ABSTRACT
Violence continues to haunt Spanish democracy. Indeed, according to a poll taken in 1992, it was the people’s most compelling public concern. Left-wing violence erupted of the Franco regime, designed to help destroy the dictatorship. The bishops condemned the violence but supported political demands espoused by Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna (ETA) and Herri Batasuna, calling for the right of each people to self-determination. ETA began as a single organization, but it split into ETA-militar, which is totally committed to revolution, violence, and bloodshed, and ETA-polfticomilitar, which is more moderate and more willing to negotiate and take part in the political process but still prepared to kill for its cause. Panic was spread among the rest of the Basque population when anyone who had contact with the police was labeled a chivato, thus frightening away even those citizens who had legitimate complaints unassociated with terrorism.
