General shot dead in busy Madrid street
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Your support makes all the difference.GUNMEN presumed to belong to Eta, the Basque separatist group, shot dead a Spanish army general on a busy Madrid street at rush- hour yesterday morning, coolly firing four bullets into his heart as he lay on the pavement, felled by a point-blank shot to his head.
Passers-by took cover as a man and a woman shot Juan Jose Hernandez Rovira, 58, an infantry brigadier-general, outside his flat in the Retiro district, close to the capital's biggest park, as he walked to his bullet- and bomb-proof car.
The killers also fired at the general's car, missing his driver, before walking to a vehicle driven by an accomplice and driving off. The car blew up an hour later in a nearby street.
A telephoned tip-off had allowed police to cordon off the area around the car, which was left outside a kindergarten full of children, and the blast caused no injuries. A passing nurse who cradled General Hernandez's head in her arms yesterday said his last words were: 'God, pardon me.' His killing orphaned seven children, since his wife had died of cancer last year.
The assassination, the sixth attributed to Eta in Spain this year, caused indignation among Spaniards at a time of almost tangible national unease over the economic crisis and a string of high-level corruption cases.
Even a majority of Basques are sickened by Eta's tactics, which appear to be directed at forcing the Spanish government into negotiations aimed at a separate Basque state.
The government has admitted having held secret, fruitless talks with Eta leaders in the past.
The Defence Minister, Julian Garcia Vargas, said the killing 'confirms our worst fears. Eta have a stable structure in Madrid.' He noted that General Hernandez, who had a largely administrative job in the Defence Ministry, had been in civilian clothes and that the gunmen clearly had accurate information about the homes and movements of military personnel. He called on citizens to collaborate in trying to unearth the Madrid cell which has now killed three army officers in eight months.
On 23 May, Lieutenant Miguel Peralta was blown to pieces by a bomb attached to his car on a ring road outside the capital.
The bomb had been under the car while he drove his daughter to school and had apparently been set to go off when he switched on the ignition. Inexplicably, it exploded a few minutes after he dropped off his daughter.
The government also blamed Eta (a Basque acronym for Basque Homeland and Liberty) for two briefcase bombs that blew the hands off two holidaymakers and forced the closure of several Basque country beaches last Sunday. Eta's political wing, Herri Batasuna, denied the group had been responsible.
If Herri Batasuna's word is to be believed, and their record is not conducive to credibility, the bombings could conceivably have been part of an anti-Eta backlash.
(Photograph omitted)
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