Basque Rebels Suspected in Banker’s Death

MADRID —  A director of Spain’s leading bank, Banco Central, was shot to death in the garage of his Madrid home Tuesday by suspected Basque guerrillas posing as police officers, police said.

Ricardo Tejero, 58, regarded as the bank’s second-ranking executive, was shot in the head by five men who had locked the driver of his armored limousine and the garage attendant into a lavatory.

Police said the killers had produced security credentials of a type seized by French police in recent raids on hideouts of the Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA--Basque Homeland and Freedom--in the south of France.

Spent 9-millimeter cartridges found at the scene of the murder were also of the type used by ETA, which has carried out thousands of bomb attacks against Spanish banks during its violent 17-year fight for an independent Basque state.

Spain’s largest banks have resisted ETA’s demands for money the guerrillas call “revolutionary taxes.”