MADRID - 'Txeroki', the suspected head of ETA's military operations arrested Monday in France, symbolises the radical young generation that has taken control of the armed Basque separatist organisation in recent years.
'Txeroki' was the most wanted leader of ETA, which is blamed for the deaths of 824 people in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland encompassing parts of southwestern France and northern Spain.
Born on Jul 6, 1973 in the Basque city of Bilbao, Miguel De Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, whose goes by the name of 'Txeroki', is believed to have taken over ETA's military operations in late 2003 as the leader of a hardline wing that was hostile to dialogue with Madrid.
Spanish police believe he has lived in France for several years.
The only known photograph of him shows a young man with a thin face and a determined look, a three-day-old beard, long brown hair tied in a ponytail and a earring in his right ear.
When he was about 20 years old, 'Txeroki' became involved in minor acts of urban violence staged by radical young ETA supporters in Spain's northern Basque Country and neighbouring Navarra province.
ETA has used the organised violence, known as kale borroka, to recruit new members.
He moved on to the notorious 'Vizcaya' commando in the early part of this decade, and was trained by the head of ETA commandos, Soledad Iparragirre Genetxea, known as 'Anboto', who was arrested in France in October 2004.
The two first operations in which he was allegedly involved ended in failure. A planned car-bomb attack two weeks before March 2004 elections was foiled by police, and a plan to assassinate King Juan Carlos in the island of Majorca the same year was never carried out.
Since then, police suspect he was connected to all the major ETA operations, in particular a bomb attack that killed two people in the car park of Madrid airport in December, 2006.
That attack, carried out amid the ETA's 'permanent ceasefire' led the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to end its controversial dialogue with ETA.
Spanish media said the attack was the result of Txeroki's rising influence in the organisation.
It said Txeroki used the ceasefire, announced in March 2006, to establish a 'new ETA' with young recruits from the kale borroka and to revitalise its armed operations.
In June 2007, ETA announced the formal end of the ceasefire.
Txeroki is also suspected of involvement in the murder of two Spanish police officers in southern France last December. -- AFP