Spain's tourism sector fears ETA attacks

Madrid - Spanish police were Wednesday on alert for an imminent attack by ETA Basque separatists after the group ended its ceasefire from midnight.

It was feared that ETA could target the tourism sector, one of the lifelines of the Spanish economy, in the beginning of the summer season.

ETA called its 14-month truce off on Tuesday, accusing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government of obstructing a six-month peace process which ended with a car bombing that killed two people at Madrid airport on December 30.

ETA has not carried out new attacks since then, but the official expiry of the ceasefire rang alarm bells at government offices and police headquarters.

ETA was expected to pass into action quickly to demonstrate that it had recovered its operative capacity after the arrests of hundreds of its activists in the recent years. The group is believed to have used the ceasefire to rearm.

Police had already been on alert since December 30, but security was nevertheless reinforced.

The bodyguards of some 2,000 potential ETA targets in the Basque region, such as politicians and judges, were advised to be vigilant. Police officers were reminded to be on guard for attacks against themselves.

It was also thought possible that ETA could target the tourism sector in Spain, one of the world's top tourist destinations, which received more than 55 million visitors in 2006.

ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its campaign of nearly four decades for a sovereign Basque state carved out of northern Spain and southern France.

Police believe that ETA currently has dozens of gunmen or bombers ready for action, tons of explosives, and a capacity to stage attacks in the entire country.

The group has three cells ready to strike in the Basque region and neighbouring Navarre, the daily El Mundo reported.

ETA is also thought to have an itinerant fourth cell, an elite unit which could travel to a locality hosting an important sports event or to another touristic destination.

In January, police captured an ETA activist who was travelling to the eastern city of Valencia to gather information on the America's Cup regatta, which began in April, as well as other touristic targets.

The port of Valencia had already been turned into a virtual fortress, with more than 2,000 police watching it in unprecedented security measures.

The army has now supplied police with an additional communications system, and cars formed long queues as police controlled vehicles entering the port on Wednesday.

Even Real Madrid was worried, with security chief Julio Cendal asking police to place sniffer dogs at the airport and to inspect hotel rooms in the northern city of Zaragoza, where the football team will face Real Zaragoza on Saturday.

In the touristic Alicante area, police stressed that the end of the ceasefire had been foreseen and that they had already been on alert for more than a month.

In the Basque region, which is the most affected by ETA attacks, tourism professionals deplored the termination of the ceasefire as a new blow to the industry which had shown signs of picking up during the truce.

'Planned investments will go ahead, but the damage can be important in the medium and long term,' one tourism professional said in the region which received 2 million visitors in 2006.

Balearic Islands hoteliers' representative Pedro Canellas was confident that the end of ETA's ceasefire would not affect tourism on Majorca and the other islands.

'Until now, ETA's announcements have never had an impact,' he observed.

ETA has targeted Spain's tourism sector for a long time, staging more than 100 bombings at holiday resorts since 1979. Tourists have sometimes been injured, but not killed.

The attacks have been unable to stop the growth of Spanish tourism, which has beat its own record year after year.

Source : news.monstersandcritics.com