A raid in Bordeaux in the south of France at 11:30 p.m. local time May 20 led to the arrest of Javier Lopez Pena, leader of the Basque separatist group ETA. Many past ETA arrests have occurred in southern France, including the arrest of ETA's previous leader, Mikel Albizu Iriarte. Lopez Pena is believed to have orchestrated the 2006 Madrid airport bombings that accidentally killed two people in a parking garage. ETA has been behind many other attacks since Lopez Pena took over after Albizu's capture in 2004, including the bombing of a Spanish police barrack May 14 that killed one police officer. ETA lacks a clear leadership hierarchy, so it is unknown who will take Lopez Pena's place. But another cell member will become the de facto leader of ETA soon enough. Three other high-level ETA members were netted in the May 20 raid: Ainhoa Ozaeta Mendiondo, Jon Salaberria and Igor Suberbiola. Salaberria is a former member of the Basque regional parliament party, Batasuna, which was outlawed in 2003 because of its ties to ETA. He is currently suspected of financing the group by operating a network of bars in the Basque region. His arrest, along with the freezing of nearly $5 million in ETA assets by Swiss authorities April 1 and the more recent freezing of assets in Lichtenstein, will severely limit ETA operations. A source told STRATFOR that Lopez Pena was outed, which led to his arrest. This suggests that the Spanish police have a contact in the militant group's inner circle. Whoever approached the police about the ETA leader must have had good reason to do so — either because of external incentives such as financial rewards or because of internal incentives such as competition over the group's leadership. Whatever the motive was, the police have made serious inroads against ETA, discrediting Prime Minister Jose Zapatero's detractors who attacked him before the recent election for signing a cease-fire with ETA and generally not confronting the group strongly enough. ETA is widely recognized as a terrorist organization and has been in operation since 1959. It is an armed movement located in the north of Spain and seeks autonomy from the Spanish state. The group was deadliest in the late 1970s but has since shied away from violence, especially when it causes fatalities. ETA is known for calling ahead of attacks in order to minimize death tolls, although they skipped this practice ahead of the May 14 attack on the police barracks. ETA members carry out attacks primarily with explosives, but will also use guns. Their attacks are limited to the mountainous regions along the French-Spanish border. ETA has survived many crackdowns, and there is no reason to expect Lopez Pena's arrest will spell the end for the group. However, ETA will be forced to walk a fine line between relevance and outrage. Violence has been the group's only real method of gaining publicity, but ETA's campaigns can cause public outrage and undermine its already weak support in the Basque region. Currently, Spain has ETA up against the ropes, having just nabbed its leader and a sizable chunk of financial assets. If Spain and France can manage to keep up the pressure on ETA and use its current state of weakness to convince more members to cooperate with police, the group will have trouble maintaining its campaign. This is by no means the end of ETA — the group is sure to carry out more attacks in the future — but for now the advantage goes to Spain.