4.1 History. The protagonists. Their stories

La línea invisible tells the story of how the terrorist organization started and explores the motives that led a group of young people to take up the armed struggle. It was deliberately written in a documentary style with historical background, as it used documentation and statements from people related to the origin of ETA⁶, based on an original idea of Abel García Roure.

The series revolved around three real characters who underpin the main plots: Txabi Etxebarrieta, who was the first person to kill in the name of the organization; the civil guard José Antonio Pardines, the first victim of ETA; and the policeman and torturer Melitón Manzanas, head of the Brigada Político Social⁷ of Gipuzkoa, who was the object of the first attack planned by the terrorist organization. Etxebarrieta plays a key role in the story because he was the first to cross this imaginary line. He was shown as a brilliant student who refused to continue his doctorate at Oxford University and joined ETA instead. After the 5th Assembly, he became the organization’s first leader and called for a change from a trade union approach to an identity based approach: he proposed the use of violence. He was the first to kill, but he was also the first to die, thus becoming a martyr and a mythical figure of radical Basque nationalism, as he put his life at the service of the cause.

The main event represented in the series was the murder perpetrated on a civil guard called Pardines on 7 June 1968, which occurred by chance when he asked the driver of a car occupied by two ETA members at a roadblock in Aduna (Gipuzkoa). While he circled the vehicle to check if the license was in order, Etxebarrieta and Sarasketa (another member of his terrorist unit) left the car, took out a gun and, while Pardines had his back facing them, shot him first in the head and then four more times in the chest. He was the first ETA fatal victim that was featured in this fiction series.

The story recreated the first assemblies held in the Gipuzkoan town of Deba, which heralded the outset of the organization, and gave an insight into the debates, ideologies and political positions held in connection with the identity issue. The first ETA members were portrayed as idealistic, bourgeois youths who did not question whether they were engaged in terrorism because they were fighting against the dictatorship. They referred to Marxism, revolutionary fighters such as Che, Algeria and Vietnam, and used symbolic objects such as the Palestinian scarf. ETA’s initial actions were also reconstructed: graffiti, explosives on Franco’s monuments and newspaper headquarters, bank robberies to finance themselves, etc. These actions were carried out more for propaganda and subversion purposes than for terrorist purposes. After the 5th Assembly they started calling themselves the Movimiento Socialista Vasco de Liberación Nacional (Basque Socialist Movement for National Liberation), adopted armed struggle as a main strategy, and perpetrated attacks against people.

The series shows the role played by institutions such as the police and the Catholic Church in the creation and early development of ETA. While the police was the organization’s enemy, the Church was its ally, because it sheltered militants, provided them with venues for their mee tings, advised them on how to act and forgave their sins.

Patria used several timelines: the past-past, which narrated the lives of the characters before the death of Txato, a Basque businessman extorted by ETA; the past, what happened after his death, which focused on the repercussions of this event for all the characters; and the present, when the characters received the news of the cessation of armed activities. The events in the past, before and after Txato’s murder, took place in the 1980s. This period was recreated as normalizing terrorism in Basque society. It was shown through the character of Joxe Mari (a terrorist and son of Txato’s best friend) who rose to become a member of ETA after partici pating in the street fighting movement (kale borroka). The series reflected the decadence of the organization, which coincided with the fate of the ETA protagonist. Patria discussed the destruction of coexistence, personalized in the characters of Miren and Bittori, mothers of two families who were once close, and whose friendship was torn apart by terrorism: one housed an ETA member, the other his victim. Bittori, after her husband was murdered, was singled out, persecuted, and abandoned by the people in her village and by her best friend. The story pre sented a range of victims that resulted from the conflict: the widow, the orphans, the terrorists’ families, and those who lived with terrorism in their daily lives. It depicted a society of victims, terrorists, and silent people, those who did not object to ETA’s actions. This melting pot illus trates the ostracism reported by victims, who had little emotional, social, and political support.

