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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Spain: Global Terrorism
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Patterns Of Global Terrorism: 1991
Western European Overview: Spain
</hdr>
<body>
<p> International terrorist incidents in Spain decreased to 10
in 1991 from 28 in 1990. Domestic terrorism in Spain, however,
increased last year, in terms of the number of incidents and
casualties. The Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) separatist
terrorist organization accounted for the vast majority of
these, resulting in 45 fatalities, as opposed to 25 the previous
year. As in the past, most victims were members of the Civil
Guard, National Police, military, and their families. The group
appeared particularly intent on demonstrating its continued
capabilities as Spain prepared to host the Barcelona Olympics,
a World's Fair, and several other major international events in
1992.
</p>
<p> One of Spain's smaller terrorist organizations, the
Catalonian separatist group Terra Lliure (Free Land), renounced
the use of violence. The First of October Anti-Fascist Group
(GRAPO), a Marxist and anti-US organization, mounted only one
confirmed attack and had two of its members arrested in 1991.
More than 20 GRAPO prisoners officially ended an ineffective
hunger strike in February. Iraultza, an anti-US Marxist Basque
group, attempted three small bombings in March and April, but
three of its members were killed in a premature explosion. A
Galician separatist group was responsible for the destruction of
about 10 high-tension towers; about 10 of its members, however,
including the EGPGC leader, were arrested. A suspected EGPGC
safehouse was discovered in Sao Martinho do Porto, Portugal.
</p>
<p> The government directed most of its counterterrorism efforts
against ETA with considerable effectiveness. Raids in Catalonia
and the Basque provinces resulted in more than 40 arrests and
six ETA members killed. Approximately 40 ETA members, both
Spanish and French, were arrested in France in 1991, the result
of increased cooperation between French and Spanish authorities.
The autonomous Basque police, Ertzaintza, accounted for one ETA
member killed and one arrested. The government's success may
have obliged ETA to strike less professionally at softer
targets, accounting for the increase in civilian casualties.
Seven children of police officials were killed by ETA bombs
during the year, five in one explosion in May at a Civil Guard
apartment building near Barcelona, which killed a total of nine
and wounded more than 50.
</p>
<p> ETA chose many material targets associated with Spain's
tourist industry in 1991. As in previous years, ETA mounted a
summer campaign designed to disrupt railroad travel in Spain.
ETA issued an exceptional warning to travel agencies in Europe
to alert tourists to the hazards of travel to Spain. Spanish
consulates, beach resorts, banks, travel agencies, airline
ticket offices, tour buses, and educational institutes were
targeted more than a dozen times in Italy and three times in
Germany from May to August. These were ETA's first attacks in
Italy and Germany.
</p>
<p> During 1991 Spain had very limited success in winning
extradition of ETA suspects from abroad. Only a few low-level
members were extradited from France, with Mexico and the
Dominican Republic demurring.
</p>
<p> Henri Parot, a prominent French Basque member of ETA's
Itinerant Command who was arrested in Seville in 1990, was given
an additional extended sentence in 1991 for six murders.
</p>
<p> Two members of a Spanish rightwing terrorist organization
known as GAL were tried and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in
1991 for attempted murder. GAL killed more than a score of
suspected ETA members and supporters in France during the 1980s.
</p>
<p>Source: United States Department of State, April 1992.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>