El Desafío

To me, the whole ETA (País Vasco y Libertad) raison d'être became mute upon the death of Franco in 1975. From that point forward, their violence was just sadistic savagery aimed at women, children, and other innocents. Much like the Catalan separatists today, their arguments for independence are pretty weak as Spain is one of the most democratic countries in the world, not to mention a great place to live.

Overall, this series isn't very partial to the ETA cause and highlights their barbaric attacks over the years, focusing on the personal loss of the survivors. There is one incredibly painful and touching moment in E03 in which a man whose parents were murdered in the Hipercor supermarket bombing in 1987 is talking about how he took his newborn daughter to the cemetery and realized that she would never know her grandparents.

How could anyone justify these horrible acts against the Spanish people and government when the Basque people were free to map out a good part of their political destiny with the new constitution? That's what we call a rhetorical question. The ETA hierarchy should have looked around a little in Algeria during their stay there to compare it with the immense freedoms they already enjoyed in Spain. For them to use terror and violence to achieve their political goals was inexcusable.

It's impossible for me to see the ETA leadership as anything other than bloodthirsty filth and bullies who hide in the shadows. History will judge them as cowards and murderers.

For me, this series was a great education and opened up an entire can of worms of new avenues of study, books to read, movies to watch.

There's have been many docu-series covering the history of ETA over the years but this one sets out to be the definitive one, unlike previous attempts this one covers the whole history of ETA in great detail, and its full of interviews with almost all political actors, not to mention plenty of testimonies from victims and their families.

However I don't necessary recommend starting with this show because it doesn't introduce the personalities that inhabit the story, you are supposed to be already familiar with who the presidents where, who Franco is, who the PSOE and PP are, and what is Batasuna, the atrocities itself are presented as if you are already familiar with them at least by name, and they are introduced pretty quickly. Nevertheless the story is told in great detail and the creators have made sure to cover almost every single terrorist attack.

The testimonies from the victims are harrowing and admirable in how eloquent they are and they *will* make you cry. If as if their suffering have given them an almost panoramic view of the whole conflict, without hesitation they go deep into the heart of the matter.

Besides that, the only real criticism I have is that documentary makes too many excuses for the state terrorism that the Spanish state deployed to combat the terrorism of ETA, too many interventions by military and police justifying or minimizing the violence and too little time spend talking about GAL.

Also while the show interviews people from Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, it doesn't actually interview a single member of ETA, im sure someone like Josu Ternera would be willing to give their version of events and it would be interesting to see what they have to say in their defense, if only to show the impossibility of defending the magnitude of ETA terrorism.

Overall, this series success as the definitive retelling of this story thanks to it's extensive coverage and high production values, from now on it is probably going to serve as the go-to documentary on the subject.

A really well done documentary about how the security forces where facing the ETA situation and how all the things were developing from the begining to the very end. Historical proofs, official versions andETA members version from in and out of jail gives the right atmosphere the whole time and provides sight of almost every single detail that have been collected.

Really recommended documentary to watch along another dramatization tv show, Patria, about how ETA people and non ETA members were living the situation living in the same place and having different points of view about the same topic and how it affected their lives.

I watched this soon after watching an HBO dramatisation of the ETA troubles called Patria. This documentary series is an absorbing, moving and at times a deeply heartbreaking story. I thoroughly recommend it.

I wish they would have started with Franco's coup . You can't tell the whole story without talking about the Spanish Civil War; but that would be another 6 episodes.