The

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

separatist group

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ETA, an acronym for ("Basque Homeland and Liberty"ETA BASQUE ORGANIZATION
Encyclo ...

(ETA) prepared an attack on the then

King of Spain The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

Juan Carlos I Juan Carlos I (; Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 November 1975 until Abdication of Juan Carlos I, his abdic ...

in the summer of 1995. Juan Carlos spent his holidays at

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. A three-man ETA command had rented an apartment in

Palma de Mallorca Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

in the district of Porto Pí. From there it is possible to see the part of the harbor where the holiday yacht of Juan Carlos I was located. In the apartment, the ETA command had a

Mauser Mauser, originally the Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik, was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols was produced beginning in the 1870s for the German armed forces. In the late 19th and ...

precision rifle, caliber 7.62 with silencer,

riflescope A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical instrument, optical sight (device), sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a frame of reference, referencing pattern – known as ...

bipod A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix and Greek root , meaning "two" and "foot" respectively. Bipods are design ...

and Dum-Dum projectiles ready. A sniper would shoot the king on his motor yacht about 250 meters away. The coup was eventually discovered, resulting in the arrest of the command in August 1995 by the special unit of the Spanish police ( GEO). In the ensuing trial of the suspects, they denounced the king as the chief perpetrator of the "oppression" of the Basques; they called for a vote on the independence demands of ETA. In 2009, ETA also committed several attacks in Mallorca. In the middle of the high season, two civil servants of the Civil Guard were killed and several passers-by injured. A few days later, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía would visit the Marivent Palace eight kilometers from the point of attack. In 2015, the confiscated sniper rifle and other utensils of the case were part of a counter-terrorism exhibition organized by the National Police in the Military History Center in

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

References

{{Authority Control

ETA (separatist group) actions

Politics of Spain Monarchy