ETA demands extortion from Balearic businessmen

According to an article in El País, by a correspondent in Palma, Andreu Manresa, the terrorist organisation ETA has widened its extortion campaign to the Balearic businesses, demanding the payment of the so called revolutionary tax.

The letters demanding the payment of amounts oscillating between 50 and 60 million pesetas have been sent mainly to tourist business people who have participated in financing the Fortuna, the King's new boat.

The construction of the new Fortuna has cost over 3,0000 million pesetas, paid by the Fundació Turística i Cultural de les Illes Balears. The Foundation was formed in 1998, by tourist business people and institutions in the Balearics, to raise funds to present a boat to the King, and among its thirty sponsors are the Balearic Government, the savings banks La Caixa and Sa Nostra, and the businessmen Escarrer of Sol-Melià, Barceló of Grupo Barceló, Riu of Riu Hotels, Fluxà of Iberostar and Camper, Rosselló-Roxa of Blau Hotels, Ramis of Grupotel, Matutes of Fiesta Hotels in Eivissa, Hidalgo of Air Europa...

The initiative of the business people started a controversy when the new Balearic Government, presided by Francesc Antich, discovered that the previous cabinet, presided by Jaume Matas, donated 460 million pesetas to finance the project. Officially Jaume Matas announced the donation of one million pesetas, carrying out the amount via the Fomento de Turismo de Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza and Formentera.

Carmen Matutes, president of the Fundació Turística i Cultural de les Illes Balears, handed over, before Public Notary, last June 19, with nearly a year's delay, the new Fortuna to the Patrimonio Nacional, the entity that, amongst other functions, administers the State properties and belongings available to the Royal Family. The event was attended by the Councillor for Health and Consume, Aina Salom, representing the Balearic Government. One day before, on Sunday morning, June 18, King Juan Carlos, accompanied by Prince Felipe, visited the Fortuna which is already at his disposal tied up at the Dique del Oeste, in the naval base of Porto Pi, Palma.

The new Fortuna substitutes the boat of the same name the King Fahd of Arabia gave to King Juan Carlos 20 years ago. The new boat, built by Astilleros Bazán, in San Fernando (Cádiz), has been designed by the Northamerican firm, Donald L. Blount and Associates, and decorated by the Italian, Celeste Dell'Anna. The grey hull is made of aluminium with two blue transverse bands. There are four double cabins for passengers, plus the crew's area, and is 41,3 metres long by 9.2 metres beam, reaching a speed of 70 knotts (130 km/h). What is more, it has been fitted with a high class telecommunications system in which the Spanish Navy has invested another 200 million pesetas.

Date of publication: 01/07/2000

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