Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Bilbao this weekend calling on the government to transfer Basque prisoners to jails nearer their homes.
This was the first time in over 20 years that such a demonstration had included moderate Basque nationalists marching alongside pro-ETA separatist parties, and was one of the largest seen in the region. They marched behind a banner proclaiming: "For the rights of Basque prisoners". But the protest comes only three months after the announcement of an ETA ceasefire, when an escalating wave of street violence is threatening the fragile peace process in the troubled northern region of Spain.
Following a comparatively peaceful period in the run-up to the regional elections at the end of October, masked gangs belonging to the ETA youth wing, Jarrai, have gradually stepped up their campaign of vandalism against public buildings, banks and private businesses. Documents leaked in the press this weekend show that this new low-intensity terrorism is part of an orchestrated campaign aimed at increasing pressure on the government to transfer ETA prisoners and at preventing the governing Popular Party benefitting politically from the ceasefire.
Fire bombings have been averaging one a day since Christmas, and have increased in violence since the swearing-in last week of Mr Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the new Chief Minister of the Basque government. Mr Ibarretxe, a member of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) needed the votes of Euskal Herritarrok (EH), or Basque Citizens, the political front for ETA.
The EH leader, Mr Arnaldo Otegi, has refused to condemn this new outbreak of vandalism, and gave the ominous warning that a ceasefire did not necessarily signify an ending of violence.
"We are free Basque citizens," he said. "And as such we will continue to take our own decisions."
Casualties in the attacks have so far been limited to a Civil Guard who received minor burns when he was hit by a petrol bomb yesterday morning. But damage to property has run into many millions of pesetas.
The Prime Minister, Mr JoseMaria Aznar, warned that such attacks were jeopardising the possibility of peace talks between the government and separatists. "What has been happening in and around Bilbao is incompatible with a decision to join in [democratic] institutions. There is no tolerable level of violence."
What many people believe could be a new step forward in the Basque peace process came over Christmas when the government granted a partial pardon to the former Socialist interior minister, Mr Jose Barrionuevo and his deputy, Mr Rafael Vera. They had been serving sentences in a jail near Madrid which became a place of "pilgrimage" for thousands of Socialists who staged weekly vigils outside the prison.
The two men were sentenced last July to 10 years in jail for their role in the "dirty war" waged against ETA in the 1980s. Mr Barrionuevo and Mr Vera became eligible for parole after the Spanish cabinet upheld a Supreme Court ruling recommending that their sentences should be reduced by two-thirds. The petition to grant them pardons had been made by their supporters because both men have repeatedly protested their innocence and thus refused to seek pardons themselves.
Eight other officials, including the former head of the crack antiterrorist unit, who had received shorter sentences for their part in a botched kidnap in 1983 of a suspected ETA terrorist, also had their sentences drastically reduced and were released.
A string of other cases involving senior Interior Ministry officials during the Socialist government is still on the files, and hearings are expected to start later this year.