The decision by the Basque extremist organisation, ETA, to end its ceasefire came as a severe blow to democrats across Spain. After 14 months of truce the mood had changed from initial cynicism to hope.
Suddenly, and virtually without warning, the extremists announced on Sunday that, from Friday, they would be instructing their militants to take up arms once more.
The announcement appeared in the Basque nationalist paper Gara, beneath a large front-page photograph of five masked and hooded men.
The communique blamed the Spanish and French governments for their continued pressure during the ceasefire - nineteen suspected ETA militants have been detained in Spain, and 30 in France, since September 1998.
It also accused the moderate nationalist parties of going back on a secret pact in which ETA agreed to disarm in exchange for independence.
The PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) denies any such agreement was ever signed and has accused ETA of lying.
Within hours of Sunday's announcement anti-terrorist forces were put on full alert in Spain as well as France.
The Interior Minister, Mr Josep Pique, believes that ETA (the initials stand for Euskal ta Ataskuna, or Basque Homeland and Liberty) has used the past year to reorganise itself, to fill in important gaps left after the arrest of many of its leaders, and to arrange an infrastructure of safe houses, stolen vehicles and arms dumps on both sides of the border.
Security forces claim to have proof that ETA has succeeded in rebuilding three of its bloodiest groups - the Madrid, Donosti (San Sebastian) and Vizcaya commandos - and that it has as many as 50 armed men and women ready for action.
Documents seized in recent police raids have shown that they could be planning to kidnap a Basque businessman as the first post-truce operation.
The ceasefire brought little progress towards a lasting peace. One of ETA's first demands was that all ETA prisoners should be either released or sent to jails in the Basque Country. But to date only 135 prisoners, out of over 400, have been moved.
Contacts between the authorities and ETA representatives have got no farther. Fewer than four hours of talks have taken place during the entire ceasefire. The only high-level talks, in Switzerland last May, broke down after less than an hour.
Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, the Interior Minister, has warned all along that the ceasefire was merely an ETA ploy to reorganise.
"ETA never really wanted a peace process," he said yesterday. "They only want independence and have used the past 14 months to wage a nationalist campaign." He confirmed that there was no question of the government resuming negotiations in the foreseeable future.