Spain says Venezuela denies ETA report
Source: Reuters
(Adds foreign ministry spokesman) MADRID, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Venezuela has assured Spain that it will not offer nationality to four wanted ETA guerrillas so they can avoid extradition back home, a Spanish foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. The spokesman said the assurances were given to the Spanish ambassador by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro during a meeting in Caracas. A report by Spanish news agency Vasco Press had earlier said Venezuela had also agreed to pay compensation of more than 325,000 euros ($432,900) for failing to follow proper procedure when it extradited two other ETA members to Spain in 2002. "If that is what they've done, it would be unacceptable for Spain," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters during a visit to Brussels. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a self-styled left-wing revolutionary, has often annoyed other governments for alleged links with illegal armed groups, including Colombian Marxist rebels. Spanish authorities believe ETA members began taking refuge in Venezuela in the 1990s. But Chavez's government, closely allied to Cuba and a fierce opponent of the United States, has until now had excellent relations with Socialist-led Spain. The Venezuelan case comes at a tense moment for the Spanish government's peace process with ETA, which killed hundreds in a four-decade struggle for independence of the Basque Country but declared a permanent cease-fire in March. Zapatero announced in June that he would start peace talks with ETA but the process has bogged down as regular low-level street violence continues in the northern Basque Country.
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