Patria also showed the workings of ETA. For example, the riots of the youths of the kale borroka; the training of novice ETA members; the tasks involving informing and spying on targets carried out by the so-called patxis (sympathizers of the separatist left); the extortion of businessmen; the tributes to ETA members in the streets and town halls; and the support of the Basque Catholic Church. It also showed the tortures suffered by terrorist prisoners at the hands of the State security forces; the prison policy of dispersal promoted by the government in order to provoke dissidence among ETA inmates and encourage their reintegration into society, which undermined the morale and economic resources of their families and allowed them to be perceived as victims of the State. Special importance was attached to the idea of restorative meetings in prison, held between victims and perpetrators on a voluntary basis.

Lagun y la resistencia frente a ETA focused on the San Sebastian bookshop of that name founded in 1968 by Ignacio Latierro and the couple José Ramón Rekalde and María Teresa Castells. Lagun (meaning “friend” in Basque) was considered a cultural symbol, an example of the democratic struggle against totalitarianism and of social mobilization against terrorism because it was attacked on many occasions (shop windows and furniture were smashed, it was graffitied, had books burned, was set on fire) both by the extreme right during Franco’s regime and by ETA sympathizers in the democratic period. Its owners suffered coercion, threats, and attacks, but kept the bookshop open until its final closure for business reasons on 31 August 2023.

While the story of Lagun was narrated, the plot reviews events when civil society was confronted with terrorism. To reinforce the documentary nature of the production, statements by protagonists and activists were combined with archive footage. The first citizens’ rally against ETA violence was held after the attack on José María Portell (1978), the first journalist murdered by the organization, who “had internalized the idea of acting as a bridge between ETA and the government due to his ‘solid’ contacts between the organization and the government” (^{Landaburu, 2008}). Demonstrators walked silently through the streets of Portugalete holding a banner which read: “We are fed up with violence and killings. Askatasuna eta bakea” (freedom and peace). The beginning of the Gesto por la paz movement (1985) showed the small but important actions carried out by groups of people who gathered for 15 minutes at different points in Bilbao holding up posters that claimed: “Pakea zergaitik ez. Egin bat” (Why not peace? Join in). An initiative “Dilo con tu silencio” (Say it with your silence) by the Asociación por la Paz de Euskal Herria (Association for Peace in the Basque Country), created by Cristina Cuesta (1986), the daughter of a Telefónica director who was murdered by ETA, was also included. Their protests involved taking to the streets the day after an attack or kidnapping and gathering silently around a banner which read: “Denon artean” (approximately meaning “all of us together”).

These citizens’ initiatives and other ETA actions-the kidnapping of José María Aldaya and the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez-intersected with the various attacks on the bookshop. The night-time attack in which the violent attackers burned books, smashed the shop window and poured red and yellow paint all over the premises was particularly striking. Support for the victims was shown when, the next morning, hundreds of people came to the shop to buy the books- burnt, broken, smeared with paint and glass as they were-to help and show an unprecedented degree of solidarity with the bookshop. The attack on Francisco Tomás y Valiente in his office at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid was linked to the initiative by Manos Blancas, in which young university students painted their hands white, and occupied the public space to shout for justice. Another assassination, that of Miguel Ángel Blanco (1997), mobilized thousands of people against terrorism in the Basque Country. Emblematic details were highlighted in Lagun y la resistencia frente a ETA. These included the time when ertzainas (Basque regional police officers) took off their protective masks, revealing their faces; when demonstrators took up a position in front of the headquarters of the main party supporting ETA (HB), causing this party’s sympathisers to ask, paradoxically, for the protection of the Basque police; and when women from Ermua put their hands behind their heads and shouted: “ETA, shoot, here’s the back of my head”. The last action that was presented was by the organization ¡Basta Ya!, which brought together people from diverse political persuasions to oppose terrorism, support victims and defend the Constitution. The documentary concluded with ETA announcing the cessation of its armed activity and images of demonstrators applauding, shaking hands, kissing behind a banner which read: “Lortu dugu” (We did it). Latierro, founder of Lagun and activist in the fight against terrorism, emphatically said: “It is not the police that have put an end to ETA, but the popular movement, and Lagun has contributed something, we have done our bit”.

