Victims of terrorism exact Venezuela to stop protecting ETA members

Consuelo Ordóñez, spokesperson of the Collective of Victims of Terrorism of the Basque Country (Covite), wants the Spanish government to ask Venezuelan authorities for cooperation with justice and to stop protecting ETA members in their country. The request would be made during the Ibero-American Summit beginning on Friday in Cádiz.

The sister of councilor Gregorio Ordóñez, murdered by the ETA, gave the news to the media after a hearing before Eloy Velasco, the judge of the National High Court, to brief on a meeting with a military officer in a Venezuelan prison where data on the links between ETA and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) was supplied, Efe cited.

Ordóñez thinks that the Venezuelan case is "most serious." She remembered that at least 50 "protected" ETA members "abound at ease, hold high positions in the Venezuelan government and they are senior businessmen."

Covite included its request in a letter forwarded on Monday to Venezuelan Ambassador to Madrid, Bernardo Álvarez Herrera. The NGO claimed in the notice to have collected "strong evidence and testimony" on the current presence in that country of numerous ETA members involved in terrorist attacks.