GAL (paramilitary group)

GAL (an acronym for ''Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación'', "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups") were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government to fight against ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 until 1987, under the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)-led governments. At trial, it was proven that they were financed by important officials within the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. The Spanish daily newspaper '' El Mundo'' played an important role in revealing the plot when it ran a comprehensive series of articles on the matter.

General history

GAL operated mainly in the portion of the Basque country on the French side of the Spanish-French border, but kidnappings and tortures were also performed at various places in Spain. The victims (at least 27 dead and 26 injured) were either members of ETA or Basque nationalist activists, but some victims were not known to have links to ETA or any organization advocating for political violence at all. The GAL was active from 1983 until 1987, a period often referred to as ''La guerra sucia'' ("the Dirty War") in Spanish history.

Its main purpose was to attack ETA members and Basque nationalist targets and randomly wreak havoc in French territory in order to put pressure on the French government. Aside from the obvious nationalist rationale for its opposition to Basque separatism, the GAL did not explicitly self-ascribe a place within the left–right spectrum and many of the killers were foreign mercenaries. However, many of these mercenaries were recruited from the European far-right (including the OAS) and many of the Spanish perpetrators and organizers were active or former Francoist civil servants.
Twentieth-Century Spain: A History, Julián Casanova and Carlos Gil Andrés, p339

GAL attacks showed from the beginning a close connection to high-ranking officials from the PSOE government and a number of Spanish police, police officials in the Basque Country. When the whole operation came to an end, in addition to GAL operatives, a few Spanish policemen and government officials were also convicted. The scandalous revelations eventually led to prison terms. For instance, the Interior Minister, José Barrionuevo, and his associate Rafael Vera, were convicted of the kidnapping of Segundo Marey. Barrionuevo and Vera were accompanied and hugged by González on their way to prison, where they served a three-month term. General Galindo and the civil governor of Gipuzkoa, Julen Elgorriaga, were found guilty of the murder of Joxe Antonio Lasa and Joxe Ignacio Zabala in October 198

General Galindo, condemned to a 75-year prison sentence, served only 4, and was released on "mental health" grounds.

Following the assassination of Casas by the Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas, CAA, Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas, the PSOE officials in office prepared to assassinate a political figure regarded to be ideologically close to that Basque armed group in the person of Santi Brouard, a Herri Batasuna representative and doctor. The perpetrator, Jose Luis Morcillo, received 7.5 million pesetas for committing the crime from Rafael Masa, a high-ranking Civil Guard official who acted on the orders of Julian Sancristobal, Chief Director of Spanish State Security at the moment. However, part of the payment assigned to the attempt on Brouard's life was diverted to unknown purposes.

Prosecutors proved that the policemen who recruited mercenaries and the government officials who organized the dirty war's operations also embezzled large amounts of public money. Rafael Vera, among others, was sentenced for illegal appropriation of funds from the Ministry. Also, in order to ensure their silence, the PSOE government bribed the individuals firstly jailed, i.e. inspector José Amedo Fouce and Michel Domínguez; Vera came to be sentenced to one year and half in prison, with his secretary receiving a nine-month term sentence.

Reports by investigative journalists from '' El Mundo'' newspaper held that Felipe González, then prime minister of Spain and leader of the PSOE, as suspect of being involved with the GAL. During several years, after hearing the defendants and scrutiny of evidence, the proceedings concluded a so-called ''Señor X'' was the chief official of the organization's hierarchy over Barrionuevo and Vera, who could not be other than Felipe Gonzalez according to the Spanish Socialist governmental cabinet of the period. However, his name was not made explicit and proceedings did not go any further. Some claim he was not brought to trial because it would discredit Spanish political institutions. Eventually, it would be confirmed by the CIA that ''Señor X'', or commander in chief, was in fact the Spanish Prime Minister. His direct involvement is further confirmed by José Manuel Villarejo, former chief official of Spanish state intelligence (CNI), who in an appearance before the Congress on 21 October 2021 referred nonchalantly to González as the creator of the paramilitary group, also stating that it was not an error and celebrating its existence and actions.

The GAL was one of the main issues of the campaign during the elections of 1996 in which the PSOE was defeated by José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) for the first time. González then resigned as leader of the PSOE. With the exception of Ricardo García Damborenea, PSOE leaders have never acknowledged responsibility for the GAL, or condemned their crimes. González himself has never been charged with a GAL-related offence, but he has called publicly for pardons for his former subordinates. PSOE leaders campaigned for leniency towards their former colleagues, and the Aznar government pardoned some of them.

After 1987, when the GAL disbanded, the French government adopted a harsher attitude towards Basque refugees, by denying political refugee status to new applicants, and facilitating extraditions requested by Spanish judges. This change weakened ETA's veterans.

Chronology of attacks

* 1983:
**October 17: Kidnapping and assassination of alleged ETA members Joxe Lasa Arostegi and José Ignacio Zabala. Their mutilated corpses were found in Alicante in 1985, but not formally identified until 1995. Several Guardia Civiles were eventually sentenced for this case.
**October 18: Kidnap attempt in Bayonne of alleged ETA leader José Mari Larretxea Goñi by four Spanish policemen. The four agents were arrested by French gendarmes.
**December 4: Kidnapping of Segundo Marey by mercenaries hired by the Spanish police. They demanded the liberation of the four policemen arrested for the kidnap attempt on Larraetxea. The policemen were released on December 8 and Marey on the 13th. S. Marey was not related to ETA in any way and he was apparently kidnapped by mistake.
**December 19: Assassination of Ramón Oñaederra, alleged ETA member, in Bayonne.
**December 29: Assassination of Mikel Goikoetxea, alleged ETA leader, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz