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MADRID, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- In what could develop into a lengthy diplomatic conflict, Spain has urged Venezuela to take action against an alleged ETA presence in the South American country. Spanish security officials have long hinted at links between ETA, the Basque separatist group that with its bombings and assassinations has killed hundreds of people in Spain, and the remnants of FARC, a leftist Colombian rebel group allegedly hiding in Venezuela.
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Those charges received new backing last week, when two ETA suspects arrested in the Basque region told Spanish authorities they were trained on weapons and explosives in Venezuela in the summer of 2008.
The suspects, Xabier Atristain and Juan Carlos Besance, said they also met with Arturo Cubillas, an official in the Venezuelan Agriculture Ministry believed to be an ETA member, Spanish news agency Efe reports. Using his government credentials, Cubillas allegedly helped the suspects during their stay in Venezuela.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero has since demanded that Caracas investigate the allegations, which Venezuela has strongly refuted.
"The statements, which have caused this uproar, by two suspected ETA members are enough for the government to launch an inquiry and for the Venezuelan government to give us a response," Zapatero told Spain's Telecinco television station.
Cubillas' name first surfaced earlier this year, when a Spanish judge who investigates the links between ETA and FARC charged him and 12 other alleged militants who allegedly planned to kill Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe.
Neighboring Colombia has long accused Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez of silently tolerating or even aiding FARC.
Caracas denies that it has contacts with either of the two rebel group and it's unlikely that Venezuela will extradite Cubillas. Instead, Chavez might strip Cubillas from his government post, Spanish newspaper El Mundo suggested.
A protected ETA presence in Venezuela would be a setback for Spain's anti-terror operations.
During the past years, French-Spanish police cooperation has thinned out the top ranks of ETA. Authorities have arrested dozens of ETA suspects in France and Spain during the past months, with several top military leaders caught.
The recent police successes and waning ETA support at home have caused the political wing of the Basque separatist group to try to revive peaceful negotiations but Madrid said it won't talk to ETA unless it completely renounces violence.
Formed under the oppressive regime of Gen. Francisco Franco, Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom), for four decades has fought for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France and has been blamed for around 850 deaths. It is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.
ETA's violent resistance dates to the 19th century when religiously conservative Basques disapproved of the too liberal style of governance in Madrid, which aimed for more centralization. The Basque region as early as the Middle Ages enjoyed special privileges and autonomy, although they weren't always fully honored by Madrid.
When the Franco government harshly cut some of those privileges and tried to destroy Basque nationalism, ETA formed itself as a militant resistance group aimed at ending the oppression and installing a fully independent Marxist-Leninist Basque state.
