We had an international arrest warrant issued by the Hague tribunal, an investigation was opened and the police arrested him on the Canary Islands on Wednesday night, the Spanish state secretary for foreign affairs, Barnardino Leon Gross, said on the margins of a NATO meeting.
Gotovina was arrested in the "Playa de las Americas" hotel in Tenerife after shuttling between islands of the Canary archipelago in recent days, the Spanish paper El Pais reported today.
The news of Gotovina's arrest was broken today by the chief prosecutor of the Hague war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, during her visit to Belgrade.
Reuters quoted Spanish court sources as saying that Gotovina was expected to appear before the High Court in Madrid this afternoon. It is likely that an extradition hearing will be held as soon as possible, an unnamed source told Reuters. The agency also said that Gotovina was transferred to Madrid aboard a military plane.
Del Ponte's spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said earlier in the day that steps were being taken to extradite Gotovina to The Hague.
General Ante Gotovina has been on the run since mid-2001 when he was indicted for crimes committed in the course of and after the 1995 Operation Storm.