Word: bilbao
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Despite the oppression of Madrid, the Basques have flourished economically. Although stereotyped as dark-bereted shepherds who perfected the stunningly fast game of jai alai, they are in fact among Spain's successful businessmen. The dingy but bustling Basque industrial center of Bilbao (pop. about 450,000) is heavily oriented toward steelmaking and shipbuilding. The three Basque provinces are among the richest in Spain on a per capita basis...
This month the bishops of the Basque cities of Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria said as much in a pastoral letter that warned of the "coercive pressures" of the military on individual liberty. The three prelates condemned ETA's continuing terrorism, but they also cautioned that the military's new role in the Basque country could eventually pose a threat to democracy. "When the armed forces set themselves up as judge over the democratic process and feel tempted to intervene," they wrote, "this constitutes a serious danger rather than a genuine defense of the interests...
...successful military takeover, announced a cease-fire and released three foreign consuls they had held hostage for eight days. But more militant guerrillas blew up a national police patrol car in the Basque town of Portugalete, injuring three policemen; a few days later they killed the police chief of Bilbao. As pressure mounted from the right to declare a state of emergency in the Basque region, Calvo-Sotelo flew to Bilbao to pay respects to the dead man's family...
...Basque Nationalist Party informed Calvo-Sotelo, there could be no possibility of open support for the new government. The Basque troubles were further aggravated at week's end when suspected E.T.A. gunmen kidnaped the consuls of Austria, El Salvador and Uruguay from their homes in Pamplona and Bilbao...
Every radio, it seemed, was tuned to the same station. In cafés and shops from Bilbao to Barcelona last week, Spanards listened intently to a heated parlamentary discussion broadcast live from the Cortes. The debate concerned the faltering policies of Conservative Premier Adolfo Suárez. More significantly, for the first time since Generalissimo Francisco Franco's "40 years of silence" came to an end, Spain was experiencing a vigorous public debate by its politicians-and the country reveled...