ETA member Luis María Zengotitabengoa is taken from Belgium to Spain by the Spanish National Police (Photo: Efe)

The government of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has decided to launch an investigation into the activities of ETA activist Arturo Cubillas Fontán after it emerged that he provided weapons training to Xabier Atristain and Juan Carlos Besance, two alleged members of Basque terrorist group ETA, in Venezuela in 2008.

Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, informed the decision to Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ángel Moratinos in a telephone conversation, a spokesman of the Spanish minister said, Efe reported.

According to an indictment published last Monday by Ismael Moreno, a judge of the Spanish National Court, Cubillas, who works at the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture, was involved in the weapon training of Atristain and Besance, two members of the "Imanol Command" who were arrested in Guipúzcoa.

Venezuela's Executive Office made the decision to open an investigation hours after Minister Moratinos asked Isaías Rodríguez, the Venezuelan ambassador to Spain, to take "concrete actions" against the ETA activist.

Maduro told Moratinos that the probe will be extended to the contents of the indictment issued by Judge Moreno related to the courses on explosives and weapons taught in Venezuela in July and August 2008.

The two ministers held two talks on Wednesday after Moratinos asked the Venezuelan ambassador to take actions against Cubillas.

The ETA activist, who is a Venezuelan citizen since he is married to a Venezuelan citizen, was deported from Algeria to Venezuela in 1989.

In 2005, Cubillas was appointed head of security at an agency attached to the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

The Spanish National Court has said that Cubillas is responsible for ETA's activities in Latin America since 1999 and has acted as a liaison with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The government of President Chávez decided to investigate Cubillas after receiving on Tuesday the indictment of Judge Ismael Moreno that had been forwarded to the Embassy of Spain in Caracas.

Previously, the government of Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero asked for "an answer" from Venezuelan authorities, after Madrid urged Caracas to help investigate the alleged presence of ETA members in Venezuela.

"If they are in Venezuela, we are going to bring them back from Venezuela, and if they are playing any role in society, they will no longer be. This can be achieved by cooperating with the government of Venezuela, just like with all governments," Rodríguez Zapatero said.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas

Source: ElUniversal.com