Spain, but also the European Union, pay solemn tribute on Monday to the 192 victims of 17 nationalities murdered 20 years ago to the day in Madrid in bomb attacks which marked the start of mass Islamist attacks in Europe . Presided over by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, the official ceremony will begin at 12:15 p.m. (11:15 a.m. GMT) at the Gallery of Royal Collections, a museum located near the Royal Palace in Madrid.
It will be organized by the European Commission, March 11 having become the “European Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Terrorism”. This Thursday, March 11, 2004, shortly after 7:30 a.m., during rush hour, ten devices exploded in the space of a few minutes aboard four commuter trains in the large Atocha station, located in the heart of Madrid, or at proximity. The capital is immediately plunged into chaos, while solidarity is organized. Thus, taxis are mobilizing to help transport the injured (there are nearly 1,900) to hospitals.
Faced for several decades with a bloody campaign by the Basque separatist group ETA, Spain has a sad habit of bomb attacks, but has never been targeted by an attack of this magnitude. The September 11 attacks in the United States, which left nearly 3,000 dead, took place two and a half years earlier, but Europe does not yet automatically think of Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization led by Osama ben Laden.
The government of the time accused of lying
The attacks at the Atocha station, called in Spain “the 11-M”, take place in a very charged political context, since the country is in the home stretch of an electoral campaign, with legislative elections due to take place three days later. The Popular Party (right) of outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar is favored against the Socialist Party of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A year earlier, Madrid decided to side with the United States and participate in the invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, despite opposition from the Spanish public.
In the months that followed, bin Laden threatened reprisals against countries that participated in the invasion. However, the government immediately designates ETA as responsible for the Atocha massacre and will never budge, despite the accumulation of evidence to the contrary. The ETA trail will not, in fact, last long, because investigators quickly trace the perpetrators of the killing, in particular thanks to three bombs which did not explode and which were found in backpacks or sports bags.
Above all, al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the attacks, presenting them as retaliation for Spain’s participation in the war in Iraq. Social networks do not yet exist, but doubts about the government version are quickly spreading in the country. So much so that the numerous demonstrations which brought together millions of people throughout Spain on Friday the 12th were very hostile towards those in power, accused of lying. We are not yet talking about disinformation.
Three convicts still in prison
On Sunday the 14th, the Spaniards voted massively and gave victory to the Socialists. For analysts, the disastrous management of the attacks by the Aznar government played a key role in this surprise result. At the beginning of April, seven men constituting the hard core of the jihadist cell which carried out the attack blew themselves up south of Madrid while the police surrounded the apartment where they were hiding. The explosion cost the life of a police officer, considered in Spain to be the 193rd victim of “11-M”.
After three years of investigation, 29 defendants, the vast majority Moroccans, were tried in 2007 in Madrid. On appeal, 18 were convicted. Today, only three of them – two Moroccans, sentenced to nearly 43,000 years in prison, and a Spaniard, who supplied the explosives, sentenced to nearly 35,000 years – are still behind the bars, where they will apparently remain until 2044. All the others were released after serving their sentences, the vast majority having been expelled or extradited, mainly to Morocco.