Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación

Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, Antiterrorist Liberation Groups) were death squads established illegally by officials of the Spanish government to fight ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 until 1987, under Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)-led governments. It was proven at trial that they were financed by important officials within the Spanish Interior Ministry. The Spanish daily newspaper, El Mundo, played an important role in revealing the plot when it ran a comprehensive series of articles on the matter.

General history
GAL operated mainly in the portion of the Basque country on the French side of the Spanish-French border, but kidnappings and tortures were also performed at various places in Spain. The victims (at least 27 dead and 26 injured) were either members of ETA or Basque nationalist activists, but some victims were not known to have links to ETA or political violence at all. The GAL was active from 1983 until 1987, a period often referred to as "La guerra sucia" (the dirty war) in Spanish history.

The GAL did not have a coherent ideology. Its sole purpose was to attack ETA members and Basque nationalist targets, even at random, to spread confusion and put pressure on the French government. In this regard, the actual perpetrators were never militants, per se, and certainly not militants in the political sense. Rather they were mercenaries.

When the whole operation came to an end, in addition to GAL operatives a few Spanish policemen and government officials were also convicted. The scandalous revelations eventually led to terms in prison. For instance, the Interior Minister, José Barrionuevo, and his associate Rafael Vera, were convicted of the kidnapping of Segundo Marey, and General Galindo and the civil governor of Guipuzcoa, Julen Elgorriaga, were found guilty of the murder of Joxe Antonio Lasa and Joxe Ignacio Zabala in October 1983.

Prosecutors proved that the policemen who recruited mercenaries and the government officials who organized the dirty war's operations also embezzled large amounts of public money. Rafael Vera, among others, was sentenced for illegal appropriation of funds from the Ministry. Also, in order to buy their silence, the PSOE government bribed the individuals first jailed.

Due to reports by investigative journalists from El Mundo and other Spanish newspapers, Felipe González, then prime minister of Spain and leader of the PSOE, was suspected of being involved with the GAL. Some people claimed that, although González probably knew about the GAL, he was not brought to trial because it would further discredit Spanish political institutions.

The GAL was one of the main issues of the campaign during the elections of 1996 in which the PSOE was defeated by José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) for the first time. González then resigned as leader of the PSOE. With the exception of Ricardo García Damborenea, PSOE leaders have never acknowledged responsibility for the GAL, or condemned their crimes. González himself has never been charged with a GAL-related offence, but he has called publicly for pardons for his former subordinates. PSOE leaders campaigned for leniency towards their former colleagues, and the Aznar government pardoned some of them.

After 1987, when the GAL disbanded, the French government adopted a harsher attitude towards Basque refugees, by denying political refugee status to new applicants, and facilitating extraditions requested by Spanish judges. This change weakened ETA's veterans. The GAL may have ensured ETA's survival by helping to preserve the image of an authoritarian state at war with the Basque people.

