According to Law (2009:251), two factors have been critical in the decline of
what was already marginal Basque support for ETA terrorism. The first was the popular
reaction to the 1997 ETA kidnapping and murder of the local conservative Basque
politician, the 29-year old Miguel Angel Blanco. Several millions of Spaniards, among
them one hundred thousand Basques, marched and publically condemned his murder.
Thus ETA terrorists found themselves in the defensive, as they noticed they even lacked
the support of the communities they believed to be “theirs”. The other event that
contributed to the decline of ETA effectiveness was9/11, a terrorist act of such carnage
and magnitude that it undermined in Spain, as it did in much of the West, any
organization’s justification of terrorism.
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As an immediate result, America froze bank
accounts associated with ETA members and the world’s police forces coordinated
themselves better. José María Aznar’s conservative government, in conjunction with the
French government, launched an all-out police offensive against the group and several