Suspected ETA Leader Arrested in France
M A D R I D, Spain, Sept. 15 -- French police arrested the suspected top leader of the Basque guerrilla group ETA today, dealing a major blow to the separatists who have waged an escalating campaign of violence, Spanish officials said.
Officials said Ignacio Gracia Arregui, 45, who goes under the code nameInaki of Renteria, was taken into custody in an apartment in thetown of Bidart in the French Basque region, in an operationassisted by Spanish authorities.
“I can confirm the news of the arrest by French police ofInaki of Renteria, who is considered ETA’s number one, accordingto the group’s presumed organizational chart,” Spanish InteriorMinister Jaime Mayor Oreja told reporters.
Gracia Arregui, Spain’s most-wanted ETA fugitive, wasalleged to have given the orders for a failed 1995 attempt onthe life of Spain’s King Juan Carlos.
He was seized just two days after Spanish police arrested 20people accused of belonging to ETA’s political hierarchy.
Those raids were followed by an assassination attempt Thursday night against a retired Basque Socialist politician,who was shot in the face but survived.
ETA has been linked to 12 killings in Spain this year sincecalling off a 14-month-long cease-fire last December.
Its summer offensive of bombings and assassinations has beenthe bloodiest in a decade, raising questions about theeffectiveness of Spanish security forces against the guerrillas.
Praise for Security Forces
But Mayor Oreja today said the latest arrestsproved that Spanish police, in cooperation with Frenchauthorities, were capable of striking at the heart of ETA.
“I know that all of Spanish society has been through badtimes in the past few months and that on occasion there has beena loss of confidence,” he said. “But we have to persevere in theanti-terrorist struggle.”
Nicolas Redondo Terreros, head of the Basque branch of theSpanish Socialist Party, said he hoped the latest arrest meantthat police had “chopped off the head” of the outlawed group.
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