Divide And Conquer

Basque terrorist group ETA threw a "message bomb" into the Spanish general-election campaign. That was how Pasqual Maragall, Socialist President of the regional government of Catalonia, described the video statement by two masked ETA members that the separatists were suspending their campaign of bombing and killing — but only in Catalonia. Analysts speculate the ETA move is designed to divide Spain's main parties in their shared approach to terrorism and to try to draw Catalonia into the Basque conflict.

The announcement is politically embarrassing for Maragall, because it followed a recent secret meeting between the leader of his governing partner, Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira of the Republican Left party, and two ETA leaders in Perpignan, France. (ETA has killed more than 800 people throughout Spain over the past three decades, more than 50 of them in Catalonia.) Carod-Rovira denies negotiating for a cease-fire — or anything else — but was forced to resign as Maragall's deputy after news of the meeting was leaked to the press. The ETA statement also hurts Maragall's national counterpart, Socialist leader and presidential candidate José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, right before the March 14 general election.