Canadian police have arrested a suspected member of Basque separatist group ETA, which called off a 14-month cease-fire last week, Spain’s government said on Wednesday.
Bittor Tejedor Bilbao, 50, is suspected of carrying out ETA bomb and machine gun attacks in the 1980s. He was held in Vancouver, on Canada’s Pacific coast, where he was living illegally under false documents, Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Canadian officials declined comment on the case and whether Bilbao had made an asylum request, citing the country’s privacy rules.
Deportation and extradition cases involving political refugee claimants can take months or years to complete under Canadian laws.
Spain is turning the screws on ETA — another suspect was arrested in Mexico on Tuesday and three others were arrested in France last week.
Crackdown on ETA members
The group abandoned a truce declared in March 2006 and vowed to attack the Spanish government “on all fronts” in its fight for an independent Basque state.
The leader of banned Basque separatist party Batasuna was jailed last week for praising terrorism. ETA’s best-known commander was also transferred to jail in Madrid instead of being given the house arrest he had previously been promised.
Spaniards are keen to see an end to four decades of ETA violence that has killed more than 800 people.
With a national election in March 2008, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had hoped to push ahead this year with an ETA peace process begun in mid-2006.
He was instead forced to call off ETA talks after the guerrillas exploded a car bomb at Madrid airport last December and killed two people.
