Basque terrorist group ETA disbands

The Basque militant group ETA has announced it has “completely dissolved all its structures”, according to a letter sent to Basque institutions and civil society groups.

In the letter, published by Spanish online newspaper eldiario.es yesterday, ETA said it acknowledges its responsibility in failing to solve the Basque “political conflict”.

ETA killed 853 people in its 50-year armed campaign to create an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

Founded in 1968 the midst of General Francisco Franco’s regime, the terrorist group grabbed global headlines when it killed the dictator’s anointed successor, prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco, in 1973.

The decision, ETA said in the letter, “doesn’t overcome the conflict that the Basque Country maintains with Spain and with France”.

The group’s bloodiest period came as Spain transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in the early 1980s.