Michael Butcher for the IAAF.
International Association of Athelics Federations. September 27, 2001.
27 September 2001 - The Spanish athletics world has been rocked by the news
that Niurka Montalvo is on a terrorist hit list. The details emerged after the
police arrested a member of the Basque terrorist group ETA. In his possession
they found 40 typewritten pages of possible targets including members of the
royal family, judges, politicians and journalists as well as the athlete. There
are no other sportspeople on the list.
"It's not a situation you expect to be in," commented the shocked
1999 world long jump champion. "As yet I haven't been threatened nor have I
felt my life was in danger. It's true there are other people on the list but
because I'm better known it could be that an attack on me would have greater
effect."
Montalvo is currently on a three week holiday and though the rest was
planned she has maintained greater secrecy concerning her whereabouts than
usual. Though the police are attempting to play down the threat, other sources
are urging the former Cuban to take the news seriously.
It was on September 4 that the police moved in on an ETA commando operating
in the Barcelon area. The arrested suspect, Juan Carlos Subijana, is reported to
be the man behind the list. Montalvo competes and lives in Valencia which would
fall within the Barcelona commando's territory.
What is troubling for Montalvo is that Subijana has been in frequent contact
with the head of ETA operations, Juan Antonio Olarra Garidi, who has the final
say in who is attacked.
It is thought that the Cuban/Spaniard is a target because of ETA's strong
links with the Cuban regime. Former terrorists have set up thriving business
communities in Cuba and the organisation frequently holds meeting on the
Caribbean island. After defecting to Spain, Montalvo is viewed as a dissident
voice and traitor to the Marxist-Leninist regime.
The police suspect, however, that the list is more a wish list than one that
ETA would seriously act on. Subijana is not thought to be an important cog in
the group's machinery. "I was reassured that they weren't taking it too
seriously," commented Montalvo's coach Rafael Blanquer. "They said
that if there had been a risk we wouldn't have heard through the press, they
would have let us know themselves. However, "the former Spanish long jump
record holder added, "The truth is we're all threatened by terrorism.
Nobody can avoid being a victim, as New York and Washington have demonstrated."
Montalvo herself insists that she will not change her winter plans and her
objectives are still to won the European long jump title in Munich next summer.
She returns to Valencia at the beginning of October for medical tests and will
resume training on the 7th.
"The whole thing has taken me aback because the only lists I'm normally
on are ranking lists," she commented. "All I'm thinking of now is
resting because the season has been really hard after Lisbon and Edmonton."
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