From typicallyspanish.com
ETA explosives cache found in Vizcaya
By h.b.
Dec 25, 2006 - 11:00 AM
An off duty Basque regional policeman has discovered an ETA arms cache in a mountainous area close to Amorebieta in Vizcaya. He made the find by chance as he was walking in the mountains.
The police say the cache was only set up in the last few days and consisted of 50 kilos of chemicals used to make explosives. There was a buried large plastic container with Ammonium Nitrate and Aluminium powder. There were also some detonators.
The security services are said to be concerned by the find and think that ETA had brought the material in from France where it was probably stolen.
The find is the first indication of terrorist activity by ETA in Spain since the announcement of their ‘permanent’ cease fire last March.
The site of another abandoned ETA arms dump has also been found in Guipúzcoa.
However the Director General of the Police, Joan Mesquida, has said that there is no data to suggest that ETA is rearming. He said the discovery of the explosive chemicals only showed that the fight against terrorism was as effective as it had always been.
The Partido Popular has said that the explosives find was verification that the cease fire is ‘false and a trick’.
Meanwhile ETA’s outlawed political wing, Batasuna, has repeated that it intends to place candidates in the local elections in May.
A statement on Saturday from Batasuna activist, Joseba Álvarez, said that Batasuna wanted to put up candidates so as to ‘support the resolution of the Basque conflict’.
He made the comments during an act carried out in San Sebastian. There were more cases of street violence in the Basque region in the early hours of Saturday.