The Basque terrorist movement ETA yesterday showed that, in spite of recent police successes against its members, it is still capable of claiming new victims in its bloody campaign of violence.
Mr Tomas Caballero (63), spokesman for the conservative UPN, the Navarra regional party in Pamplona, became the latest victim when two gunmen shot and killed him at point blank range as he left his home to drive to the Town Hall shortly after 9 a.m. He died in hospital less than an hour later with two bullet wounds in the head.
Mr Caballero, father of five, had long been an outspoken critic of Herri Batasuna, ETA's political front, and had frequently clashed with their members in the Pamplona Council meetings for their refusal to condemn ETA atrocities. Although he is not known to have received specific death threats, UPN - which has close links with the governing Popular Party - has often appeared on documents seized in police raids.
An eyewitness to the shooting said that Mr Caballero apparently noticed his assassins just before they attacked and shouted at the passenger sitting alongside him to get out of the car.
The killing comes as security forces were celebrating the detention this week of six members of the deadly Donostia Commando of ETA after two of them were caught red-handed preparing a rocket attack against a military barracks in Loyola. According to documents uncovered in the arrests, the group also planned to assassinate King Juan Carlos during a forthcoming visit to San Sebastian for the inauguration of the new aquarium.
In 1995, three ETA terrorists were arrested in Mallorca when they planned to shoot the king on his yacht with a high powered telescopic rifle from an nearby apartment building.
One of those arrested this week was in possession of a 9 mm pistol which was used in the killing of a Basque lawyer, Fernando Mugica, in 1996 and in the shooting of a prison officer in San Sebastian last year.
ETA has targeted PP members since the kidnapping and killing of Miguel Angel Blanco in Ermua last summer and the shooting of Alberto Jimenez Becerril and his wife in Seville in January.
Members of the Donostia Commando made an unsuccessful attempt earlier this year on the life of Ms Carmen Nagel, a PP councillor in San Sebastian and a close collaborator of Gregorio Ordoez, also killed by ETA. Documentation seized this week showed they had detailed information on the movements and habits of several others.
Three PP councillors in Basque towns have resigned in the last month, two of them admitting that the stress had become too much for themselves and their families.