Naval duke assassinated

Press, 8 February 1986, Page 10

Naval duke assassinated

NZPA-Reuter Madrid Basque guerrillas are suspected of killing a Spanish naval officer, a descendant of Christopher Columbus, and his driver yesterday in their worst Madrid attack in six months. The two attackers threw a hand-grenade at their car and fired a sub-machine-gun through the door before driving off, pursued by- police cars and a helicopter. Vice-Admiral Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, aged 61, Duke of Veragua and La Vega, Marquis of Aguilafuente and Jamaica, was killed in the exclusive El Viso district, where several embassies are located. His aide was seriously injured by shrapnel. Heavily armed police, directed by helicopters, searched apartment blocks in central Madrid

where the attackers were thought to be hiding. The police found ammunition commonly used by the Basque separatist organisation, E.T.A., in the getaway car. Basque sources said the attack may have been in retaliation for the deaths of three E.T.A. guerrillas shot by the police after they had fired at a French truck last month near Bilbao. Admiral Colon de Carvajal was the fifty-fourth senior military man killed by guerrillas since E.T.A. killed the Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, in 1973. Admiral Colon de Carvajal, a specialist in submarine warfare, was director of the Institute of Naval Culture and History. As a descendant of the discoverer of America he had the title of Admiral of the Indies.