Say that you were the Prime Minister of a country, that this country has had a recent Civil War, lived through the “Hungry Years,?and been ruled by a dictator for forty years. Pretend that your country sustained had its first successful democracy for only about thirty years, and that it still suffers from a measure of regional overidentity and an aversion to central government. Then focus on one northern region of your country ?culturally and linguistically different, yes ?in which half of its population is in support of independence from your country as a whole. Remember that only a fraction of the separatist half supports the use of the terrorist activities that plague your nation. These activities kill roughly one person every two days. The violence has gone on for years. It is political assassination ?of judges, of politicians, of police, of anyone who upholds the structure of democracy on a conservative level. Assassinations take place in all corners of your country, proving that this faction has the skill, mobility, and sympathizers to make anything possible. People are dying. What do you do?
Although this may sound like a dramatized description of a fictional country, it is what is happening in Spain today. In America, most people know Spain from the historical gold-plundering conquistadores, as the country responsible for Florida being so different from the first American States, and as the country with the “really big?Armada. It just dropped off the map after the mid-eighteenth century. Spain didn’t even fight in either World Wars, right? How important could it be? They are important enough to fight their own civil war at a time that proved to be the practice ground for Hitler, and they have struggled for their democracy for not a matter of years but of decades.
Now, there is a small group called E.T.A. who is violently demanding the independence of a region that has been part of Spain since its consolidation. Its members look like you and me ?indeed, in a small village called Fuente de Vaceros (the birthplace of Frederico Garc? Lorca), there are wanted posters with photos of what look like everyday university students. These are the killers of Supreme Court justices and top political leaders.
As the Prime Minister, how could you even “free?this region, known as el pa? vasco (the Basque country), if you knew that half of its people didn’t want to be “freed??What do you do when the Basque people not only want independence for Spanish Basques but also the freedom and reunification of the ancient Basque lineage in the South of France as well? How can this region survive on its own, especially considering that they are physically linked to the Iberian Peninsula?
I thought perhaps I could hide from this phenomenon, since I didn’t know much about it before I arrived in Alcal?de Henares, Madrid, to study for this fall semester. Instead, the events perused me. There have been bombings in Madrid ?where I go at least once weekly, Andaluc? ?where I traveled with members of my group, and Barcelona ?where members of my group had traveled days before and where I was scheduled to visit with my family a week later. Unlike the talks of peace for the Middle East, the Spanish government under Jos?Lu? Aznar will not negotiate with E.T.A, as they proclaim to not negotiate with terrorists. Let’s face it ?if this were the United States, these people would be taken out by the C.I.A in a week. Spain, however, can not commit to covert or not-so-covert actions against this group - it has already lived through a whole history of dramatic oppression of regional peoples. Indeed, E.T.A is politically represented in the Spanish Cort? (Parliament) by several parties, one of which sees no problem with the group’s violent approach. If the government can’t take out E.T.A. leaders, it most certainly can’t ban certain political parties outright. So we return once more: how do you balance the stability of a democracy against violence against its people? What can the Spanish government do? What would you do?