Judge Ismael Moreno said one of the instructors in the 2008 course is a suspected ETA member who is a longtime resident of Venezuela, now has Venezuelan nationality and has held a post in the government of President Hugo Chavez.

That alleged ETA member, Arturo Cubillas Fontan, was indicted by Spain in March. Among other things, Spain accuses him of helping ETA arrange explosives training with Colombian FARC rebels inside Venezuelan territory.

Venezuela’s ambassador to Spain, Julian Isaias Rodriguez, denied any links between Venezuela and ETA. “The government of Venezuela is not linked to anything that has to do with ETA,” he told Spanish National Radio.

Judge Moreno ordered the two detainees, Juan Carlos Besance and Javier Atristain, held without bail pending further investigation.

The judge said in an order issued Monday that the course they took in July and August 2008 involved training in marksmanship, disassembling and cleaning guns, and communicating in code.

Venezuelan authorities say Cubillas has lived in Venezuela since 1989, when he came from Algeria under an agreement with Spain. He is one of about 30 Basque separatists sent to Venezuela under various agreements with Spain in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Cubillas is married to a Venezuelan woman and has held a post in the agriculture ministry in Chavez’s government.