Spain close to crushing ETA, says PM

The capture of ETA’s suspected leader has brought Spain closer to crushing the armed Basque separatist group, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an interview published today.

Zapatero told El Pais newspaper that after the October 3 arrest of Mikel Antza in south-west France and the seizure of a large weapons cache – Spain’s biggest coup against ETA in more than a decade – he is cautiously optimistic about eliminating ETA altogether.