Word: batasuna
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...people had gathered to reorganize their political party in Segura, a quaint medieval town in the highlands of Spain's Basque country. And then the police swept in, virtually besieging the town for several hours. In the end, the government arrested all 23 as members of the directorate of Batasuna, the political arm of ETA, the armed group that seeks to separate the Basque provinces from the Kingdom of Spain. The action against Batasuna was ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon who is investigating the links between ETA and Batasuna. It was those same allegedly links that got Batasuna banned...
...seen as part of the reaction of the government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to criticism that is soft on Basque and Catalonian nationalism. That criticism has stung the otherwise popular Zapatero in the walk-up to parliamentary elections in March 2008. Patxi Zabaleta, a former Batasuna member and now leader of Aralar, a Basque nationalist party, castigated the government over the arrests. "These people were meeting to talk, without arms," he said. "The right to gather must be respected, in [Burma] and in Spain...
Since June, Spanish authorities (in concerted action with French counterparts across the border) have scaled up their antiterrorist operations and moved aggressively against ETA and Batasuna. Earlier this week, Spanish authorities arrested two other Batasuna leaders. Arnaldo Otegi, the group's main spokesperson was jailed on June 8 to serve a 15-month sentence for participating in a tribute to an ETA activist killed in 1978 by a fascist paramilitary group...
...opposition Partido Popular (PP) that Zapatero is soft on the nationalists - and separatists - in the Basque and Catalan provinces appear to have pushed the Prime Minister toward a tougher stance on nationalist demands. He has certainly come down hard on ETA and has closed off negotiations with Batasuna for a political solution to the decades-old Basque conflict. Zapatero acknowledged recently that there should be "no expectation" of new negotiations with...
...critics believe Zapatero's calculations may backfire. Paul Rios, general coordinator of Lokarri, a social movement for peace in the Basque Country, sasy: "[Zapatero's] strategy is wrong either way. The PP is still going to come after him, whatever he does. At the same time, by taking out [Batasuna's leadership] he is leaving the door open to the hard-liners, just as the group was undergoing a profound debate on the consequences of the broken cease-fire...