El instante decisivo was a dramatized documentary that provided a detailed narrative of how prison officer José Antonio Ortega Lara was released and of the assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco. Both events took place in 1997. It described the operation to free Ortega Lara after he had been held captive in a cell for 532 days in subhuman conditions. This segment provided previously unseen footage showing how the release was carried out and the tense atmosphere surrounding the operation. It relied on key witness statements, such as the judge in charge of the investigation, Baltasar Garzón, the then vicelehendakari (vice-president of the Basque government), Ramón Jáuregui, and the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Spain, Jaime Mayor Oreja. It then focused on the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco and used the device of a countdown to describe how ETA locked horns with the government during the 48 hours that the organization’s ultimatum lasted. It recounted the police operation, the position of Aznar’s government and the impressions of the Blanco family during the process, but, above all, it highlighted the citizens’ movement in the municipality of Ermua, which demanded the release of its councilor, and the general anguish of Basque society in the wake of the event. Media images and eyewitness accounts were used to re-enact the events. The documentary highlighted the turning point that this assassination represented in the subsequent development of ETA. The epilogue underlined that the event united society with politicians and everyone against the terrorists, as shown by the images of the demonstrations in Bilbao, San Sebastian and Ermua.

ETA, el final del silencio used a different approach. It recalled the past from a personal point of view, interweaving memory with facts and testimonies. The series dealt with issues that explained the conflict from multiple perspectives, sometimes mediated by the victims and sometimes by other protagonists, such as journalists, police officers or politicians. Thus, it looked into topics such as extortion, forgiveness and the future, among others. The following events were also highlighted: the assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco, the murder of Juan María Jáuregui, and the Hipercor bombing.

It started by building Zubiak⁸ (bridges in Basque) between Maixabel Lasa, widow of Juan María Jáuregui, civil governor of Guipúzcoa murdered by ETA (2000), and Ibon Etxezarreta, a con victed ETA member who in the unit that took part in her husband’s murder. In the first hour we were told who Jáuregui was: a multifaceted man, who used to be a member of the terrorist organization when it was first created, he was a prisoner during Franco’s regime and a mem ber of the Spanish Communist party (PCE). The documentary recounts that he had used his political position to promote the investigation of the Lasa and Zabala case⁹. His widow worked for peaceful coexistence in the Basque Country and invited the ETA member to lunch 19 years after Jaúregui’s assassination. This is the backdrop of a moving conversation she had with him in which reflections and subtexts appeared referring to repentance, forgiveness and the transfer of prisoners to locations closer to their families.

Another issue addressed in the docuseries was extortion, as the revolutionary tax was the group’s main source of funding. ETA murdered more than 40 businesspeople, kidnapped 20, and an estimated 100,000 people were extorted. The testimony given by Miguel Lazpiur, a businessman who refused to pay, and that of another, Jesús Mari Korta, who paid ETA after seeing other businesspeople die, were used as examples. The idea was to present the viewer with the dilemma of giving in to blackmail and financing terrorism or refusing to do it and becoming a target of the organization.

This was a striking and original approach, as it focused on younger victims, on what ETA meant for the second generation and for those indirectly affected by terrorism. With this aim in mind, a meal was held in a society, a symbol of brotherhood in the Basque Country. In order to encourage dialogue, it puts to the test the bridges built between the children of those killed by ETA, and of victims of the GAL and militants. They all explained how ETA had determined their future and that of their families.

