By
The Associated Press
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain - A politician was gunned down yesterday in the street of a northern town in the latest in a series of slayings blamed on the armed Basque separatist group ETA.
Manuel Indiano, 29, was shot 10 times in the chest and abdomen outside his candy store in Zumarraga, a Basque town, about 250 miles north of Madrid, police said.
Indiano, who authorities said refused police protection normally offered politicians in the Basque region, died in the town's hospital an hour after the attack. His wife, pregnant with their first child, was admitted to a hospital later in shock.
Although not a member of the governing Popular Party, Indiano became a councilor in Zumarraga for the party six months ago. The conservative party fiercely opposes Basque separatism and other moves to change Spain's political makeup.
No one took responsibility for the shooting, but Interior Ministry officials immediately blamed ETA, which began its campaign for independence of the three-province northern region in 1968.
The killing brought to 12 the number of slayings - five this month - attributed to ETA since it ended a 14-month truce last December.
The group, whose name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has admitted killing nearly 800 people. It normally claims responsibility for its attacks several weeks after carrying them out.
Officials believe the latest ETA campaign seeks to push the government to the negotiating table. A single round of talks during last year's truce ended in stalemate.
The killing was condemned by political parties, labor unions and Amnesty International.
"We are faced once again with the confirmation that the terrorist group ETA has no other aim but to impose its will on others and exterminate all those who don't think like they do," said deputy Prime Minister Marian Rajoy.
Demonstrations were called for later yesterday in the Basque provincial capitals of San Sebastian, Bilbao and Vitoria while five-minute silent vigils were to be held at town halls across Spain today.
While security force members have long been ETA's main target, in recent years the organization has begun killing more politicians, particularly those of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party.
Aznar, who was on a visit to Poland yesterday, survived a car-bomb attempt on his life in 1995 when he was in the opposition.
