Despite the fact that Generalissimo Francisco Baamonde Franco died in 1975, and a gradual democratization of the political regime began in Spain, those opposition forces that, even during Franco's reign, embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle against the fascist government and recognized armed actions as permissible and the desired means of political struggle, continued resistance in the post-Francoist Spanish monarchy. Gradually, antifascist and national liberation organizations were transformed into terrorist groups that did not disdain political assassinations, robberies, and explosions in public places. We will describe below how this transformation took place and what the “urban guerrilla” in Spain in the 1970s and 2000s was like.
The radicalization of the communist movement
Armed resistance to the Franco regime in Spain in the second half of the twentieth century was provided by two types of political organizations - national liberation organizations of ethnic minorities living in certain regions of the country, and left-wing anti-fascist organizations - communist or anarchist. Both types of political organizations were interested in overthrowing the Franco regime - the left for ideological reasons, and the national liberation organizations - because of the tough policy of the Francoists towards national minorities. Indeed, during the years of Franco's reign, the Basque, Galician and Catalan languages, teaching in them in schools, and the activities of national political organizations were banned.
Repressions have affected tens of thousands of people, only the number of those missing during the years of the Francoist regime is estimated by modern researchers at 100 - 150 thousand people. Given the peculiarities of the mentality of the Spaniards, it should be understood that many people could not forgive the regime for the murder and torture of their relatives and friends. It was the national regions of Spain - the Basque Country, Galicia and Catalonia - that became the main centers of radical resistance to the Franco regime. Moreover, on the territory of these regions, both national liberation organizations and left-wing radical organizations found support from the local population. The most powerful national liberation organizations operating in the national regions of Spain in the 1970s - 1990s. there were Basque ETA - "Basque Country and Freedom" and Catalan "Terra Lure" - "Free Land". However, the activity of Catalan terrorists was significantly inferior to that of the Basques. Even less active were the Galician separatists - supporters of the independence of Galicia. By the way, the Spanish left and national liberation organizations closely cooperated with each other, because they perfectly understood the common goals - to overthrow the Franco regime and change the political system in the country. However, the Spanish Communist Party, which adhered to pro-Soviet positions, gradually abandoned radical methods of struggle against the Franco regime after Joseph Stalin in 1948 called on the Spanish communist movement to take a course to curtail the armed struggle. Unlike the communists, the anarchists and the radical part of the communist movement, which did not accept the pro-Soviet line, continued to fight the Franco regime quite actively.
After in 1956 the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the XX Congress took a course of de-Stalinization and condemnation of Stalin's personality cult, more orthodox communists did not recognize the new line of the Soviet leadership and reoriented to China and Albania, which remained loyal to the ideas of Stalinism. There was a split in the world communist movement, and practically in all countries of the world, with the exception of the states of the socialist bloc headed by the USSR, new ones - pro-Chinese, or Maoist - were dissociated from the "old" pro-Soviet communist parties. The Spanish Communist Party remained loyal to the pro-Soviet positions and, since 1956, has been guided by the "policy of national reconciliation", which consisted in the abandonment of the armed struggle against the Franco regime and the transition to peaceful methods of countering the Francoist dictatorship. However, in 1963, several groups of activists who disagreed with the official line of the Spanish Communist Party left its ranks and established contact with the pro-Maoist Marxist-Leninist Party of Belgium and with Chinese diplomatic missions that supported the formation of pro-Chinese communist parties throughout Europe. During 1963-1964. there was a further consolidation of radical communist groups that did not agree with the official position of the Spanish Communist Party. This is how the Spanish Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) was formed, focused on Maoism and advocating the deployment of a revolutionary armed struggle against the Francoist regime - with the aim of carrying out a socialist revolution in the country. As early as December 1964, the Spanish police began to detain Maoist activists suspected of high treason. In April 1965, a group of activists was arrested trying to start distributing the newspaper Rabochy Avangard. In September 1965, a group of militants led by Fernando Crespo left the Spanish Communist Party (ML), who formed the Revolutionary Armed Forces (RVS). However, in early 1966, Crespo was arrested. Over the next two years, other activists of the organization were also arrested. Due to the repression of the Franco regime, the organization moved its activities abroad and received assistance from China, Albania and the Belgian Maoists. In 1970, after the party had disagreements with the Chinese Communist Party, it largely reoriented itself to Hoxhaism - that is, to the political line shared by Albania and the leader of the Albanian Party of Labor, Enver Hoxha. After that, the party moved its headquarters to the capital of Albania, Tirana, where Spanish-language radio began to operate. Thus, the party adopted the most orthodox version of Stalinism, since Enver Hoxha and the Albanian Party of Labor criticized even the Chinese communists, seeing in the activities of the Maoists certain deviations from the "teachings of Lenin-Stalin." For a long time, the Albanian Labor Party and the Albanian special services provided financial and organizational support to the Khojaist political parties operating in various parts of the world.
