Spain ups pressure on Venezuela over Basque separatists

Wed, 06 Oct 2010

Madrid - The Spanish government Wednesday stepped up pressure on Venezuela to investigate allegations that members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA received weapons training in the Latin American country.

Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the Venezuelan ambassador to Spain that Madrid wanted a more intense cooperation, including "immediate and concrete" action on Arturo Cubillas, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

Cubillas is a senior official at the Venezuelan agriculture ministry whom Spain wants extradited, charging that he is the ETA representative for Venezuela and nearby countries.

ETA suspects Xabier Atristain and Juan Carlos Besance, who were detained in Spain last week, named Cubillas as one of the people who had trained them in the use of weapons in Venezuela in 2008.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government adopted a tougher line after the opposition and commentators accused it of being soft on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government denies any links with ETA.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba had said there was no evidence of the Caracas government being involved with the possible training of ETA activists in Venezuela.

Caracas has promised to investigate the allegations made by Atristain and Besance. However, Venezuela has earlier failed to comply with Spanish extradition requests for ETA suspects.

Venezuelan ambassador Isaias Rodriguez said Tuesday that Cubillas could not be extradited because he had obtained Venezuelan nationality.

Spanish judge Eloy Velasco meanwhile intensified his probe into alleged links between ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Velasco, who has charged 13 ETA and FARC suspects with joint crimes including plans to kill high-profile Colombians in Spain, believes the two armed groups have cooperated in Venezuela under the protection of the Chavez administration.

Velasco ordered Spanish police to interrogate nine former FARC members in Colombia. The nine would be asked to identify ETA activists from photographs, the judge said.

Velasco also requested information on the contents of the computer of FARC commander Mono Jojoy, who was killed by the Colombian army in September, and on the statements made by Atristain and Besance.

Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzon, who was visiting Madrid, said his country's police and judiciary were prepared to cooperate with Spain in whatever way was needed.

ETA, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, has killed about 850 people since 1968 in its campaign for a sovereign Basque state.

Source: The Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/347476,pressure-venezuela-basque-separatists.html.