海角大神

Jose Antonio Fernandez joined ETA, the armed Basque separatist group, in his early twenties, at a time when Spain was still reeling from the fall of its dictatorship. Those were ETA's bloodiest years, when political assassinations and bombings听shook a fragile democracy听and claimed the lives of over 800 people.

Now ETA is fading into irrelevance, its tactics discredited and its strength sapped by relentless police operations. And Mr. Fernandez, a calm, soft-spoken man听in his mid-fifties who听spent 22 years in jail for his role in ETA killings, is speaking about his violent past. He picks his words carefully, mindful of Spanish anti-terror laws that could land him back in detention.听Does he regret what he did?

鈥淣o,鈥� Fernandez says, with little emotion. 鈥淔or me it was necessary, correct and fair.鈥�

As its local support base crumbles,听ETA faces increasing pressure to disarm and disband.听In 2011, it unilaterally declared a 鈥減ermanent鈥� ceasefire.听Last Friday, the group invited a team of international mediators to witness a partial disarmament of its stockpile of arms and explosives.听

This has been听controversial: Spanish Police Director Ignacio Cosido told the EFE news agency that 鈥渢he real verifiers鈥� of ETA's disarmament will be听Spain鈥檚听 security forces. Madrid has repeatedly played down the role of outside mediators and says it won鈥檛 negotiate with a 鈥渢errorist group.鈥澨�

Some analysts believe ETA is dragging its feet on decommissioning to leave itself with some bargaining chips. ETA declared a previous ceasefire in 2006, but later carried out a bomb attack at Madrid鈥檚 international airport.

The group has stood by its 2011 agreement, said Ram Manikkalingam, the director of a network of mediators who have worked in conflict zones like Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka and are overseeing the ETA's disarmament. The mediators were shown a cache of weapons that were rendered inoperable recently that he said included 36 pounds of explosives, one assault rifle, two anti-tank grenades, three pistols, and 300 rounds of ammunition.

Still, many saw the gesture as insignificant.

鈥淚t was quite small, a rather token effort considering what the group likely has,鈥� said James Bevan, a听British听weapons specialist and consultant to the European Union and the United Nations. 鈥淚f I were to do a haul around my North London neighborhood, I would probably pull in more.鈥�

Armed struggle

It鈥檚 all a long way from听Fernandez鈥檚 childhood in Bilbao. Dictator Francisco Franco听had been in power since听1936听and had banned the teaching of听Euskera, the听Basque听language听that is听today spoken by about one million people; regional cultures in Spain were also suppressed in the name of national identity. Fernandez remembers the ever-present military police on the streets and the fear of arbitrary detention. [Editors note: the current number of Basque speakers was originally misstated.]

In this climate, Fernandez听was drawn to听armed struggle in the name of Basque independence. Via friends, he was brought into the organization in 1978听and put to work as a 鈥渓egal commando鈥� in a cell called听Poeta 鈥� living openly, holding down a job in a furniture factory, and raising a family.听ETA killed 66 people that year.

Burly and stoic,听Fernandez's听friends听called him Magilla, because of his resemblance to the American听cartoon gorilla. As a member of ETA, his name was Iru.

鈥淵ou go about your normal life, you work a normal job, and later after work instead of going to watch soccer, you carried out actions,鈥� he explains, declining to provide specifics.

These actions eventually landed Fernandez behind bars: He and other members of his听unit听were convicted听in 1983 of bombing a Bilbao power plant and听killing听Rafael Vega Gil, a local wine merchant, among other crimes. Fernandez spent听most听of his jail term in solitary confinement.

Fernandez's father visited him only once in prison. One reason, says Fernandez, was his father鈥檚 concern for his job in the local government. The other was distance: Fernandez served in nine different prisons far from his hometown.听听

He was released in 2005, and has since worked with local political parties and as an activist for Basque prisoners' rights.

Prisoners' return

A popular cause for Basque leftist parties is calling for the government to move political prisoners closer to home. Banners calling for the prisoners' return to local facilities dot walls, houses and balconies throughout Basque country and a January protest in Bilbao attracted 120,000 participants in a city of less than 400,000. There are over five hundred ETA members still in Spanish prisons though the group is thought to have less than fifty active members left.

The ETA of Fernandez鈥檚 youth was something else again. Then militants faced off against a stifling dictatorship that had been in power for nearly four decades. In 1973 ETA detonated a bomb in Madrid that killed Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco鈥檚 handpicked successor. Franco died two years later, and Spain slowly emerged from his shadow.听

鈥淲hen the dictatorship fell, ETA believed it was strong enough to not have to negotiate with Madrid,鈥� explains Xabier Irujo, co-director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada. 鈥淭here they believed they could realistically accomplish their objective, which was Basque independence through armed struggle.鈥�

Now the situation has switched, with ETA weakened and a Spanish government that is unwilling to negotiate.

鈥淢adrid knows that ETA has no future, and they don't see the need to negotiate,鈥� Irujo adds, 鈥渁nd the vast majority of Basques wish ETA had disappeared a long time ago.鈥