FRAP is headed by the former Minister of the Republic
In 1973, a group of activists of the Spanish Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) created the Revolutionary Anti-Fascist and Patriotic Front (FRAP), proclaiming as its main goal the armed struggle against the Franco dictatorship and the creation of the Spanish popular revolutionary movement. In May 1973, a speech by FRAP and KPI (ML) activists took place in the Plaza de Anton Martin. Armed with rods, stones and knives, FRAP fighters were dispersed in small groups, despite the presence of significant police forces at the rally. At 19.30, a demonstration began and immediately the demonstrators were attacked by police forces. As a result of a scuffle with the police, Deputy Police Inspector Juan Antonio Fernandez was stabbed to death and Inspector Lopez Garcia was seriously wounded. A police agent named Castro was also wounded. The murder of a police officer was the first violent action by FRAP. More attacks on Franco police officers followed, resulting in a total of about twenty law enforcement officers injured. FRAP's activities triggered an increase in political repression in Spain, as a result of which many activists of the militant organization and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party were arrested and tortured in police stations. Cipriano Martos was arrested on 30 August and died on 17 September after being unable to withstand grueling interrogations by Spanish police. The cause of death was that the operatives forced him to drink a Molotov cocktail.
However, FRAP officially announced the beginning of its activities only in November 1973 in Paris. The founders of the organization gathered at the apartment of Arthur Miller, an American playwright who lived in Paris and a longtime good friend of the Spanish socialist Julio del Vayo, a former foreign minister in the government of the Spanish Republic. Among the priority tasks facing the FRAP were: 1) the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship of Franco and the liberation of Spain from American imperialism; 2) the creation of the People's Federal Republic and the provision of democratic freedoms and self-government of the country's national minorities; 3) nationalization of monopolies and confiscation of oligarchs' property; 4) agrarian reform and confiscation of large latifundia; 5) rejection of the imperialist policy and the liberation of the remaining colonies; 6) the transformation of the Spanish army into a true defender of the popular interests. At a national conference held on November 24, 1973, Julio lvarez del Vayo y Ollochi (1891-1975) was elected FRAP chairman. Although the organization was youthful in composition, Julio del Vayo was already a deeply 82-year-old man.
From an early age he participated in the activities of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, became widely known as a journalist in Spain and Great Britain, and covered the events of the First World War. In 1930, del Vayo participated in the preparation of the anti-monarchist uprising in Spain, and after the proclamation of the republic for two years he served as the ambassador of Spain to Mexico - very important, given the developed relations between the two countries. From 1933 to 1934 represented Spain in the League of Nations, participated in the resolution of political contradictions between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1933, when the Chaco War between the two states began. In 1933, del Vayo later became the ambassador of Spain to the Soviet Union, joined the revolutionary wing of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, which was headed by Largo Caballero. During the Spanish Civil War, del Vayo held important positions in the republican government, including twice as foreign minister. After the conquest of Catalonia, del Vayo took part in the last battles with the Francoists and only then fled the country. In the 1940s - 1950s. del Vayo was in exile - in Mexico, the USA and Switzerland. During this time, his political views have undergone significant changes. Del Vaio was expelled from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and created the Spanish Socialist Union, close in its program to the Spanish Communist Party. In 1963, after the Communist Party finally abandoned the idea of an armed struggle against the Francoist regime, del Vayo did not agree with this overly moderate line and called for the continuation of the armed struggle against the Francoist regime. He founded the Spanish National Liberation Front (FELN), which, however, could not grow into a large and active organization. Therefore, when FRAP was created on the initiative of the Spanish Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), Alvarez del Vayo included his organization in it and was elected acting president of the Revolutionary Anti-Fascist and Patriotic Front. However, due to his advanced age, he could no longer take an active part in the activities of the organization, and on May 3, 1975, he died as a result of an attack of heart failure.
