The armed Basque separatist group ETA said yesterday that it was ending the "permanent" ceasefire declared in March last year, accusing Spain of trying to persecute the group rather than negotiate with it.
"The minimum conditions have not been met to continue the process of negotiations" with Spain's Socialist government, the group said in a statement sent to the Basque newspaper Berria.
Beginning today ETA said it "will defend Euskal Herria [the land of Basque speakers] with arms on all fronts."
"It is without a doubt bad news, we must live with this reality and we must work from this base," Economy Minister Pedro Solbes said in Brussels in comments broadcast on private radio Cadena Ser, in the government's first reaction to ETA's declaration.
ETA had up until now insisted that the ceasefire was still in place even though it claimed responsibility for a bombing at a Madrid airport carpark on Dec. 30 that killed two Ecuadoran men.
In its statement, ETA justified its move by saying the Spanish government had "responded to the ceasefire by pursuing detentions, torture and persecution."
El Pais reported on Monday that ETA is planning an "imminent" attack, quoting police sources.
"The police, the civil guard and the CNI [intelligence service] agree on the fact that ETA is preparing a terrorist action in the short term," wrote the newspaper, which has close ties to the government.
ETA's move may boost the opposition People's Party, which has sharply criticized Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government for pursuing talks with ETA.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS