Spanish Civil Guards arrest 8 in operation against ETA

The Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) arrested eight presumed members of the Basque separatist group ETA, including two lawyers, in operations carried out in Bilbao, Navarra and Gipuzkoa on Wednesday. The eight detainees are accused of forming part of the "only structure of the organization which is active in Spain." Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz confirmed that among the detainees were the lawyers Arantza Zulueta and Jon Enparantza, saying they formed part of the "tentacles with which ETA controlled members currently in prison." Several computers were also confiscated in the operation. Spanish authorities believed that Zulueta's office in Bilbao was the focal point from which the actions and "ideological" position of the approximately 600 ETA members currently in Spanish prisons, were controlled. The police operation was carried out just three days after 74 former ETA prisoners gathered in a reunion in the town of Durango, close to Bilbao, in order to show their support for the initiative of their companions currently in jail in which they rejected violence and accepted Spain's legal posture in regards to their situation. This can be seen as another step by the group, whose 45 year struggle for the independence of the Basque region in northern Spain, has cost over 800 lives, to move towards a permanent peace. ETA declared a permanent and binding ceasefire in 2011, which was welcomed by the majority of the country's political parties, with the exception of the ruling Popular Party. However, Spanish authorities also view the move as an attempt by the group to gain extra privileges in prison and perhaps tempt the government to house the prisoners in jails in the Basque region, as opposed to the current policy of sending them to jails in other parts of Spain.