FRAP became one of the first Spanish terrorist organizations in the last period of the Francoist dictatorship. The front favored violent methods of political struggle and overwhelmingly approved the assassination of Spanish Prime Minister Admiral Carrero Blanco, who was killed in a bomb blast organized by the Basque terrorist organization ETA. FRAP said the murder of Carrero Blanco was an act of "redress." In the spring and summer of 1975, the activities of the FRAP combat groups intensified. So, on July 14, an officer of the military police was killed, a little later a police officer was wounded, and a lieutenant of the Civil Guard was killed in August. In addition to attacks on police officers, FRAP was involved in the violent resolution of labor conflicts, armed robbery and theft, positioning this activity as "revolutionary violence of the working class." In response to the growing political violence of the FRAP, the Spanish security forces began repressions against the organization's militant structures. Since the activities of the special services in Spain during the years of Franco's rule were set to a high level, three FRAP militants, Jose Umberto Baena Alonso, Jose Luis Sánchez and Ramon Bravo García Sans, were soon detained. On September 27, 1975, together with two Basques from ETA, the detained FRAP activists were shot. The execution of FRAP members caused a negative reaction not only from the Spanish, but also from the world community. It so happened that these executions were the last during the life of the dictator.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco passed away on November 20, 1975. After his death, political life in the country began to change rapidly. On November 22, 1975, in accordance with Franco's will, power in the country was returned to the hands of the monarchs from the Bourbon dynasty, and Juan Carlos de Bourbon became the new king of Spain. By this time, Spain was one of the most economically developed states in Europe, the living standard of the population was rapidly increasing, but Franco's political authoritarianism until his death was a serious obstacle to the further development of the Spanish state and strengthening its position in the world economy and politics. The king appointed the chairman of the government the conservative K. Arias Navarro, who included representatives of the moderate trend in Spanish Francoism in the government. The new prime minister spoke in favor of an evolutionary way of bringing Spain closer to other democratic countries of the West, without a radical and rapid breakdown of the order that had developed during the years of Franco's rule. At the same time, knowing full well that the further preservation of the repressive regime is fraught with intensification of the armed struggle of opposition groups, the cabinet of Arias Navarro announced a partial amnesty. There was an expansion of civil rights and freedoms, the development of parliamentarism. At the same time, it was assumed that democracy in Spain would still be "controlled" in nature and would be controlled by the king and the government. The repressions against the communists and anarchists continued under the Navarro government, but they were already of a much lesser nature. The gradual decrease in the intensity of political confrontation also contributed to a decrease in the activity of radical groups, including the FRAP. In 1978, finally convinced of the democratization of political life in Spain, the FRAP leaders dissolved the organization. By this time, a new constitution was approved in Spain, proclaiming the country a democratic state and turning Spain into a "state of autonomies". The government made certain concessions to the Basque, Catalan and Galician national liberation movements, because it understood that otherwise the lack of real rights and freedoms of national minorities would lead to an endless confrontation between the national outskirts and the central government of Spain. A certain set of powers aimed at expanding local self-government was transferred from the central government to the regional autonomous communities. At the same time, the level of real autonomy of national regions remained extremely inadequate, especially since the nationalistically oriented representatives of local left-wing radical organizations were not going to agree with the level of freedoms that Madrid provided to the regions and focused on continuing the armed struggle against the regime - until a "genuine" autonomy or even political independence of their regions. It was the national regions of Spain, primarily the Basque Country, Galicia and Catalonia, that became hotbeds of new armed resistance to the already post-Francoist government of the country. On the other hand, there was a danger of "right-wing reaction" and a return to the methods of government of the Franco regime, since among the officers of the army, police, special services, and a number of officials, revanchist sentiments prevailed - convinced Francoists were convinced that democratization would not bring Spain to good, they accused the socialists and the communists in an effort to destroy the Spanish state and created their own armed groups that fought against Basque separatism and the radical left movement. The latter factor also contributed to the activation of armed groups with a left-wing radical orientation - as a defensive reaction of the left movement to the danger of a "right reaction".
