he told reporters at the airport.

With the island on high security alert, hoteliers worry that the fear of terrorism will severely affect their business, which was already suffering due to the economic crisis. There have been five attacks on the island since 1977, including two attempts on the king's life.

Anti-terror units spent the weekend searching for six suspected terrorists, including two people they suspect could be the attackers. According to Spanish newspapers, they are concentrating their investigation on two young Basque people who had rented a hotel room on Mallorca but have not been seen since the attack. It is still not clear if those who carried out the attack could still be on the island. The police discovered another car bomb and carried out a controlled explosion on Thursday. There are reports that the bomb had a delay mechanism -- which means it could have been set hours before the explosion, possibly giving the perpetrators time to leave Mallorca.

Mallorca's sister Balearic island Ibiza is regarded as safer. The former Spainish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes is now a powerful businessman on Ibiza and his clan owns the island's most important hotels, discos, companies and ferries. There are rumors that decades ago he came to a ceasefire agreement with ETA that would protect Ibiza from attacks, something he strongly denies. Still, an attack has never been perpetrated on the island.

SPIEGEL Staff with wire reports