By Tito Drago
MADRID, Aug 6 2001 (IPS)

The lives of many Spaniards from all walks of life are hanging by a thread, due to the risks posed by the terrorist actions staged by the Basque separatist group ETA.

ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Fatherland and Liberty in the language of that northern part of Spain) emerged during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-75), fighting for Basque Country independence and socialism.

But ETA continues its violent activities today, despite the fact that Spain is governed by a constitution approved by referendum in 1978, and that the Basque Country now has its own autonomous government, parliament and police force.

The attacks staged by ETA over the years have made special security measures necessary all over Spain. Most of the incidents include bombs activated by remote control or by timer, or assassinations of unarmed people without bodyguards, who are usually shot in the back.

From the start, ETA has had the same basic aims: Basque independence and territorial reunification of the region, said Julen Madariaga, one of the founders of the armed group, with which he no longer has ties. But in the past, he underlined, “the military arm was subordinated to the political leadership, and now it is the other way around.”

While during the dictatorship of Franco, ETA killed emblematic figures of the regime, like admiral and prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco, or Melitón Manzanas, a secret police commissioner and known torturer, today the group targets parliamentarians, town councillors, reporters and even cooks, simply because they do not support ETA.

The group also kills passersby who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when bombs explode.

That change in objectives and tactics has had repercussions in the lives of thousands of citizens, who must be accompanied at all times by security guards.

The situation affects national and provincial government officials, judges like Baltasar Garzón (world-renowned for his attempt to try former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet), journalists, town councillors and even a plumber in a small Basque town who has to take his bodyguard with him even when he goes to fix the water heater of one of his neighbours.

At the time a decision was reached in June to increase the number of people under official protection in the Basque Country, 650 people in the region were already under guard, not including those who had a security escort due to the public post they held or those who hired their own private bodyguards.

Things are not much different in the rest of Spain, although the proportion of people accompanied by security agents is lower.

A survey carried out by the private consultancy Sigma Dos in May found that seven out of 10 respondents in the Basque Country felt personally affected by terrorism and other kinds of violent actions staged by ETA.

The survey results also indicated that half of those who said they voted for the political party that backs ETA agreed that terrorism had gravely damaged freedom and human rights.

José Luis, a bodyguard who declined to provide his last name for security reasons, told IPS that his mission was not limited to merely accompanying the person he was guarding – who he referred to as “the boss” or “the VIP”.

His job begins when he picks up the car in which “the boss” will ride that day. Before getting in the car, José Luis checks underneath with a collapsible mirror to see if a car bomb has been installed.

Car bombs generally go off when the vehicle is started or when it drives up or down a hill, or they can be detonated by remote control – “which means they don’t take any risk themselves, like the cowards they are,” said José Luis.

After driving to the home of the “VIP”, the bodyguard drives around the block once or twice, parks the car outside the door, and has breakfast at a nearby bar, from which he closely watches over the house.

José Luis takes a good look around the bar to see if there are any new customers, pays his check, makes small talk with the waiters, and stays on the alert. He soon receives a call on his mobile phone telling him “the boss” is ready to leave.

He then looks around as he holds the car door open. The “VIP” enters the car before the bodyguard, who in this case doubles as chauffeur, although in other cases there is an additional member of the team.

The car takes off immediately, following a different route every day, because “they can leave a car parked anywhere with a bomb inside that they set off as you pass by,” said José Luis.

The day-to-day routine poses the biggest challenges, because it limits the ability to improvise, said the reporter who José Luis guards, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“Before I go out, I always have to call the bodyguard, no matter where I’m going, whether I’m alone or accompanied by my wife and daughter, and whether I’m going to the movies, a restaurant or to visit a relative,” he told IPS.

Moreover, he must take care not to open any letter or package whose origin he is not sure of, nor stand near the windows of his home, said the journalist, who has not worked in the Basque Country for years.

But taking precautions is sometimes not enough, as another journalist, Gorka Landaburu, Basque Country correspondent for the weekly Cambio16, found out.

Three months ago, Landaburu received an envelope containing his weekly issue of a local magazine, and put it in his office. When he opened it up the next day, a letter-bomb blew up in his face.

Landaburu narrowly escaped death, and now has mutilated hands and scars all over his body. The investigators discovered that someone informed ETA of his weekly magazine subscription, and that the group intercepted the package and replaced it with one that contained a bomb.

The reporter’s life hung by a fine thread that fortunately was not severed. Three months later, Landaburu is still living in his Basque Country home – and preparing to return to his job as a journalist.

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