Premier Vows Spain Won’t Yield to Basque Terrorists

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar vowed Sunday not to give in to the Basque separatist group ETA after its latest killing in an escalating campaign for independence.

Aznar called on all of Spain “not to take a step back, not one centimeter back,” in the battle against the ETA after a former Basque provincial governor was slain Saturday.

“They are not going to see us blink,” Aznar said.

The prime minister went to the northern city of San Sebastian on Sunday to pay respects to Juan Maria Jauregui, 49, who was shot by two suspected ETA gunmen in the Basque town of Tolosa.

The attack was the seventh killing blamed on the ETA--the initials stand for the Basque Homeland and Freedom movement--since it called off a 14-month-long cease-fire in December. The slaying drew condemnation from Pope John Paul II and from Spaniards who staged a wave of anti-ETA protests across the country Sunday night in a repeat of the mass demonstrations that take place each time the ETA kills.

Referring to “the wave of terrorism that is hitting Spain these days,” the Pope expressed “my firmest condemnation of these acts” and said, “I pray to God that the dear Spanish people can always live in peace and social harmony.”

About 20,000 people gathered in San Sebastian, and smaller protests were held in Madrid, Barcelona, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Burgos and Valladolid, state radio reported.

“Nobody can throw in the towel,” San Sebastian Mayor Odon Elorza told the crowd. “From the infinite silence, Juan Maria is asking all of us for unity and the capacity for dialogue.”

The ETA has been blamed for increasingly frequent attacks this month, including the assassination of a ruling party politician in the south of Spain on July 15 and a series of bombings and attempted killings.