Basque Fighters Reeling From Crackdown

ETA has claimed responsibility for more than 800 deaths since 1968. After the 11th cease-fire ended in 2000, Aznar's government stepped up the crackdown, striking also at alleged sources of Basque support by shutting two newspapers and a radio station.

One editor-in-chief, Martxelo Otamendi, alleged he was tortured by police.

For all that, "ETA still has money, weapons and many youths willing to risk long years in prison," said Javier Ortiz, a political analyst at El Mundo newspaper.

On Wednesday, in what was seen as an attempt to influence voting in the March 14 general election, ETA declared it wouldn't stage attacks in the northeastern region of Catalonia, which has an independence party in its regional government.

In the past Catalonia has suffered some of the worst ETA bombings and shootings, and Spanish political leaders saw ETA's cease-fire announcement as another way of saying it's OK to kill some Spaniards but not others. They denounced it as repulsive.

But some argue for a softer government approach.

"I believe ETA would be willing to put down its weapons if the right to self-determination of the citizens of Basque Country were recognized," says Gorka Espiau, spokesman for the Elkarri movement that proposes dialogue, as Britain has attempted with the Irish Republican Army.

ETA's weakness stems not from Aznar's hard-line confrontation, he added, but from "the social rejection their killings provoke."

But neither Aznar's Popular Party nor the mainstream opposition would agree to self-determination. It would violate the constitution and, many fear, encourage separatism in other Spanish regions.

"I don't like it when people claim ETA is on the ropes," says Alberto Surio, a reporter who has closely followed the group's evolution. "We know very little about how ETA functions. It has had very bad moments before when its leaders were jailed, and still has resurfaced to kill."

A cautionary tale is the Christmas Eve arrest of two alleged ETA members suspected of planning to blow up a crowded Madrid-bound train.

It can be read two ways: as a demonstration of heightened police efficiency, or of ETA's unflagging determination to kill for its cause.