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GAL's activities, known as "the dirty war", primarily targeted ETA members and Basque nationalists, with attacks occurring mainly in the Basque country on the French side of the Spanish-French border, but kidnappings and torture also took place in Spain. The daily newspaperEl Mundo played a crucial role in exposing GAL. Several Spanish police officers and government officials were convicted and imprisoned when the operation ended. The death squads were an important issue during the1996 election, when the PSOE was defeated byJosé María Aznar'sPeople's Party (PP) for the first time.
GAL operated primarily in theBasque Country on the French side of theSpanish-French border, but kidnappings and torture also took place in Spain. Most victims (at least 27 dead and 26 injured) were ETA members or activist Basque nationalists, but some were not known to have links to ETA or any other organization advocatingpolitical violence. GAL was active from 1983 to 1987, a period known asla guerra sucia ("the dirty war") inSpanish history.
Its main purposes were to attack ETA members and Basque nationalist targets and to wreak havoc in French territory to put pressure on the French government.[1]
Apart from thenationalist rationale for its opposition to Basque separatism, GAL was not on theleft–right political spectrum; many members were foreign mercenaries. Many of these mercenaries were recruited from the Europeanfar right (including theOAS), however, and many perpetrators and organizers were active or formerFrancoist civil servants.[2]
After the assassination of PSOESenator Enrique Casas by theCAA, PSOE officials attempted to assassinateHerri Batasuna representative Santi Brouard. Would-be assassin Jose Luis Morcillo received 7.5 millionpesetas from high-ranking Civil Guard official Rafael Masa, as ordered by Spanish State Security chief directorJulian Sancristobal. Part of the payment for the attempt on Brouard's life, however, was diverted to unknown purposes.[5][6]
Memorial demonstration for Joxe Antonio Lasa and Joxe Ignacio Zabala in 2008
Prosecutors proved that the police officers who recruited mercenaries and the government officials who organized the dirty-war operations also embezzled large amounts of public money[citation needed]. Rafael Vera and others were sentenced for illegal appropriation of funds from the Interior Ministry. To ensure their silence, the PSOE government bribed inspector José Amedo Fouce and Michel Domínguez. Vera was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and his secretary received a nine-month sentence.[7]
The death squads were an important issue during the1996 election, when the PSOE was defeated byJosé María Aznar'sPeople's Party (PP) for the first time. González then resigned as PSOE leader. With the exception ofRicardo García Damborenea,[10] PSOE leaders have never acknowledged responsibility for the GAL or condemned their crimes. González, who has never been charged with a GAL-related offence, has called publicly for pardons for his former subordinates. PSOE leaders campaigned for leniency towards their former colleagues, and the Aznar government pardoned several of them.
October 17: Kidnapping and assassination of alleged ETA membersJoxe Lasa Arostegi and José Ignacio Zabala.[11] Their mutilated bodies were found inAlicante in 1985, but not formally identified until 1995.[11] Several Civil Guard officers were convicted.
October 18: Attempted kidnapping inBayonne of alleged ETA leader José Mari Larretxea Goñi by four Spanishpolicemen.[12] The four officers were arrested by Frenchgendarmes.
December 4:Kidnapping of Segundo Marey[12] by mercenaries hired by the Spanish police, who demanded the liberation of the four police officers arrested for the attempted kidnapping of Larraetxea. The officers were released on December 8, and Marey on December 13. Marey, not related to ETA, was apparently kidnapped by mistake.
December 19: Assassination of alleged ETA member Ramón Oñaederra in Bayonne[12]
December 29: Assassination of alleged ETA leader Mikel Goikoetxea inSaint-Jean-de-Luz[12] by a mercenary sniper
1984
February 8: Assassination of alleged ETA members Vicente Perurena and Angel Gurmindo inHendaye[13]
February 25: Sniper assassination of alleged ETA member Eugenio Gutiérrez Salazar inMendi[12]
March 1: Assassination of railroad worker Jean Pierre Leyba inHendaye[12]
March 19: GAL mercenary Jean-Pierre Cherid dies inBiarritz[12] when the bomb he is planting explodes prematurely.
May 3: Assassination of alleged ETA member Rafael Goikoetxea inBaigorri. His companion,Jesús Zugarramurdi, is injured.[12] ETA kills industrialist Ángel Rodríguez, whom they accused of assisting the GAL, that day.[12]
May 26: Kidnapping and torture of Rafael and Endika Lorenzo, members of the anti-nuclear committees inAlgorta (Getxo,Biscay)
June 15: Assassination of alleged ETA member Tomás Pérez Revilla by a bomb hidden in a motorcycle in Biarritz. His companion, Ramón Orbe, is injured.[12]
July 10: Bomb attack on the Consolation tavern, injuring three[12]
November 18: Assassination of dancer Christian Olaskoaga inBiriatou. Olaskoaga was not known to have ETA connections.[12]
August 31: Assassination of Dominique Labeyrie in St. Jean de Luz.[12] Labeyrie had no known ETA connections.
September 25:Monbar Hotel attack in Bayonne kills ETA members José Mari Etxaniz, Iñaki Asteazu Izarra, Agustín Irazustabarrena and Sabin Etxaide Ibarguren.[14]
December 24: Robert Caplanne is fatally injured in Biarritz. Caplanne had no known ETA connections.
1986
February 8: Attack on the Batxoki tavern injures three.
February 17: Assassination of Christophe Matxikote and Catherine Brion, who had no ETA connections. GAL did not claim responsibility but Miguel Brecia (with known links to the groups) was convicted of the attack, and the court considered it a GAL attack.[15]
1987
July 24: Assassination of Juan Carlos García Goena, unconnected with ETA. Although GAL did not claim responsibility, the mercenaries who killed him accused GAL of ordering it.
Members ofBatasuna gave the name "Green GAL" to a Civil Guard group (who wear green uniforms) based in San Sebastián's Intxaurrondo barracks, alleging that the group attacked ETA members illegally.
