1977 Massacre of Atocha
Encyclopedia
The 1977 Massacre of Atocha was a neo-fascist attack during the Spanish transition to democracy
after the death of Franco
in 1975, killing five and injuring four. It was committed on January 24, 1977, in an office located on 55 Atocha Street near the Atocha railway station in Madrid, where specialists in labor law, members of the Workers' Commissions
trade union (CCOO), and of the then-clandestine Communist Party of Spain (PCE), had gathered. The next day, the massacre
was defended by a group calling itself Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista (literally The Apostolic Anticommunist Alliance, abbreviated Triple A or AAA). The suspects arrested were close to Blas Piñar
's Fuerza Nueva
far-right party, the Falange-JONS and the Franco Guard. The indignation brought about by the killings accelerated the legalisation of the Communist party, which took place in Easter
1977. On March 24, 1984, the Italian daily Il Messaggero
revealed that, possibly, Italian neofascists had taken part in the shootings, pointing toward some kind of "Black International" .
, the assassins were looking for Communist leader Joaquín Navarro, head of the CCOO's Transport Syndicate, which had recently called for a strike against the "Franquist transport mafia ", denouncing the Sindicato Vertical
official trade union . Failing to find him, the assassins decided to open fire on those present, killing five and injuring four. They first ran into Ángel Rodríguez Leál, who had returned from a nearby bar to retrieve some papers he had left in the office. After shooting him, the attackers searched the rest of the floor and discovered eight lawyers in one of the offices. They lined them up against the wall and shot all eight. Two, Luis Javier Benavides and Enrique Valdevira, were killed instantly, and two more, Serafín Holgado and Francisco Javier Sauquillo died shortly after being taken to hospital. The remaining four, Dolores González Ruíz (the wife of Sauquillo, who was pregnant at the time), Miguel Sarabia, Alejandro Ruíz Huertas and Luis Ramos Pardo were gravely injured but survived. The same night, unidentified persons attacked an empty office of the UGT trade union
, affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
(PSOE). Two days earlier, two left-wing activists had been murdered, one by the Triple A (Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista or AAA) and the other by the police, during a protest over the former's death. Due to these events, there were fears of a violent reaction against the fragile political transition
.
More than 100,000 people attended the funerals of the victims of the Atocha massacre, which made them the first large left-wing gatherings to take place after the 1975 death of General Franco. Important strikes and a general strike on the day following the attack took place as signs of support for the victims. The PCE was legalised a short time after the attack, the government taking advantage of the Easter holiday to avoid protests from conservative sectors of Spanish society.
The lack of riots among the funeral attendance was an argument for accepting the PCE as a trustworthy democratic party.
Trusting in political protection, the attackers had not even bothered to flee Madrid. The three men who had carried out the attack, Carlos García Juliá, José Fernandez Cerrá y Fernando Lerdo de Tejada (nephew of the personal secretary of far-right party Fuerza Nueva
s leader Blas Piñar) were soon arrested by the national police, while Francisco Albadalejo Corredera, provincial secretary of the official transport Sindicato vertical, was arrested as the mastermind of the attack. Far right figures such as Blas Piñar
and Mariano Sánchez Covisa were called to testify during the trials. Beside Fuerza Nueva, other far right groups such as the aforementioned Triple A were involved with the attack.
The Audiencia Nacional, a Spanish high court, condemned the convicted to a total of 464 years of prison. José Fernández Cerdá and Carlos García Juliá each received sentences of 196 years, while Albadalejo Corredera received 63 years for orchestrating the attack (he died in prison in 1985). However, the escape of Lerdo de Tejada, while freed on bail in 1979, reinforced the victims' lawyers' convictions that the attackers had received aid from well-connected sources. Lerdo de Tejada escaped to France, then Chile and Brazil — the period of prescription for his crime expired in 1997. Jaime Sartorius, lawyer for the plaintiffs, believes the people behind the attack have never been brought to justice: "...They did not let us investigate. For us, the investigations were pointing towards the secret services, but only pointing towards them. By this I do not want to imply anything." Another of the convicted men, García Juliá, escaped 14 years later, profiting from his conditional release although he still had 10 more years to serve. He was arrested two years after his escape by Bolivian authorities on a charge of drug-traffiking
— the funds obtained from it may have been used to support far-right organisations. Fernández Cerrá served 15 years and was released on parole in 1992.
