ABSTRACT
International leverage Basque organizations have long tried to get international agencies involved in the Basque peace effort. In the mid-and late 1990s, several international actors and agencies tried to mediate between ETA and the Spanish government, but all attempts were unsuccessful. In the mid-1990s, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Pérez Esquivel, acted for a while as a mediator, but the initiative vanished when the PP came to power in 1996.1 Elkarri got in contact with the Carter Foundation through the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, also in the mid-1990s. Harry Barnes of the Carter Foundation initially became involved and held a few meetings with Etxebeste in Santo Domingo, but the Aznar cabinet disabled that avenue when the ETA negotiator was extradited to Spain.2 According to Etxebeste, before Aznar took office in 1996 there was a chance for a “powerful” option to open a dialogue process in “a Nordic country.”3 Once the PP was in power, another initiative promoted by Barnes of the Carter Foundation involved the Italian religious community of San Egidio. They met with both ETA and the Spanish home minister Mayor Oreja, but the PP government was not interested at all.4 Elkarri, among others, had tried to involve many other agencies, and even top-level international organizations such as agencies under the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and some embassies, but the results were always poor. According to Jonan Fernández, at the time it was very difficult to get international help because it could be seen that the situation was not ripe.
