A DRAMATIC pre-dawn operation by civil guards in northern Spain yesterday brought an end to Spain's longest kidnap, only hours after Basque terrorists released a second victim whose family had paid an estimated Pounds 4 million ransom.
The Basque terrorist movement ETA had been holding a prison officer, Mr Jose Antonio Ortega Lara, for the past 18 months. It hoped to force the government to bring back to the Basque country prisoners serving sentences far from their homeland.
Mr Ortega Lara's kidnap prompted some of the largest anti-ETA demonstrations ever seen in Spain and the "blue ribbon for freedom" became a symbol of protest on everything from clothing, public buildings, beaches and mountain tops.
The terrorists released their first victim, Mr Cosme Delclaux (34), the son of a wealthy Basque businessman, shortly after 1 a.m.
Police found him, drugged and tied to a tree, after an anonymous phone call to a local newspaper. Mr Delclaux had been snatched by his kidnappers as he left his office last November, and had been held in a tiny cell for the past 232 days.
His family is believed to have promised to pay the kidnappers a further Pounds 2 million following his release. Apart from dramatic weight loss, his condition is reported to be good.
The civil guard operation to release Mr Ortega Lara began just as four men were arrested in simultaneous raids in the same area. Mr Ortega Lara was being held in a deserted warehouse less than 10 km from where Mr Delclaux was released.
The cell where he had been held for the 532 days of his captivity was tiny, dark and damp. It had been constructed beneath a concrete platform and was buried under several tonnes of machinery. The only access was via a sophisticated hydraulic lift system which took the police more than two hours to open.
Mr Ortega Lara said he had eaten only fruit and vegetables during his captivity, and doctors said the he had lost more than 23 kg in weight.
"He is suffering from serious malnutrition, muscular atrophy and depression," the doctor who examined him said. "He said that he had often dreamed of drinking a glass of Rioja wine."
He looked thin and wasted, with a vacant expression, as he arrived home yesterday to be greeted by hundreds of cheering neighbours.