Following the revelations of Italian Prime minister Giulio Andreotti
in October 1990 concerning the existence of Gladio, a secret stay-behind
NATO anti-communist network during the Cold War
, a report from the Italian CESIS
(Executive Committee for Intelligence and Security Services) stated that Carlo Cicuttini
, an Italian neofascist related to Gladio, whom had participated to the 1972 Peteano bombing alongside Vincenzo Vinciguerra
, took part in the Atocha massacre. After Peteano, Cicuttini exiled himself to Spain the same year and had been naturalized Spanish .
On January 11, 2002, the Council of Ministers granted the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Raymond of Peñafort (Orden de San Raimundo de Peñafort) to the four lawyers who were murdered, while the Cross of the Order was given to Ángel Rodríguez Leal.
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
after the death of Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
in 1975, killing five and injuring four. It was committed on January 24, 1977, in an office located on 55 Atocha Street near the Atocha railway station in Madrid, where specialists in labor law, members of the Workers' Commissions
Workers' Commissions
The Workers' Commissions since the 1970s has become the largest trade union in Spain. It has more than one million members and is the most successful union in labor elections, competing with the socialist Unión General de Trabajadores , with the syndicalist Confederación General del Trabajo ...
trade union (CCOO), and of the then-clandestine Communist Party of Spain (PCE), had gathered. The next day, the massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
was defended by a group calling itself Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista (literally The Apostolic Anticommunist Alliance, abbreviated Triple A or AAA). The suspects arrested were close to Blas Piñar
Blas Piñar
Blas Piñar is a Spanish politician. He has had connections with Catholic organizations; directed the Institute of Spanish Culture and served as deputy in the Cortes and a councillor of the Movimiento Nacional.In the 1960s, Blas Piñar was in charge of the Institute of Spanish Culture that was...
's Fuerza Nueva
Fuerza Nueva
New Force was the name of a succession of far-right political parties in Spain founded by Blas Piñar, the son of one of the defenders of the Alcázar of Toledo and director of the Institute of Hispanic Culture during the Francoist period...
far-right party, the Falange-JONS and the Franco Guard. The indignation brought about by the killings accelerated the legalisation of the Communist party, which took place in Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
1977. On March 24, 1984, the Italian daily Il Messaggero
Il Messaggero
Il Messaggero is an Italian newspaper based in Rome, Italy, founded in 1878.It is owned by the Italian publishing company Caltagirone Editore, and its leaders include Azzurra Caltagirone, the partner of the political leader Pierferdinando Casini, on its board...
revealed that, possibly, Italian neofascists had taken part in the shootings, pointing toward some kind of "Black International" .
The shootings
Armed with Ingram M-10 sub-machine gunsMAC-10
The MAC-10 is a highly compact, blowback operated machine pistol developed by Gordon B. Ingram in 1964.-Design:The M-10 was built predominantly from steel stampings...
, the assassins were looking for Communist leader Joaquín Navarro, head of the CCOO's Transport Syndicate, which had recently called for a strike against the "Franquist transport mafia ", denouncing the Sindicato Vertical
Spanish Trade Union Organisation
The Spanish Trade Union Organisation , commonly known as Vertical Syndicate , was the only legal trade union organisation in Francoist Spain , and a main component of the Movimiento Nacional Francoist apparatus...
official trade union . Failing to find him, the assassins decided to open fire on those present, killing five and injuring four. They first ran into Ángel Rodríguez Leál, who had returned from a nearby bar to retrieve some papers he had left in the office. After shooting him, the attackers searched the rest of the floor and discovered eight lawyers in one of the offices. They lined them up against the wall and shot all eight. Two, Luis Javier Benavides and Enrique Valdevira, were killed instantly, and two more, Serafín Holgado and Francisco Javier Sauquillo died shortly after being taken to hospital. The remaining four, Dolores González Ruíz (the wife of Sauquillo, who was pregnant at the time), Miguel Sarabia, Alejandro Ruíz Huertas and Luis Ramos Pardo were gravely injured but survived. The same night, unidentified persons attacked an empty office of the UGT trade union
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party .-History:...
, affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
(PSOE). Two days earlier, two left-wing activists had been murdered, one by the Triple A (Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista or AAA) and the other by the police, during a protest over the former's death. Due to these events, there were fears of a violent reaction against the fragile political transition
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
.
