Ertzaintza

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Ertzaintza is the police force of the Basque Country, one of the autonomous communities of Spain. A Ertzaintza member is an ertzaina.

The origins of the current Ertzaintza, as a police force pertaining to the Basque Country, can be traced back to the old municipal militias, which were popular organizations at the service of local bodies, created to satisfy the need for public safety. But it was not until the 19th century when, setting aside the precedent willingness, the almost permanent police corps of a professional nature were created. It was a response to the banditry caused by the continuous social and political upheaval occurring from the end of the 18th century and well into the 19th. The decisive argument for its configuration was the First Carlist War, when the "Miqueletes" of Biscay and Guipuzcoa and the "Miñones" of Alava commenced their activities.

Once the urgencies of the war were overcome, the Spanish Government attempted to recover the functions carried out by these regional forces and transfer them to the Civil Guard, which was created in 1844. Nevertheless, due to difficulties encountered when recruiting forces for this corps in the Basque provinces, plus the pressure posed by the other regional Governments, the very same regional forces were able to more or less carry on with their task. After the end of the Second Carlist War (1876), the Spanish government wished to curtail the regional autonomy. The Basque police forces had to adapt to this new centralist tendency, and said changes mostly manifested themselves in a reduction of personnel & operational capabilities

When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931, political activity surged and so did the Basque claim to re-establish regional liberties that had been abolished in 1876. Thus, various projects for the Autonomy Statute were promoted, all of which vindicated developing competences in public security issues.

On October 1st, 1936, already in the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Statute of Autonomy come into force, leading to the establishment of an autonomous government with actual authority over the provinces of Biscay and Guipuzcoa. One of the priorities of the new government was the re-establishment of public order.

The Basque Interior Minister Telesforo Monzón set up several institutions, such as the International Police Force, the Maritime Police and the public Order Body. The main effort was the creation of a police force named Ertzaña (a Basque neologism for "People care"), with on foot and motorised corps (Igiletua), totalling joint forces of around 1,500 agents. Its headquarters were in Bilbao, at the Ibaigane Palace (currently the headquarters of Athletic Bilbao).

When the war on the Basque front concluded, the Ertzaña was dissolved de facto, albeit such a measure is not reflected on any of the legal norms at the time, since Franco's Nationalist regime pretended that this institution had never existed. Having allied themselves with the losing Republican side, Biscay and Guipuzcoa were considered "traitor provinces" and most of their autonomy was annulled. However, since at outbreak of the civil war Alava and Navarre had thrown their lot in with the Nationalists, the Miñones and Miqueletes continued on duty, with assignments such as traffic patrols and custody of the regional institutions.

After the Spanish transition to democracy, the autonomous Basque Government was restored. Its government once again took up the spirit of the Ertzaña of 1936 to design, in 1980, the new autonomous police force of the Basque Country, the Ertzaintza (a more grammatical form). Previously, a Royal Decree re-established the "Forales" and the "Miqueletes" in Biscay and Guipuzcoa and gave a new configuration to the "Miñones" corps in Alava. These institutions were incorporated into the new Basque Police Force.

Because Navarre, during the events surrounding Spain's 1978 Constitution, ended up with the status of Autonomous Community and was not lumped in with the autonomous community called Euskadi/the Basque Country, its police force remains independent of the Ertzaintza in both the operational and political sense.

The first promotions were enthusiast members of the Basque Nationalist Party. The law required that Ertzaintza officials had to be previous members of the Spanish army or the State police forces. However, this wasn't always respected. This new and young police force, made up by Basque citizens, develops in an organized manner as from 1982, and were progressively deployed starting from the countryside towards the capitals. During the coexistence, the Basque Country had one of the highest ratios of police agents to population. Ertzaintza has taken the range of roles of the National Police and the Civil Guard. As of 2004, up to seventeen promotions of agents, have graduated from the Police Academy of the Basque Country, in Arkaute (Alava).

The Ertzaintza is currently a full-range police force, but for border watch. The state polices have decreased their numbers in the Basque Country. Counter-terrorism is a shared competence among the polices. This has occasionally led to clashes and even shootings out of confusion.

Currently, the Ertzaintza counts on a staff of 7,500 agents, framed within four divisions, each of them specialized in a series of specific police tasks, and supported by the corresponding complementary services.

Beltzak ("the blacks") are the black-dressed riot police.
Berrozi, those training in the abandoned village of Berrozi, Alava.
AVCS ("Attaches to the Vice Councilorship of Security")

Ertzaintza is not accepted by leftist Basque nationalists, who deride it as zipaioak, ("Sepoys", an indigenous force serving the colonial power). As Ertzaintza took a more relevant role in the fight against ETA, it has become a target of terrorism. It was infiltrated by ETA members. In the areas where support for ETA is higher, ertzainas prefer to reside elsewhere and commute to work.

The Spanish governments have had contentions about Ertzaintza. Spanish parties have often accused the Basque Home Office (always held by the Basque Nationalist Party) of being soft on the fight against ETA and its supporting party Batasuna. Ertzaintza is not allowed to access the Interpol intelligence network.

[edit] Etymology

Ertzaña was a Basque neologism from the Biscayne forms erri ("people") and zañ ("guard"). The generic Basque word for "police" is polizia (or jendarma in French Basque Country). Following the standardization of Basque in the 1960s, the name of the restored force became "Ertzaintza" from the respelled herri and zain (compare with artzain, "shepherd" from ardi + zain), with the suffix -tza. However to maintain a link to the past, the silent H was not included.