GAL (paramilitary group)

GAL (Spanish: Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación, "Antiterrorist Liberation Groups") were death squads illegally established by officials of the Spanish government during the Basque conflict to fight against ETA, the main Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 to 1987 under Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)-led governments. GAL's activities, known as "the dirty war", primarily targeted ETA members and Basque nationalists, with attacks occurring mainly in the Basque country on the French side of the Spanish-French border, but kidnappings and torture also took place in Spain. The daily newspaper El Mundo played a crucial role in exposing GAL. Several Spanish police officers and government officials were convicted and imprisoned when the operation ended. The death squads were an important issue during the 1996 election, when the PSOE was defeated by José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) for the first time.