HE MAY have been handcuffed, but he wouldn't be silenced. Javier Lopez Peña was taken to captivity in a defiant mood, screaming Basque nationalist slogans at the crush of reporters that had been gathered to witness his capture. When the 49-year-old w
as arrested last week the Spanish authorities hailed it a famous victory in the war against terror. Peña – also known as Thierry – was, after all, the military leader of the Basque separatist group Eta, who had evaded their clutches for more than 20 years.
While hundreds of his fellow self-styled "freedom fighters" were jailed for their part in a bloody and indiscriminate campaign of violence, he had maintained his cover, spending some time with fellow revolutionaries in Cuba, but much of the time living openly in the heart of France.
Despite being convicted in his absence by a French court of recruiting Eta operatives in 2005, Peña managed to pass himself off as an ordinary French citizen living in an apartment in Bordeaux.
From here he is believed to have trained Iker Aguirre, one of the suspects in the car bombing of Madrid Airport in December 2006, which claimed two lives and ended a hard-won ceasefire.
The man who once boasted "they will never catch me" was flushed out when the ex-mayor of Andoain, Jose Antonio Barandiaran – one of those arrested during last week's operation – was followed to a meeting with Thierry in the French town of Archaon. Handguns and computer equipment were seized in the raid.
"Francisco Javier López Peña is, in all likelihood, at this moment the person with the greatest political and military weight in the terrorist organisation Eta," said Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the Spanish interior minister. "This is not just another arrest."
The authorities' implication – that the terror group had been effectively decapitated – was a great morale boost for Spanish law enforcement agencies, given the way in which Eta has escalated its activities in recent months. Despite the fact popular support for Eta and its goals has waned, the group, which has claimed about 830 lives in 40 years, is desperate to prove it is still a force to be reckoned with.
This year alone it has claimed responsibility for the murder of a socialist politician, and there have been two car bomb attacks within the past two weeks – one outside a civil guard barracks in Legutiano that killed a policeman, and another last week at a yacht club in Getxo, an affluent suburb of Bilbao.
But when the euphoria over Peña's arrest dies down it is likely to be replaced by a sobering realisation that – with no hint of negotiations resuming – it will take more than a few high-profile arrests to quell fears of violence in the region.
"We do need a bit of caution here," says Professor Paul Wilkinson, adviser to St Andrews University's Centre for Study of Terrorism. "There have been high profile arrests in Eta before and somehow the group still manages to keep functioning. It would be premature to write them off now."
The roots of uprising in the Basque country – which is made up of four northern Spanish regions and three southern French ones – lie in the attempts of dictator Franco to suppress the Basque culture in Spain. Under his regime, all expressions of nationalism from displaying the flag to speaking Euskara (the Basque language) in public were banned.
Eta – Euskadi ta Askatasuna or Basque Country and Freedom –was founded as a student discussion group in 1952, but by the mid-1960s it had become heavily politicised and by 1968 had turned to violence.
During the Franco years, when it carried out the kidnapping and murder of several public figures of authority, the group enjoyed popular support as much for its role in undermining the dictator as for its actual goals. In those days, France tended to turn a blind eye to the activities of Eta terrorists, because it believed they might help secure a return to Spanish democracy. In 1973, the group assassinated Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's chosen successor.
Franco's eventual death, however, saw an escalation rather than an end to Eta's violence. In the 1980s, as the Spanish government began devolving power back to the Basque country, the group began a campaign of car bombing, killing policemen and civilians alike.
At the same time a "dirty war" was waged against Eta by Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberacion, a shadowy counter-terrorist organisation with links to the then socialist government, which indulged in the assassination, kidnapping and torture of those they believed to be Eta members.
As Eta engaged in increasingly repellent acts – such as the shooting of former member Maria Dolore Katarain, who had renounced violence – public support began to evaporate, with mainstream Basque society believing the organisation harmed their political and cultural ambitions, giving Madrid the excuse to ignore legitimate requests for greater recognition and devolution. When the group kidnapped conservative Popular Party (PP) member Miguel Angel Blanco in 1997, more than six million people demonstrated to demand his liberation. When Eta killed him anyway because its demands for the freeing of prisoners had not been met, the protestors started chanting "Basques, yes, Eta, no".
Today, the Basque region enjoys greater autonomy than any other region of Spain: it has its own government, education and health system, its own police force and tax-raising powers. Yet none of this has been enough to put a stop to Eta's activities or its demands for independence.
For a while hopes were high the group would emulate the IRA by engaging in the political process – and indeed the group announced its first indefinite ceasefire in 1998, a few months after the Northern Ireland peace deal was signed. But hopes foundered as it became clear Eta was still in the grip of extremists who weren't prepare to compromise.
For a man of such infamy, little personal detail is known about Peña, who cut a curious figure – short, portly and unshaven – on his arrest. He was born in Galdakao (Biscay) in 1958, and has used the aliases 'Bartolo', 'Zul', 'Pierre', 'Marcel' and finally 'Thierry'. Joining Eta in 1980, he was arrested three years later near Bayonne in the French Basque country alongside eight other alleged Eta activists, but released. Police pressure later forced him to leave France and seek refuge in Cuba. Peña occupied several positions in Eta, including being responsible for the group's explosives and heading its military apparatus, before becoming the leader in 2006 and leading the Eta cause in peace talks.
Peña is said to have participated in the talks but then decided to end the ceasefire. Since 2007, there has been no serious attempt at dialogue.
Eta has become a political football in Spain. The Socialists won the 2004 Spanish general election because of a backlash against the PP who were seen as having blamed the Madrid train bombings, carried out by al-Qaeda, on Eta in order to add weight to their own campaign.
Since then, the socialists have taken a much tougher approach, banning several left-wing pro-independence groups said to have links to Eta, and arresting members of the independence party Batasuna on charges of "glorifying terrorism".
Nor does the Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero have any time for plans by regional leader Juan José Ibarretxe, head of the separatist PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) to hold an independence referendum in October. Ibarretxe claims the move would reduce tensions, but Zapatero has rejected it as unconstitutional.
Such an unyielding stance has doubtless won the Socialists votes in the rest of Spain, but it has also served to radicalise some moderate Basques. Inigo Ayarza, from Eibar, in northern Spain, was brought up speaking Euskara, but was forced to learn Spanish when he went to school in the 1970s. Today, the Basque language is such an integral part of the education system many children speak it more fluently than their parents.
Ayarza, who has lived in Scotland for 15 years, does not favour independence but blames successive Spanish governments for what he sees as their hypocrisy and intransigence.
"Imagine if you lived in Scotland and you were banned from voting for the SNP. That is how it is for the Basque people," says Ayarza, who is an assistant manager at Roots and Fruits in Glasgow's West End. "The government has completely shut down the left-wing pro-independence movement – and arrested many of leaders – although they have never been involved in any bombing or attacks. Once I didn't bother with Batasuna, but I have more sympathy with it now."
The government says it has only banned groups which refuse to renounce violence.
Although Professor Wilkinson says more unity between Spain's political parties would be useful, he says the real problem lies with Eta, whose leaders – like Peña – insist in adopting a hardline position at odds with the people whose interests it claims to represent.
"Most Basques are happy with the current situation or, if they are not, are seeking a few minor adjustments. This is tragic – the terrorists are going nowhere and it's high time it ended. The majority of Basques want to live in peace."
