The most promising momentum in years to end Spain's violent separatist conflict in the Basque region has abruptly died with a weekend car bombing at Madrid airport, the interior minister said today.
"There is no process. It has been broken, it is over, it has been liquidated. Eta ended it with the bomb it set off in Madrid," Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a news conference, naming the militant group blamed for the explosion.
His remarks went further than those of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who said after Saturday's thunderous blast that he was suspending — but not cancelling — plans to negotiate with Eta, which in March of last year had declared a ceasefire it called permanent.
The blast levelled a five-story car park at the modern Barajas airport, injuring 26 people and leaving two Ecuadorian immigrants missing and feared dead amid tons of rubble as they slept in separate cars.
Just a day before the explosion, Mr Zapatero had told a year-end news conference he was upbeat about prospects for ending the nearly 40-year conflict that has claimed more than 800 lives as Europe's last armed militancy fought for an independent homeland in northern Spain and south-west France.
"The process is over, because this is what Eta has chosen," said senior party official Jose Blanco earlier.
The process had begun with a March ceasefire announcement by Eta.
The conservative opposition Partido Popular has criticised prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for saying after the bombing that he had suspended plans to negotiate with Eta, rather than cancel them altogether.
Even after Mr Blanco spoke, the party said the new gesture fell short. It wants a formal statement from Mr Zapatero stating that he is completely ending any peace process with Eta.
The mayor of Madrid said crews sifting through thousands of tonnes of rubble had reached the core area of the car bombing but could not go any faster as they searched for two missing men so as not to disturb evidence for investigators.
The bombing broke a nine-month ceasefire that the armed Basque group Eta had said was permanent. Eta has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but a caller who warned authorities before the explosion said he represented the group.
PA