Tensions were high yesterday in northern Spain as the army officer murdered by ETA on Wednesday was buried. And there was only a patchy response to the call by ETA's political front, Euskal Herritarrok, to stage a day of protest as a homage to the four terrorists blown up by their own bomb in Bilbao on Monday. But further demonstrations are threatened for the weekend.
The funeral service, conducted by the Archbishop of Pamplona, was held in the army barracks in Berriozar, near Pamplona, where Lieut Francisco Casanova worked in the administration branch. His coffin, draped in the Spanish flag, was carried on the shoulders of fellow officers and the Defence Minister, Mr Federico Trillo, awarded him the military medal posthumously.
Lieut Casanova died instantly when a masked gunman fired three shots into his head as he drove his car into his garage. His 11-year-old son watched his father's killing and his widow, alerted by the boy's screams, was the first on the scene.
For the second day in succession hundreds of people assembled at noon outside town halls and public buildings across Spain to protest at the latest killings, which bring to nine the number killed since ETA ended a 14-month ceasefire in January. In Pamplona, where Mr Trillo joined regional officials, a small group of pro-ETA sympathisers staged a parallel demonstration and were driven away in police vans after scuffles. After members of EH (ETA's political front) refused to condemn the latest murder at a special meeting of Pamplona City Council yesterday the three EH councillors were removed from their official positions.
The day of pro-ETA action appears to have had scant support even in the Basque Country, where EH attracted 13 per cent of the vote in the elections two years ago. Only some smaller rural towns and villages answered the call to strike. ETA's youth wing staged their almost nightly campaign of street violence. Buses were set on fire in San Sebastian and other towns, windows were smashed in many places and a Basque Nationalist meeting place was destroyed by a firebomb. EH has condemned the attack.
ETA continues to attract young people to its youth wing, Jarrai, which is believed to be behind the nightly terror. ETA has admitted one of the four men killed by their own bomb on Monday was Ekain Ruiz, who was in his early 20s and was alleged to have murdered a local politician in Malaga last month. Two of the other suspected victims who have not been definitely identified were the same age as David Pla (22), a former Jarria spokesman who was arrested in Zaragoza two weeks ago as he was planning to assassinate the city's mayor.
"ETA is stronger than ever," said Mr Javier Balza, responsible for home affairs in the Basque government. "It is waging a full scale terrorist campaign, and it is not just a question of July and August." After two attacks in Malaga, two in Madrid and others in Soria, Navarra and the Basque Country over the past month, people are wondering where ETA will strike next.
ETA seems to be trying to force the government to lose its nerve and possibly introduce a state of emergency - although the Interior Minister, Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, said last week it would not do so.
"We must keep calm and remain patient," Mr Oreja repeated yet again yesterday, but he is beginning to sound increasingly desperate. Interior Ministry officials met in Madrid with two leading Socialists in an emergency session to co-ordinate a joint strategy. After a two-hour meeting they issued a statement reiterating: "Only through democratic means can we end this escalation of violence."