{"id":38048,"date":"2026-06-10T12:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/38048\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:29:39","slug":"spains-leftists-shield-killers-of-american-business-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/38048\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s leftists shield killers of American business executive"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 9, 1985, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna \u201cComando Madrid\u201d cell detonated a car bomb in Madrid, Spain<\/a>, killing Eugene Kenneth Brown, a 45-year-old Johnson & Johnson executive from New Jersey<\/a>. He remains the only American killed by the Basque separatist terrorist group, which murdered nearly 850 people between 1968 and 2011 \u2014 among them more than 340 civilians and hundreds of Spanish law enforcement officers. Nearly four decades later, 379 ETA cases remain unresolved.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Spanish judicial authorities \u2014 not the current leftist national government \u2014 have now formally decided to demand the return of 14 ETA fugitives long protected by Venezuela\u2019s<\/a> Chavista regime.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s and 1990s, ETA evolved from bombs and assassinations into political infiltration. Former Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero \u2014 recently charged with belonging to a criminal organization \u2014 later dressed that strategy in the language of \u201cpolitical dialogue.\u201d In practice, it helped rehabilitate convicted terrorists and launder bloodstained records into parliamentary respectability. Arnaldo Otegi, who served prison time for his leadership roles in ETA, now leads EH Bildu. Today, Bildu\u2019s votes keep Pedro Sanchez\u2019s minority socialist government alive. Therefore, Madrid\u2019s government survives with help from the political heirs of the terrorist group that deliberately murdered an American citizen.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s sanctuary makes the scandal worse. For years, Caracas has sheltered ETA fugitives alongside Cuba and other leftist dictatorships, exporting impunity while undermining Western counterterrorism norms. Yet Sanchez\u2019s government is weakening the very instruments needed to confront that network. In 2022, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska dissolved OCON-Sur, the Spanish Civil Guard\u2019s 150-agent anti-narcotics elite unit that operated in the Strait of Gibraltar. Before its suppression, the unit had seized more than 1,400 tons of drugs and arrested over 10,000 suspects tied to Venezuelan and FARC-linked trafficking networks. That decision \u2014 despite internal objections-benefited the narco-terror ecosystem connected to the same regime<\/a> now harboring ETA killers and their political descendants. ETA\u2019s historical ties to FARC, including years of joint training, make the pattern harder to dismiss.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sanchez is also advancing plans to merge Spain\u2019s military and civilian intelligence services. That is not modernization. It is a direct assault on independent institutions that previously helped expose ETA-Venezuela-FARC connections. Centralizing intelligence under political control would weaken watchdogs, shield coalition partners with terrorist pedigrees, and move Madrid away from the intelligence-driven counterterrorism model that America has long championed. As Venezuela\u2019s Delcy Rodriguez decides whether to break permanently from the Caracas-Tehran axis or preserve Chavismo under new management, Spain is also choosing between political convenience and strategic clarity.<\/p>\n

IRAN\u2019S IRAQI KILLER SITS IN AN AMERICAN CELL. TRUMP MUST SANCTION BAGHDAD IF IT SHIELDS THE OTHERS<\/a><\/p>\n

Washington should treat this as more than a Spanish problem. Spain\u2019s leftist government is openly hostile to America\u2019s strong leadership while weakening tools that once made it a reliable security partner. The United States has leverage, especially as Venezuela stumbles through its own \u201c1975 Spanish Transition\u201d-like process. Any expansive future diplomatic engagement, sanctions relief, or economic opening with Caracas should be conditioned on the immediate extradition of the 14 ETA fugitives to face Spanish justice.<\/p>\n

Congress<\/a> should also hold hearings on the 379 unresolved ETA cases and Venezuela\u2019s role as a terrorist safe haven. Direct public pressure on figures such as Delcy Rodriguez would make clear that sheltering the killers of Americans carries consequences. Allowing these fugitives to remain protected in Caracas while Madrid dismantles its defenses rewards impunity, strengthens America\u2019s adversaries, and signals that terrorist safe havens are cost-free. Genuine progress in Venezuela must continue with the return of the men who belonged to the terrorist gang that murdered Americans. That standard should be nonnegotiable for any government seeking serious American patience, legitimacy, or relief. Justice for our citizens is unfinished American business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jose Lev Alvarez is an American\u2013Israeli scholar specializing in international security policy. A multilingual veteran of the IDF special forces and the U.S. Army, he holds three master\u2019s degrees, a medical degree, and is completing a Ph.D. in Intelligence and Global Security in the Washington, D.C., area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On September 9, 1985, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna \u201cComando Madrid\u201d cell detonated a car bomb in Madrid, Spain, killing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1062,18070,18071,18072,5689,17,2361,564],"class_list":["post-38048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-congress","tag-johnson-johnson","tag-liberals","tag-regime","tag-socialism","tag-spain","tag-terrorism","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}