One episode was also dedicated to Miguel Ángel Blanco, by reconstructing the 48 hours between his kidnapping and murder. The event is considered a key moment in the history of Spain and to illustrate this, they showed that Spanish people were able to remember where they were or what they were doing on that day. Another perspective in the docuseries was shown through the mistakes that ETA made along the way and what they meant for the future of the organization. The first killing (that of Pardines), the first civilian victim (Fermín Monasterio), and the first victim in democracy (Javier Ybarra) were mentioned. Reference was also made to the elimination of the group’s dissidents (such as the ETA members Pertur and Yoyes); to police operations (such as Bidart, Sokoa and Santuario); and ETA’s bloodiest actions (the Hipercor bombing); and possibly the most significant, the murder of Gregorio Ordóñez. While the GAL case was also analyzed, it was not extensively developed. However, it did at least appear as the other side of the coin of the fight against terrorism, alluding to state terrorism.

El desafío: ETA followed the book Historia de un desafío: cinco décadas de lucha sin cuartel de la Guardia Civil contra ETA, written by the Guardias Civiles Manuel Sánchez Corbí and Manuela Simón. It was structured around ETA’s chronological stages and the point of view is that of the Guardia Civil and its fight against terrorism. Police operations are therefore narrated. All are accompanied by the testimonies of ETA victims, especially those linked to the Guardia Civil. The story was illustrated by various media materials (newspapers, radio broadcasts, television footage) and unpublished material provided by this military police corps.

The episodes covered the ETA’s activities exhaustively: Pardines; Operación Ogro, which ended the life of President Luis Carrero Blanco; the kidnappings of Ortega Lara, the person held by ETA for the longest time (532 days living in a cell), and Emiliano Revilla; the assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco and the spirit of Ermua; the period in which ETA perpetrated car bombings; the attacks against the barracks in Zaragoza and Vic; the bombing of the Hipercor shopping mall; the thwarted attacks on the journalist Gorka Landaburu and the politician José María Aznar; and the assassinations of the politicians Gregorio Ordóñez, Ernest Lluch, Fernando Buesa, José Luis López de Lacalle and Isaías Carrasco.

The series elaborated on some new ideas, such as the collaboration with the French police; ETA’s contacts with the IRA; and the informants of and infiltrators in the organization. Police operations against ETA leaders, ETA members or units; internal dissent (Pertur, Yoyes); and negotiations and truces between ETA and the government were explained in detail. The docu mentary did, however, tiptoe over the questionable actions of the Guardia Civil, such as the dirty war by the GAL, the responsibility of General Enrique Rodríguez Galindo in the Lasa and Zabala case, and the events of Foz de Lumbier.

4.2 Victims to the fore

The analysis of the people who appear in the programs reveals recurrent names. Some of them on account of their political positions, such as Jaime Mayor Oreja, Carlos Totorika (who was the socialist mayor of Ermua during the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco), etc.; others for being journalists, such as Iñaki Gabilondo, José Antonio Zarzalejos; and others for belonging to social movements, such as the founders of Gesto por la paz and Denon artean.

The docuseries featured some consistent participants. Of the almost 200 people who appeared in both productions (163 participated in El desafío and 33 in ETA, el final del silencio), eight were in both, which represented 24.2% of overlap. In both cases, the interviewees talked about radical victims (those who had been murdered) and about surviving victims. The most popular due to media exposure were Gorka Landaburu and Irene Villa, but other victims less known to the public were also featured, such as Roberto Manrique, José Vargas and Rosa María Peláez, who were injured in the Hipercor bombing. Direct victims also appeared, those whom the organization intended to attack, including Javier Rupérez, a diplomat, Ignacio Latierro, a bookseller, and Miguel Lazpiur, a businessman. Secondary victims were a constant presence, especially relatives of victims, such as Maixabel Laxa and Pili Zabala, sister of Joxi Zabala, kidnapped and murdered by the GAL. The presence of the latter encompasses victims of the dirty war. There were also testimonies of incidental or collateral victims, such as those injured in the Hipercor attack and Alberto Muñagorri, who suffered the amputation of a leg when he kicked a garbage bag that contained a bomb. There was also a significant large contingent of journalists who were threatened by ETA, such as Gorka Landaburu, Iñaki Gabilondo, José María Calleja and José Luis López de la Calle. The latter also appeared as a radical victim, as he was assassinated. Both docuseries featured named/targeted victims and neutral victims; the latter were called “collateral damage” by ETA, and in this way they were brought to the fore after having been unrecognized for years. The greatest repetition was found in testimonies by politicians.¹⁰El desafío: ETA was the most pluralistic, because it collected the largest number of viewpoints from different spheres: politics, security forces, the media, victims and, to a lesser extent, former ETA militants. The uniformity was more striking among actual participants, as victims appeared in both productions.

