SPAIN:ONLY FIVE days after an Eta bomb killed a Civil Guard officer last week, a 60-kilo car bomb shook the Basque town of Getxo in the early hours yesterday destroying the facade of a five-storey building housing the yacht club and other offices - including that of the Basque businessmen's association - seriously damaging adjoining apartments and leaving a two-metre deep crater.
This was the third attack by Eta this month. In addition to last week's attack in Legutiano, near Vitoria, when they blew up a Civil Guard barracks killing Juan Manuel Piñuel and injuring four of his colleagues, two smaller devices destroyed heavy machinery being used to construct the high-speed rail link between Madrid and the Basque Country.
Yesterday's explosion, which caused no casualties, came less than an hour after a warning from a caller, identifying himself as a member of Eta, that the bomb would explode at 1am. Police had sufficient time to evacuate residents from nearby apartment buildings and cordon off the area.
Getxo, a suburb of Bilbao, has been a terrorist target on several occasions. Many of its residents are wealthy businessmen, lawyers and doctors, some of whom have refused to pay "revolutionary taxes" - the protection money Eta demands to fund its operations.
This latest attack came only hours after a rally in San Sebastian paid homage to some 500 victims of terrorist violence. It was attended by representatives of all political groups, with the exception of the conservative Popular Party.
It was the first time that such a meeting has recognised the victims of the "dirty war" of the 1980s, and it was also the first time that a Civil Guard officer has addressed such a rally.
Retired guard Leoncio Sainz, seriously injured in a bomb blast in 1984, remembered last week's bombing in the Legutiano barracks where not only guards but also their families were living. He said he would never forget the cries of children trapped in the rubble waiting to be rescued.
"How can a terrorist look his own children in the eyes after destroying the lives of these children?" he asked.
Security forces have warned in recent weeks of an escalation of Eta violence. They believe the terrorists have established a bomb-making factory somewhere in France where they pack explosives into cars or vans and transport them into Spain.
Jose Antonio Alonso, the new leader of the Socialist parliamentary group, said yesterday that Eta's violence was a sign of problems in its ranks.