Word: guardia
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...Franco's death in 1975, the terrorists calculated that their acts would goad the military into a right-wing coup, thereby buttressing ETA'S claim that peaceful reform was impossible. The number of terrorist killings rose dramatically. And, indeed, on Feb. 23, rebellious members of the Spanish Guardia Civil took over the country's parliament and held it for 18 hours. The insurgents were backed by high-ranking army officers and had the support of shadowy right-wing financiers. The main demand of the rebels: more freedom to combat Basque terrorism...
...Spanish domination. ETA originally was nonviolent, but during the tumultuous '60s the organization became radicalized, began robbing banks to finance its operations and for a time espoused a cloudy blend of nationalism and Marxism. The organization's violent phase began in 1968 after a member of the Guardia Civil shot an ETA member who refused to stop at a roadblock. In retaliation ETA assassinated a hated police chief, and the deadly cycle began...
...there is one force that still unites the Basques, it is a hatred of the Guardia Civil, a paramilitary group, and the national police, who are still regarded as members of an occupying army. Indeed, not a single member of the police force in the region speaks the Basque language...
Stories of torture and casual brutality by police in the Basque country are endless. Xavier Arzallus, head of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, cites the case of one of his party members whose home was raided by the Guardia Civil. The man was taken into the hills, threatened with a machine gun, then jailed for three days without food, water or sleep, while being tortured. Says Arzallus: "He is so frightened he refuses to bring charges." Another man, who did complain after Guardia Civil members ransacked his apartment building in a futile search for dynamite, claimed that the invaders...
...distributing the construction money into the nation's biggest city. Using Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes as the hit-man. Roosevelt pressured Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to fire Moses from the Triborough Board. Fearing a huge outcry in the city if he fired the man "above politics," La Guardia refused, Eventually, Roosevelt had to give in and let Moses remain, a great humiliation to the President. Such was the dimension of Moses' power...