It has been almost 5 years since the Basque militant group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) disarmed and disbanded following a bloody campaign that lasted almost 60 years. In Counter-terror by proxy: The Spanish State’s illicit war with ETA, Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet takes a deep dive into a specific period in the conflict (1983-1987), during which a group of state-sponsored mercenaries carried out their own brutal campaign that spanned the French-Spanish border. The group was called GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberacion) and its targets were suspected ETA members and supporters. ETA’s violence escalated during this period and a desperate Spanish Government sought to eradicate the group by whatever means necessary. GAL’s methods mirrored those of ETA: torture, kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations. During their short campaign, they claimed almost thirty victims. ETA claimed 212 victims during the same period.
Guittet’s account draws on extensive research from an impressive range of French and Spanish sources, setting the historical context cleanly and concisely through an exploration of ETA’s depiction in Spanish police and press archives. This depiction was, Guittet argues, leveraged by the Spanish Government to justify – internally at first, and externally later – the illegal actions of GAL. He describes a young democracy with a culture of subversion inherited from the days of Franco, taking matters into their own hands after struggling to garner support from its French neighbour to extradite ETA suspects. Following a detailed account of GAL’s campaign and victims, Guittet discusses the morality and impact of their violence, which is still felt in contemporary Spain.