20 years ago, Madrid was plunged into terror and death

On March 11, 2004, ten bombs exploded on four suburban trains in Madrid, leaving 192 dead and almost 2,000 injured. The attacks generated a great commotion in a Spain more accustomed to ETA explosions than to those of jihadism.

Bombs and chaos

That Thursday morning, March 11, 2004, thousands of passengers passed through the Atocha station, in the heart of Madrid, like every day. Suddenly, a triple explosion shakes the building. It is 07:00 a.m., a train that was entering the station from Alcalá de Henares, a populated town east of the capital, has just exploded.

The impact of the violent explosions throws hundreds of passengers against the floor or the walls of the carriages. Wrapped in a cloud of smoke, the survivors try to get out and reach the escalators, some stumble on the platform while trying to orient themselves, dazed, amid the screams of the wounded.

In the four minutes that follow, seven more bombs explode not far from there, inside three trains that also left Alcalá. In the capital, chaos is mixed with fear: televisions broadcast on loop testimonies of panicked passengers, frightened parents go to pick up their children from schools.

In the pockets of the deceased, mobile phones do not stop ringing. Some victims, who left the station in a state of shock, will wander the streets of the city for several hours before being treated.

ETA, wrongly indicated

Hours after the attacks, the government of conservative President José María Aznar accuses the Basque separatist group ETA, author of numerous deadly attacks for three decades, of being responsible. The Minister of the Interior describes the Islamist track advanced by some specialists as “intoxication.”

Three days before the legislative elections on Sunday, March 14, Spain is in the midst of an electoral campaign. The country was divided by the decision that the Aznar government had made a year earlier to participate in the invasion of Iraq alongside US troops, despite the opposition of the majority of Spaniards.

The ETA hypothesis is, however, quickly weakened. Investigators locate three bombs in backpacks that did not explode that will put them on the trail of the perpetrators, and on the same night of the drama they will discover seven detonators and a recording of verses from the Koran in a stolen van in Alcalá.

Two days later, a videotape found near the Madrid mosque confirms the Islamist lead. The attacks, in which 192 people of 17 nationalities died, are claimed on behalf of Al Qaida in Europe in “response” to Spain’s participation in the Iraq war.

The right loses the elections

The shock wave of 11-M, the name given to the deadliest attacks committed on Spanish soil, weakens Aznar’s Popular Party (PP). On Friday the 12th, massive demonstrations take place that bring together 11.6 million people throughout the country.

On Sunday, March 14, the PP and its new leader Mariano Rajoy – chosen by Aznar as successor – are defeated by the Socialist Party (PSOE) of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The new president, Zapatero, will quickly order the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.

According to numerous observers, the voters penalized the right for its obstinacy in pointing out ETA despite the indications, but also for the intervention in Iraq together with the United States and the United Kingdom, which public opinion never accepted.

For years, those responsible on the right will continue to question the Islamist origin of the attacks, fueling conspiracy theories.

long process

Three weeks after the attacks, seven members of the commando that planted the bombs decided to blow themselves up with explosives, when they were surrounded by the police in their apartment in Leganés, on the outskirts of Madrid.

After three years of investigation, another 29 defendants were tried in a six-month long trial at the beginning of 2007. Among them, several Moroccan citizens living in a popular neighborhood of Madrid, but also Spaniards and an Egyptian.

After the trial and subsequent appeals, the Spanish justice system sentenced 18 people, three of them to very high sentences of between 34,715 and 42,924 years in prison: Jamal Zougan, Othman el Gnaoui and José Emilio Suárez Trashorras. Only they remain in prison, where they will normally remain until 2044.

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