October 1st group
However, the FRAP, despite the high activity that it showed in 1973-1975, can hardly be called the most powerful Spanish left-wing armed organization of the second half of the twentieth century. Much more domestic and Western readers are familiar with GRAPO - the Group of Patriotic Anti-Fascist Resistance on October 1.
This organization got its name in memory of October 1, 1975. It was on this day that an action of armed retaliation was held for the execution of three FRAP activists and two ETA activists on September 27, after which the Spanish left-wing radicals, as a sign of revenge to the Franco regime for the execution of like-minded people, launched an attack on military police officers. GRAPO was formed as an armed division of the Spanish Communist Party (reborn), which also acted from a left-wing radical position. In 1968, the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Spain was created in Paris, which was formed by a group of activists of the Spanish Communist Party, dissatisfied with the pro-Soviet position of the latter and accused it, and at the same time the Soviet Union and the communist parties of pro-Soviet orientation of "revisionism". In 1975, on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist organization of Spain, the Communist Party of Spain (reborn) and its armed wing, the Group of Patriotic Anti-Fascist Resistance on October 1, arose. The GRAPO gained the strongest positions in the northwestern regions of Spain - Galicia, Leon and Murcia, where the Organization of Marxist-Leninists of Galicia operated, whose activists formed the core of the GRAPO. The economic backwardness of the northwestern regions of Spain contributed to a certain amount of support for radical communist movements on the part of the population of these territories, who felt themselves socially discriminated against and robbed by the central government of the country and wanted radical social and political transformations in the life of the Spanish state. National feelings were also mixed with social discontent - Galicia is inhabited by Galicians, who are ethnolinguistically closer to the Portuguese than to the Spaniards. The Maoists proclaimed a struggle for the national self-determination of the Galician people, which earned the sympathy of the local population and provided themselves with a personnel reserve from among the radical representatives of the Galician youth.
The history of GRAPO as an armed organization began on August 2, 1975, although at that time it did not yet bear its official name and was simply an armed section of the Spanish Communist Party (reborn). On this day in Madrid, Calisto Enrique Cerda, Abelardo Collazo Araujo and Jose Luis Gonzalez Zazo, nicknamed "Caballo", attacked two members of the Civil Guard. A few days later, gunmen killed police officer Diego Martin. After the FRAP and ETA militants were executed, on October 1, 1975, four military police officers were killed by the militants of the future GRAPO on a Madrid street. This action was widely covered by the left-wing radical press - as revenge for the execution in a Franco prison of Basque militants and FRAP members. After formal political democratization began in Spain, GRAPO, the Spanish Communist Party (reborn) and a number of other radical left organizations signed a Five Point Program, which outlined the main tactical demands of the Spanish ultra-left towards real democratization of political life in the country. The five points included: a complete and general amnesty for all categories of political prisoners and political exiles, with the abolition of anti-terrorist laws against the radical opposition; total cleansing of the authorities, justice and police from former fascists; the abolition of all restrictions on political and trade union freedoms in the country; refusal of Spain to join the aggressive NATO bloc and the liberation of the country from American military bases; immediate dissolution of parliament and holding free elections with equal access to them for all political parties in the country. It goes without saying that the Spanish royal regime, which replaced Franco, would never have gone to implement these points, especially in the direction of interrupting cooperation with NATO, since this was fraught with deterioration in relations with the United States of America and the emergence of numerous economic and diplomatic problems in Spain. It is unlikely that the Spanish authorities would agree to the dismissal from the law enforcement and judicial system of high-ranking officials who began serving under Franco, since they formed the backbone of Spanish judges, prosecutors, senior police officers, the civil guard and the armed forces. Moreover, most of the Spanish high-ranking officials belonged to aristocratic and noble families with great connections in government circles and influence. Finally, the Spanish government feared that in the event of a complete democratization of political life in the country, representatives of the irreconcilable communist opposition could get into parliament, and the expansion of the influence of communists and anarchists on the political life of post-Francoist Spain was in no way included in the plans of the king and his conservative entourage, or in the plans pro-Western liberal and social democratic political parties in Spain.