More than 100,000 people attended the funerals of the victims of the Atocha massacre, which made them the first large left-wing gatherings to take place after the 1975 death of General Franco. Important strikes and a general strike on the day following the attack took place as signs of support for the victims. The PCE was legalised a short time after the attack, the government taking advantage of the Easter holiday to avoid protests from conservative sectors of Spanish society.
The lack of riots among the funeral attendance was an argument for accepting the PCE as a trustworthy democratic party.
Trusting in political protection, the attackers had not even bothered to flee Madrid. The three men who had carried out the attack, Carlos García Juliá, José Fernandez Cerrá y Fernando Lerdo de Tejada (nephew of the personal secretary of far-right party Fuerza Nueva
Fuerza Nueva
New Force was the name of a succession of far-right political parties in Spain founded by Blas Piñar, the son of one of the defenders of the Alcázar of Toledo and director of the Institute of Hispanic Culture during the Francoist period...
s leader Blas Piñar) were soon arrested by the national police, while Francisco Albadalejo Corredera, provincial secretary of the official transport Sindicato vertical, was arrested as the mastermind of the attack. Far right figures such as Blas Piñar
Blas Piñar
Blas Piñar is a Spanish politician. He has had connections with Catholic organizations; directed the Institute of Spanish Culture and served as deputy in the Cortes and a councillor of the Movimiento Nacional.In the 1960s, Blas Piñar was in charge of the Institute of Spanish Culture that was...
and Mariano Sánchez Covisa were called to testify during the trials. Beside Fuerza Nueva, other far right groups such as the aforementioned Triple A were involved with the attack.
The Audiencia Nacional, a Spanish high court, condemned the convicted to a total of 464 years of prison. José Fernández Cerdá and Carlos García Juliá each received sentences of 196 years, while Albadalejo Corredera received 63 years for orchestrating the attack (he died in prison in 1985). However, the escape of Lerdo de Tejada, while freed on bail in 1979, reinforced the victims' lawyers' convictions that the attackers had received aid from well-connected sources. Lerdo de Tejada escaped to France, then Chile and Brazil — the period of prescription for his crime expired in 1997. Jaime Sartorius, lawyer for the plaintiffs, believes the people behind the attack have never been brought to justice: "...They did not let us investigate. For us, the investigations were pointing towards the secret services, but only pointing towards them. By this I do not want to imply anything." Another of the convicted men, García Juliá, escaped 14 years later, profiting from his conditional release although he still had 10 more years to serve. He was arrested two years after his escape by Bolivian authorities on a charge of drug-traffiking
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
— the funds obtained from it may have been used to support far-right organisations. Fernández Cerrá served 15 years and was released on parole in 1992.
Following the revelations of Italian Prime minister Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
in October 1990 concerning the existence of Gladio, a secret stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
NATO anti-communist network during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, a report from the Italian CESIS
CESIS
Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza was an Italian government committee whose mission was the coordination of all the intelligence sector, and specifically between the two civilian and military intelligence agencies , with the aim to report all the relevant information...
(Executive Committee for Intelligence and Security Services) stated that Carlo Cicuttini
Carlo Cicuttini
Carlo Cicuttini is a former member of the neo-fascist grouping Ordine Nuovo, who was convicted in absentia in 1987 for his part in a bombing attack in Peteano di Sagrado, 1972...
, an Italian neofascist related to Gladio, whom had participated to the 1972 Peteano bombing alongside Vincenzo Vinciguerra
Vincenzo Vinciguerra
Vincenzo Vinciguerra is an Italian neo-fascist activist, a former member of the Avanguardia Nazionale and Ordine Nuovo . He is currently serving a life-sentence for the murder of three policemen by a car bomb in Peteano in 1972...
, took part in the Atocha massacre. After Peteano, Cicuttini exiled himself to Spain the same year and had been naturalized Spanish .
On January 11, 2002, the Council of Ministers granted the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Raymond of Peñafort (Orden de San Raimundo de Peñafort) to the four lawyers who were murdered, while the Cross of the Order was given to Ángel Rodríguez Leal.
Film
The events were adapted for cinema by Juan Antonio Bardem in 1978 in his films Seven Days in January (Siete días de enero).External links
- 25 años desde la Matanza de Atocha: 1977-2002, A un paso de la revolución by Jesús María Pérez, in the marxistMarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
newspaper Nuevo Claridad number 37 (February 2002)