FRANCE: French police arrested two suspected Basque terrorists in Bordeaux yesterday as they were driving in a stolen car and carrying important files concerning ETA activities, writes Jane Walker in Madrid.
The latest arrests come just 24 hours after another four alleged terrorists were detained 150kms away in the town of Saintes, near La Rochelle. It bring to 19 the number of terrorist suspects arrested by French police since the beginning of the year.
The four arrested in La Rochelle were named as Ainhoa Garcia Montero, Asier Aranguren, Aitor Garcia and a French citizen Thierry Idart. They were armed when they were arrested, and it occurred as they were moving house in two stolen cars, taking with them files, computers and other valuable information.
Ms Garcia Montero, alias "Laia", is alleged to be a leader of the ETA's commando structure, who police erroneously thought they had captured last December. She is accused of taking part in at least two murders, including that of Basque businessman Mr Jose Maria Korta in 2000, and of Mr Santiago Oleaga, a director of the Diario Vasco newspaper, a year later.
Ibon Fernandez, alias "Susper", Ms Garcia's boyfriend and her partner as joint leader of the terror cell, was arrested in the same raid in December. He got away, however, and is still on the run after making an escape from police cells in Bayonne by squeezing his way out through a ventilation shaft and getting over the walls of the prison yard.
Mr Angel Acebes, the Spanish Interior Minister, has named the two latest detainees as Abelardo Castillo and Idoya Garmendia.
He said they were recent recruits to ETA who had graduated to the ranks of terrorism after taking part in kale barroka (street violence) in the Basque Country, and were waiting in France for instructions to cross back into Spain to carry out terrorist attacks.
He described them as "the first fruits" harvested from information garnered in the La Rochelle raid, and said he did not discount further arrests.
This latest police offensive against ETA comes only a week after the US government agreed to include ETA and its political front Batasuna on its list of terrorist organisations, a move which many people see as President Bush's reward to Spain for supporting the invasion of Iraq.
The offensive also comes as Spain embarks on a campaign for municipal elections and autonomous elections in most places - although not the Basque Country - on May 25th.
For first time since the coming of democracy, Batasuna will not be running, having been banned by the courts last March. This week the Constitutional Court confirmed the ban after the illegal Batasuna named 1,500 candidates to represent it in the municipal elections.
This controversial decision has polarised emotions between Madrid and the Basque County, and thrust their nationalist ambitions back into the centre of the political stage. Although the Basque people will not be voting for their regional parliament for another year, their problems threaten to dominate the political scene during the campaign.