Chronology of attacks

 * 1983:
 * October 17: Kidnapping and assassination of alleged ETA members Joxe Lasa Arostegi and José Ignacio Zabala. Claimed. Their mutilated corpses were found in Alicante in 1985, but not formally identified until 1995. Several Guardia Civiles were eventually sentenced for this case, though allegations of torture were dismissed.
 * October 18: Kidnap attempt in Bayonne of alleged ETA leader José Mari Larretxea Goñi by four Spanish policemen. The four agents were arrested by French gendarmes.
 * December 4: Kidnapping of Segundo Marey by mercenaries hired by the Spanish police. They demanded the liberation of the four policemen arrested for the kidnap attempt on Larraetxea. The policemen were released on December 8 and Marey on the 13th. S. Marey was not related to ETA in any way and he was apparently kidnapped by mistake.
 * December 19: Assassination of Ramón Oñaederra, alleged ETA member, in Bayonne.
 * December 29: Assassination of Mikel Goikoetxea, alleged ETA leader, in Bayonne, by a mercenary sharpshooter.
 * 1984:
 * February 8: Assassination of Vicente Perurena and Angel Gurmindo, alleged ETA members, in Bayonne.
 * February 25: Assassination by a sharpshooter of Eugenio Gutiérrez Salazar, alleged ETA member, in Mendi.
 * March 1: Assassination of railroad worker Jean Pierre Leyba in Hendaye.
 * March 23: Assassination of Javier Pérez Arenaza, alleged ETA leader, in Biarritz.
 * March (unclear date): Assassination attempt on Ramón Basañez Jauregi, alleged ETA member, in Bayonne. He was gravely injured but survived.
 * May 3: Assassination of Rafael Goikoetxea, alleged ETA member, in Baigorri. His companion Jesús Zugarramurdi is injured.
 * May 26: Kidnapping and torture of Rafael and Endika Lorenzo, members of the Anti-Nuclear Committees in Algorta (Getxo, Biscay).
 * June 15: Assassination of Tomás Pérez Revilla, alleged ETA member, by a bomb hidden in a motorcycle in Biarritz. His companion Ramón Orbe is injured.
 * July 10: Bomb attack against the tavern Consolation. Three people are injured: José Oliva Gallastegi, Bonifacio García and Juan Jauregi Aurria.
 * November 18: Assassination of dancer Christian Olaskoaga in Biriatou. He was not known to have connections with ETA.
 * November 20: Assassination of Santiago Brouard, leader of HASI in his own medical practice in Bilbao.
 * December 11: Attack on José Iradier in Hendaye, injured.
 * 1985:
 * February 1: Attack on Xabier Manterola, leader of Herri Taldeak, injured.
 * February 5: Bomb attack against Christian Casteigts in Bayonne, injured. He was not known to have connections with ETA.
 * March 29: Attack on Les Pyreneés tavern in Bayonne. Benoit Pecasteing, Jean Marc Mutio and Pedro José Pikabea were injured, Benoit fatally. Pikabea allegedly was member of ETA.
 * March 30: Assassination of photographer journalist Xabier Galdeano in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
 * June 26: Assassination of Santos Blanco González, alleged ETA member, in Bayonne.
 * June (unclear date): Attack on the Trinkete tavern in Ciboure: Emile Weiss and Claude Doer are killed. They were not known to have connections with ETA.
 * August 31: Assassination of Dominique Labeyrie in St. Jean de Luz. He was not known to have connections with ETA.
 * September 2: Assassination of Juan Manuel Otegi, alleged ETA member, in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
 * September 25: Attack on the Monbar hotel in Bayonne. José Mari Etxaniz, Iñaki Asteazu Izarra, Agustín Irazustabarrena and Sabin Etxaide Ibarguren, alleged ETA members, are killed.
 * December 24: Robert Caplanne is fatally injured in Biarritz. He died on January 6. He was not known to have connections with ETA.
 * 1986:
 * February 8: Attack on the Batxoki tavern. Karmele Martínez, Federick Haramboure and a young girl Nagore Otegui are injured.
 * February 17: Assassination of Christophe Matxikote and Catherine Brion. They had no connection with ETA. Not claimed by GAL.
 * 1987:
 * July 24: Assassination of Juan Carlos García Goena, again unconnected with ETA. The attack was not claimed by GAL. The arrested mercenaries, who performed it, accused GAL of ordering it.

Convicted GAL members
The actual attacks were carried by members of the Spanish Policía Nacional or, most frequently, by Portuguese or French mercenaries.

The convicted members of GAL's leadership are:
 * José Barrionuevo Peña, Homeland minister in PSOE's cabinets from 1982-88.
 * Rafael Vera, director for the Security of the State.
 * Ricardo García Damborenea, secretary general of PSE-PSOE in Biscay.
 * Francisco Álvarez, Antiterrorist Fight Czar.
 * Miguel Planchuelo, chief for the Police Information Brigade of Bilbao.
 * José Amedo Fouce, police chief.
 * Julián Sancristóbal, gobernador civil (delegate of the Spanish government) in Biscay.
 * General (then Colonel) Enrique Rodríguez Galindo, chief of the Guardia Civil headquarters at Intxaurrondo

Similar groups
Members of Batasuna gave the name "Green GAL" to a group of the Guardia Civil (who wear green uniforms) based on the Intxaurrondo barracks in San Sebastián, because Batasuna allege that they would attack ETA members illegally.
 * Anti-Terrorismo ETA (ATE)
 * Batallón Vasco Español (BVE)
 * Grupos Armados Españoles (GAE)

Books

 * Dirty War, Clean Hands -- ETA, the GAL and Spanish Democracy by Paddy Woodworth - ISBN 0-300-09750-6

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