Counter-Terror by Proxy: The Spanish State's Illicit War with ETA

During 1983 to 1987, the Spanish government supported mercenaries known as GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación) who were at war with the Basque militant group ETA. The GAL campaign involved extrajudicial assassinations, torture, kidnapping, bombings, and the assassination of suspected ETA activists and Basque refugees. This establishment of unofficial counterterrorist squads by the Spanish government was a blatant detour from legality and a rare case in Europe where senior government officials were arrested and condemned for counter-terrorism wrongdoings. The GAL affair had serious implications for liberal democratic principles of law and order and postponed the possibility of a political solution for the Basque conflict for decades.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 10 August 2021
Publisher: Manchester University Press

Between 1983 and 1987, a group of mercenaries operating under the pseudonym GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación, Antiterrorist Liberation Group) engaged in a protracted conflict with the Basque militant group ETA (Euskadi (e)Ta Askatasuna, Basque Country and Freedom). Sponsored by the Spanish treasury and supported by national intelligence, these mercenaries carried out a campaign of extrajudicial assassinations that extended across the French-Spanish border. Over a period of four years, they perpetrated a series of heinous acts, including torture, kidnapping, bombings, and the targeted assassination of suspected ETA activists and Basque refugees.

This unauthorized formation of counterterrorist squads by the Spanish government was a flagrant deviation from legal norms. Moreover, it stands as a singular instance in Europe where no fewer than fourteen high-ranking Spanish police officers and senior government officials, including the Minister of Interior himself, were eventually apprehended and brought to justice for their involvement in counter-terrorism wrongdoing and illiberal practices. Thirty years after the GAL affair unfolded, its impact remains deeply entrenched in Spanish society. Not only did it serve as a grave illustration of a significant deviation from the accepted liberal democratic constitutional principles of law and order, but it also prolonged the resolution of the Basque conflict by decades.

Counter-terror by proxy delves into the underlying reasons and mechanisms that led a democratic government in a liberal society to resort to unconventional and illegal killing actions. It provides a more comprehensive analysis of the long-term consequences of employing unorthodox counter-terrorist strategies within a liberal democracy.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526158826