SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Street clashes between Spanish police and supporters of Basque separatist group ETA have rocked the country just a week after ETA bombed a Madrid airport.
Demonstrators in San Sebastian were marching for the release of ETA fighters, and over the course of the march attacked police and torched cars and waste bins. Police in riot gear fought back with night sticks. Two people were arrested.
The clashes come just a week after ETA placed a bomb in a car park at Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing two men and breaking a months-long cease-fire agreement. The Spanish government immediately ended all peace negotiations with ETA
ETA, which is listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization, seeks to create an independent socialist state in the Basque country, with territories currently belonging to Spain and France.
For the past 38 years, ETA has attacked military and later civilian targets to try and push through its claims, killing nearly 900 people with assassinations and bombings.
While ETA stated in the cease-fire announcement it was committed to bring an end to the conflict by promoting "a democratic process in the Basque country and to build a new framework in which our rights as a people are recognized," many voices in Spain have criticized Spanish Prime Minister Jose Louis Zapatero's willingness to engage in direct talks with ETA because of its violent structure and because it broke all of the seven cease-fires of the past. It has now broken the eight.
Zapatero's standing has significantly deteriorated in Spain, it surfaced over the weekend. A poll by conservative newspaper ABC revealed that roughly two-thirds of Spaniards doubt Zapatero can handle the fight against terrorism.
