The Basque separatist group ETA has sent extortion letters to more than 100 businessmen in northern Spain demanding money to avoid being attacked, Spanish newspapers reported Sunday.
Businessmen from the northern Navarre region began receiving the letters in August, weeks after ETA kidnapped and killed a young Basque politician, El Pais reported.
The letters, sent largely to businessmen in the hotel sector, demand varying amounts between $30,000 and $250,000, the newspaper said. Politicians said many businessmen had paid up.
The so-called “revolutionary tax” is one of the methods ETA has used to finance a 30-year guerrilla campaign for an independent Basque state encompassing parts of northern Spain and southern France. About 800 people have been killed.
Politicians said the latest extortion drive was playing on the fear prompted by the murder of town councilor Miguel Angel Blanco in July. ETA kidnapped Blanco and shot him in the head two days later after the government refused to transfer jailed ETA rebels to Basque prisons.
