News, September 2007

ETA strikes one last time? Sadly, not just once.

On 24th August a car bomb exploded outside a Civil Guard station in the Basque town of Durango. On the 27th, a camper van was blown up by its occupants after the Civil Guard had sniffed around it. On 1st September, those same occupants -probably- plus others were arrested by French police at their house in Cahors. One of the 4 was ETA's top bomb maker. A car bomb also failed to explode on 10th September.

Two Civil Guards were slightly injured and several of their vehicles written off in the Durango bombing. The getaway car was later blown up as well. Some 80 kilos of explosive were thought to have been used.

An even bigger load (150kg) failed to reach its destination and was blown on 27th in Castellón. ETA was back! It later transpired that the camper had been taken over and its owners kidnapped for two days in the French Landes, south of Bordeaux, before being driven into Spain.

The primary charge for the Cahors 4 is precisely that of kidnapping and robbery, but sufficient other charges have been brought against them after the discovery of their bomb factory home, that they are now likely to face life sentences in France. All before they are -in the next life- extradited to Spain to face charges for the Madrid Airport bomb, last December, amongst other things.

In the time since the ceasefire officially ended it seems that the government has been on the offensive much more than ETA, with numerous arrests world-wide. Yet it is clear that despite ETA's severe losses, until this discovery of the main operative base, it was still able to inflict damage more or less at will, keeping up the level of terror.

On 9th September ETA warned of more to come and on the 10th finally struck back with a car bomb which, however, failed to explode and police amanged to deactivate after a warning to Basque paper Gara. Meanwhile, businessmen in the Basque Country are once again getting extortion letters demanding 'Revolutionary Taxes'. ETA is not yet dead.

Politicians are looking closely at new political party ANV, which is suspected of being a successor of illegalised Batasuna and has so far refused to condemn the recent outrages. It is likely to be only a matter of time before this party is also banned from participation in new elections.