This article analyzes the factors that have motivated members of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) to abandon terrorism and the factors that have motivated other members of the terrorist organization to maintain their activism. The article examines the process of disengagement of an important faction of ETA and that of other terrorists throughout the group’s protracted campaign in order to explain the reasons behind the decision to give up violence. It posits that a combination of strategic, organizational and psychological factors have motivated certain individuals to abandon the ETA, while reinforcing the decision of other members to stay. In this context, the two-fold process of political democratization and territorial decentralization, factors normally considered as necessary for disengagement from terrorism, contend with factors such as the perception that negotiations served as encouragement for continuing violence, the strong adherence to a Basque nationalist ideology and the presence of a strong sub-culture of violence prevalent in the ETA.