The statements by perpetrators with varying degrees of involvement in the organization were prominently featured, including some of ETA’s founders of or those who were there in the early years, such as Gorka Landaburu, Lourdes Azurmendi and Ibon Etxezarreta (who denounced police violence).

Some of the children of victims of the ETA conflict participated in ETA, el final del silencio. Sandra, the daughter of socialist councilor Isaías Carrasco, said: “Each story is different, but we are united by the same pain. None of us deserved to suffer, but it was our turn”. Peru, son of Kepa del Hoyo, an ETA member who died in prison in Badajoz, says that society does not accept that he is a victim, to which Josu, son of Froilán Elespe, the murdered PSE deputy mayor, replied: “With all due respect, I would draw a line between those who are victims of terrorism and those who have suffered the consequences of terrorism”. Thus, Josu warned Peru that there can be no comparison, an argument that is commonly found in the discourse of the Basque radical separatist left. In this regard, Etxebarría introduced the concept of “asymmetrical footprint” to indicate that “violence creates such an asymmetry that overcoming it cannot be resolved through a new symmetry, but through an equal form of citizenship that considers a decisive asymmetrical footprint” (^{2012, p. 221}).

The Lagun bookshop was also a surviving victim of attacks. Some direct victims were featured, such as Latierro, Landaburu, Calleja and Roberto Lertxundi, and indirect victims (relatives), including Luis Castell, Txomin Alkorta and Consuelo Ordóñez who, in addition, was a double victim, as she was also a target of the organization due to her active fight against ETA after the assassination of her brother. Other victims singled out for their fight against the group were Fernando Aramburu, Cristina Cuesta, Peio Aspiazu and Fernando Sabater.

El instante decisivo brought together the testimonies of Baltasar Garzón, Juan María Atutxa, Jaime Mayor Oreja and Ramón Jáuregui, among others. Because of their work, they were named/targeted victims, and even suffered attacks, so they are also surviving victims. There were also some secondary victims, such as Nerea Garrido, Miguel Ángel Blanco’s cousin.

Patria focused on the victims and included characters that fell into almost all categories, such as Bittori and his children. This type of victim establishes a dichotomy between those who had overcome the feeling of victimization, survivors, and those who had not (like Bittori, who needs Joxe Mari to ask for forgiveness). Fictional works contained a representation of direct victims, such as Txato; and indirect victims, such as his relatives. All the victims shown were intended (Txato for economic reasons) and there were no collateral victims. Paradoxically, Joxe Mari went from being a perpetrator to being a victim when he was arrested and tortured.

In La línea invisible, Pardines and Melitón Manzanas were both radical and direct victims. The difference was that Manzanas was also an intended victim, whereas Pardines was an incidental victim and was targeted because he was a Guardia Civil. Secondary victims (relatives of both victims) were also featured, but their views were not reflected. Once again, the terrorist Etxebarrieta shifted from being a perpetrator to being a victim when he was shot, according to this classification.

The quantitative analysis categorizing all victims in the different¹¹ productions showed that the re were no radical victims in the nonfiction formats, although they were constantly alluded to. In fiction, on the other hand, there were frequent victims in this category (Table 1). Moreover, the surviving victims were at the center of the story more than ten years after the cessation of violence. The best-known victims, usually politicians, received the most attention. However, in the new narratives, the collateral victims became more prominent after years of being oversha dowed.