Remains found at Madrid bomb site

By CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman

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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Rescue workers Wednesday found the remains of a man in the rubble of last weekend's Madrid airport blast, making him the first fatality in more than three years in an attack by the Basque separatist group ETA, the Interior Ministry told CNN.

The remains of Ecuadorean immigrant Carlos Alonso Palate were located in a car in the heavily damaged parking garage at Madrid Barajas Airport's Terminal 4, where an ETA van bomb exploded Saturday. They had not yet been removed.

The Socialist government Tuesday said the blast "broke, finished and liquidated" a nine-month-old cease-fire that ETA last March had promised would be "permanent," raising hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of ETA attacks blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries.

Palate, in his mid-30s, had remained in his car, apparently sleeping, Saturday while a companion went inside the terminal to pick up someone arriving on a flight.

The interior minister on Saturday said authorities received three warning calls, including one in the name of ETA, before the blast at 9 a.m. The caller described the garage location and the van that contained the powerful bomb. Police rushed to clear the area and initially only about 20 people reported slight injuries after the blast, such as hearing problems.

But Palate and another Ecuadorean immigrant, Diego Armando Estacio, 19 -- who had also remained, separately, in his car in the garage -- were reported as missing by their family members hours after the attack.

The second missing man was still being sought. Authorities said there was little chance of finding him alive, given the huge blast and the ensuring fire at the airport garage, which caved in.

The last previous fatalities in an ETA attack were two police officers killed in May 2003 near Pamplona. The long absence of fatalities had helped set the stage for the March 2006 ETA cease-fire announcement.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero -- whose government has acknowledged it was caught by surprise by the airport blast -- said Saturday the attack was "absolutely incompatible" with the cease-fire. He ordered an immediate "suspension" of government efforts to negotiate a permanent end to ETA's violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland.

But the opposition conservative Popular Party immediately criticized Zapatero for not completely breaking off the peace process. After days of political bickering, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba acknowledged just that step on Tuesday, calling it "broken, finished and liquidated." He blamed the break entirely on ETA.

The conservatives and a leading ETA victims group have opposed the peace process from the start, arguing that it is impossible to negotiate with terrorists, whom they say must be beaten only with police and judicial action.

Rubalcaba said the government now aims to build a consensus, including with the conservatives, on how to proceed in the fight against ETA.

But leaders of the outlawed leftist Batasuna party, widely linked to ETA, on Wednesday repeated their stance first mentioned Saturday that the peace process for them was "not broken," despite the blast.

Some analysts said it would be unthinkable for Zapatero to resume any peace process, especially now that the remains of one of the missing Ecuadorians has been found.

The government, with parliamentary backing, in 2005 had agreed to explore negotiations with ETA only if ETA demonstrated clearly that it was renouncing violence.

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