Decades of bloody terror
Despite the fact that Generalissimo Franco died in 1975 and the political situation in Spain began to change in the direction of democratizing domestic politics and refusing to repressions against the radical left opposition, GRAPO continued its terrorist activities. This was due to the fact that the Spanish government did not agree to the implementation of the Five Point Program, which, according to GRAPO and other ultra-leftists, was evidence of the Spanish government's de facto refusal to truly democratize political life in the country. In addition, GRAPO was dissatisfied with the expansion of Spanish cooperation with the US and NATO, since GRAPO acted in alliance with other European left-wing armed organizations - the Italian Red Brigades and French Direct Action, which carried out actions against NATO and US targets. But the target of GRAPO, most often, was the representatives of the Spanish government and security forces. GRAPO carried out a series of attacks on police officers and members of the Spanish army and civil guard, and also engaged in robberies and extortion from businessmen for the "needs of the revolutionary movement." One of the most audacious and famous actions of the GRAPO was the kidnapping of the President of the Council of State of Spain Antonio Maria de Ariol Urhico. A high-ranking official was abducted in December 1976, and in early 1977 President of the Supreme Council of Military Justice Emilio Villaescus Quillis was abducted. However, on February 11, 1977, Urhiko was released by police officers who followed the trail of GRAPO militants. Nevertheless, a series of armed attacks by militants continued. For example, on February 24, 1978, a group of militants attacked two police officers in Vigo, and on August 26 robbed one of the banks. On January 8, 1979, President of the Spanish Supreme Court Chamber, Miguel Cruz Cuenca, was assassinated. In 1978, the general director of prisons in Spain, Jesus Haddad, was assassinated, and a year later, his successor, Carlos García Valdez. Thus, in 1976-1979. a number of high-ranking officials of the Spanish law enforcement system and justice became victims of attacks by GRAPO militants. With these actions, GRAPO took revenge on Spanish judges, police and military leaders who began their careers under Franco and, despite the formal democratization of political life in the country, retained their posts in the government and the judicial system. A number of attacks on police and civilian guards were carried out in alliance with FRAP militants. On May 26, 1979, a bloody terrorist act was committed in Madrid. On this day, a bomb was detonated in the California cafe located on Goya Street. The explosion occurred at 18.55, when the cafe was crowded. His victims were 9 people, 61 people were injured. The inside of the cafe building was completely destroyed. This became one of the most brutal and unexplained terrorist attacks not only by GRAPO, but by all European leftist terrorists. After all, the rejection of the practice of "unmotivated terror" was adopted as a basic rule at the beginning of the twentieth century, and since then only rare groups, usually of a nationalist persuasion, have carried out such large-scale terrorist attacks in public places.
A series of terrorist attacks in Spanish cities in 1979 forced the country's police to intensify their efforts to combat terrorism. In 1981, the leaders of the GRAPO José Maria Sánchez and Alfonso Rodriguez García Casas were sentenced by the Spanish National Court to 270 years in prison (the death penalty in the country was abolished after the death of Generalissimo Franco). In 1982, GRAPO proposed to the Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez to conclude an armistice, and after negotiations held in 1983 with the leadership of the Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs, most of the GRAPO militants laid down their arms. Nevertheless, many militants did not want to surrender to the authorities and police operations against the remaining active GRAPO activists continued in various cities in Spain. On January 18, 1985, 18 people were arrested in a number of cities across the country, suspected of being involved in armed GRAPO protests. However, such prominent militants as Manuel Perez Martinez ("Camarade Arenas" - pictured) and Milagros Caballero Carbonell managed to escape arrest by fleeing Spain.
In 1987, despite the fact that Spain had long been a democratic country, GRAPO reorganized to continue armed actions against the Spanish government. In 1988, a Galician businessman, Claudio San Martin, was killed by GRAPO militants, and in 1995 businessman Publio Cordon Zaragoza was kidnapped. He was never released, and only after the arrest of the GRAPO militants many years later, it became known that the businessman had died two weeks after the abduction. In 1999, GRAPO fighters attacked a bank branch in Valladolid and planted a bomb at the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in Madrid. In 2000, in Vigo, GRAPO militants attacked with the aim of robbery an armored van of collectors and killed two guards in a firefight, seriously injuring a third. In the same 2000, in Paris, the police managed to arrest seven leading activists of the organization, but on November 17, 2000, GRAPO fighters shot dead a policeman patrolling the Madrid district of Carabanchel. In addition, several businesses and government agencies were mined in the same year. In 2002, the police again managed to inflict serious damage to the organization, arresting 14 activists - 8 people were arrested in France and 6 people in Spain. After these arrests, the group was greatly weakened, but did not cease its activities and in 2003 attacked a bank branch in Alcorcon. In the same year, 18 members of the organization were arrested. Spanish justice paid close attention to the political activities of the Spanish Communist Party (reborn), rightly seeing in it a “roof” for the armed struggle carried out by the GRAPO.
