Spain Remembers March 11

[rowan]

I remember that day. I was sharing a flat with a couple of Uruguayans in Barcelona. Got up & turned the TV on and the news was just breaking. They thought there might have been a few casualties. Suspicion immediately fell upon the Basque ETA terrorists, of course. Ultimately it was revealed that 10 bombs had exploded on four trains at three Madrid train stations, killing nearly 200 people, and that the perpetrators were Islamic extremists, apparently angered by Spain's decision to support Bush & Blairs illegal invasion of Iraq. The irony there, of course, was that the Spanish people were around 90% opposed to the war, and huge demonstrations were held. I myself joined one in Barcelona that was estimated at over a million protestors (quarter of the city's metropolitan population)! But president Jose Maria Aznar rode roughshod over the overwhelming will of the people, and was duly voted out at the next election. That was the real tragedy of this event. The Spanish were outraged by the war, but paid a heavy price for their president's decision to involve them against the wishes of the vast majority. While the Western media inevitably tried to link the perpetrators (mostly Moroccans, from memory) to Al Qaeda, the trial actually found no evidence of this, though that fact has been ignored.

The Spanish people are remembering the terrible events of the 11th of March 2004, when

Nearly 2000 others were injured in the terrorist attacks, initially thought to be the work of Basque separatists ETA, but within hours attributed to Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda.

At the time Spain was part of the coalition of forces fighting in Iraq, where it had sent an armed contingent. The explosions effectively ended Spain’s participation as the troops were brought home.

Ceremonies were held at Madrid’s main Atocha station, where the bombs claimed most victims, and the nearby El Retiro park, where a memorial forest of olive and cypress trees was planted after the attacks.

The government’s handling of the attack and its aftermath was fiercely criticised, and led to its removal in the election three days later, when the opposition Socialists stormed back into power on the back of a protest vote.

http://es.euronews.com/2017/03/11/homen ... s-del-11-m