The Spanish government announced Tuesday that seven recently-detained suspected allies of Basque separatist group ETA have links to Colombian guerrilla group the FARC, according to EFE.
Spanish Prosecutor General Candido Conde-Pumpido said that the seven detainees were part of the Basque group’s foreign propaganda organization Askapena. They were arrested in Basque country and in Navarra, Spain.
Among the arrested was Walter Wendelin, considered to be one of the main representatives in Latin America of ETA’s political wing. Wendelin appeared in a photograph allegedly found on the computers of alias “Raul Reyes,” a FARC leader killed by Colombian armed forces in 2008. The ETA affiliate also supposedly traveled in Latin America to raise support for the Basque separatist movement among “extra-parliamentary organizations.”
“It’s important to fight against the system of protection terrorists have through international connections, in this case with the FARC, which is fortunately an organization in decline but has international connections,” Conde-Pumpido said.
The ETA has been in existence in Spain for 50 years and has killed more than 850 people in their pursuit of independence for the country’s northern region.