In 2003, Judge Baltazar Garzón decided to suspend the activities of the Spanish Communist Party (reborn) on charges of collaborating with the terrorist organization GRAPO. However, on February 6, 2006, GRAPO militants attacked businessman Francisco Cole, who owned an employment agency. The businessman was injured and his wife was killed in the attack. In the same year, there was a shootout on a street in Antena, and on February 26, 2006, police arrested Israel Torralba, who was responsible for most of the group's killings in recent years. However, on July 4, 2006, two GRAPO militants robbed a branch of the Bank of Galicia in Santiago de Comostella. As a result of the attack, the militants managed to steal 20 thousand euros. The police identified the attackers - it turned out that they were GRAPO militants Israel Clemente and Jorge Garcia Vidal. According to the police, it was these people who attacked the businessman Kole, as a result of which his wife, Anna Isabel Herrero, died. According to the Spanish police, by the time under review, at least 87 people had died at the hands of GRAPO militants - most of them became victims of attacks on banks and collector vehicles, since the militants were never particularly scrupulous in choosing targets and without a twinge of conscience opened fire to defeat, even if civilians were in the line of fire. In June 2007, GRAPO's safe houses in Barcelona were discovered, and in 2009 the French gendarmerie discovered a cache near Paris where GRAPO militants kept their weapons. March 10, 2011a small bomb was detonated in the house where the mayor of Santiago de Compostella, José Antonio Sanchez, a representative of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, had previously lived. On suspicion of involvement in the explosion, a former member of the GRAPO Telmo Fernandez Varela was arrested, during a search in whose apartment they found materials used in the manufacture of Molotov cocktails. Nevertheless, some experts are inclined to associate the latest terrorist attacks in Santiago de Compostella with the activities of the Galician Resistance Group - separatists advocating the separation of Galicia from Spain. Apparently, until now, the Spanish police and special services have not been able to completely eliminate the GRAPO cells, thereby destroying the terrorist threat posed by the left-wing radical Galician militants. Therefore, it is possible that in the foreseeable future, Spain may face another armed sorties by militants. However, at present, the greatest threat to the national security of the Spanish state does not come from the ultra-left or even from the national liberation movements of the Basque Country, Galicia and Catalonia, but from radical fundamentalist groups that have gained influence among young migrants from North African countries (Moroccans, Algerians, immigrants from other African countries), due to their social status and ethnic differences, are most susceptible to the assimilation of radical sentiments, including those taking the form of religious fundamentalism.
It should be noted that in recent decades in Spain all conditions have been created for political activity in a peaceful way. There is no longer the fascist Franco regime in the country, democratic elections are being held, and the government acts with tough methods only when it enters into confrontation with the radical opposition. Nevertheless, the militants from the armed left-wing radical and nationalist organizations do not even think about stopping the armed resistance. This indicates that they have long been interested in the path of violence and expropriation more than the real solution of the social problems of Spanish society. After all, it is impossible to solve a single social problem by means of terrorist attacks, as evidenced by the entire centuries-old history of modern terrorism - both left and right, and national liberation. At the same time, one cannot fail to note the fact that the very possibility of mass armed violence with the support of a certain part of the population indicates that not everything is calm in the Spanish kingdom. There are a lot of socio-economic and national problems that, due to certain circumstances, official Madrid cannot or does not want to solve. These include, among other things, the problem of self-determination of the regions of Spain inhabited by national minorities - Basques, Catalans, Galicians. We can only hope that Spanish political organizations, including those of a radical orientation, will find more peaceful arguments to convey their position to the Spanish authorities and stop terrorist attacks, the victims of which are people who are simply doing their duty as soldiers and policemen, or even peaceful citizens of the country that have nothing to do with politics.
