The terrorist movement ETA has issued a sinister warning to the new Basque government that it intends to continue its campaign of violence.
As so often in the past, ETA targeted a local politician with a car bomb attack near Pamplona, and 10 hours later a deputy superintendent of the Ertzaintza, the Basque police force, died in a hail of bullets as he parked his car in Leaburu, near San Sebastian. The killings took place on the day Mr Juan Jose Ibarretxe was sworn in for his second term as Lehendakari (president) of the government of the troubled region.
Mr Jose Javier Mugica a councillor for the Union of Navarran People, a regional party allied to the governing Popular Party, died in the small town of Lietza, some 40 km from Pamplona as he started the engine of his car. Mr Mugica (58), who worked as a local bus driver and was also a professional photographer, had returned the previous evening from a brief break from political tensions to photograph the wedding of a local couple. The 3kilo limpet bomb attached to his car almost certainly contained part of the 1.6 tons of dynamite stolen from a French mining store last February.
Locals say that, although a Basque speaker, Mr Mugica was repeatedly insulted as a traitor by pro-ETA militants, including the children on his school bus run. "If you speak out here you become one of their targets. You can trust no one," said one young man who asked not to be named.
Mr Mugica's body was cremated in a private family ceremony yesterday, and his ashes will be scattered in the nearby mountains where he used to walk.
A memorial Mass is to be held which will almost certainly be attended by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, and members of his cabinet.
Only hours after Mr Mugica's killing, Mr Mikel Uribe became the 11th Basque police officer to die in the conflict when he was gunned down in the small village of Leaburu, near Tolosa.
On Saturday Mr Ibarretxe was taking his oath in a traditional ceremony beneath the historic Oak Tree in the old Basque capital Guernika, the town virtually destroyed by German bombs during the Spanish Civil War. The attack on the Ertzainza is a warning to the Basque Nationalist government that ETA will not tolerate a tightening of security.
There was almost universal condemnation of the killings, but ugly scenes in some towns, including Leitxa - whose mayor and majority of members are members of ETA's political front Euskal Herritarrok - when the councils refused to condemn the murder of a fellow councillor.
Thousands of citizens took to the streets across the Basque Country and in Navarra yesterday in spontaneous silent protests calling for an end to terrorist violence, and other demonstrations will be held at noon today in many Spanish cities.
The latest murders bring to 33 the number of killings since ETA ended a 14-month ceasefire in January last year. Mr Javier Balza, who holds the Interior portfolio in the autonomous government, said it was suspected that both killings were carried out by the same ETA group based near San Sebastian.