ETA blamed for fatal car bombing

MADRID, Spain -- Spanish authorities are blaming Basque separatist group ETA for a car bomb attack that has claimed the life of a town councillor.

Francisco Cano Consuegra, 45, a councillor for the Catalan town of Viladecavalls, died in hospital during surgery following the explosion.

Police and politicians immediately blamed ETA which has killed more than 800 people in its 32-year campaign for a Basque homeland straddling the Spanish-French border.

At a news conference in the wake of the death, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar pledged to fight the escalating violence.

"Today, once again we are made to suffer," he said. "But today is also a day to reaffirm our determination in that fight, which I hope sooner rather than later will see the victory of our country, our freedoms and our democracy."

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Xavier Trias, spokesman for the main Catalan party in the Spanish parliament, said ETA must not gain from such violence: "We are faced with a terrorist campaign that we must be able to withstand."

ETA has taken responsibility for 20 killings since ending a 14-month unilateral cease-fire last December, and has been blamed for two others.

It is the highest death toll attributed to the separatists since 1992 when it was blamed for 26 killings.

Members of the ruling centre-right Popular Party, to which Cano Consuegra belonged, have frequently been the target of attacks.

Cano Consuegra was driving his car in Viladecavalls, a town of 5,000 people near Barcelona, when an explosive device attached to the underside of it detonated, said the Interior Ministry office in the regional capital, Barcelona.

The owner of a plumbing business, he leaves a wife and two teenage daughters.

The attack came two days after the Popular Party and the opposition Socialists signed a high-profile, but largely symbolic, agreement to work together against ETA by coordinating policy.

The secretary-general of the Popular Party and signatory to the accord, Javier Arenas, said the bomb was aimed at weakening the agreement.

"And our response cannot be anything but to reaffirm this signed agreement with greater vigour and strength than ever."

The two main parties agreed not to seek political gain from ETA violence and to cooperate in isolating ETA's allies while offering no concessions on Basque sovereignty.

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Basque Nationalist Party
Euskal Herritarok
Basque Red Net

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