March 11, 2004 was a Thursday.
At 7.37 in the morning, the first three explosions ripped through a commuter train entering Atocha station in Madrid.
In the following three minutes, another 7 bombs exploded on 3 regional stations, packed for rush hour, in the nearby stations of El Pozo, Santa Eugenia and Calle Tellez.
In total 10 bombs caused 193 victims of 17 nationalities and 1856 injuries.
A little later, in the chaos of torn bodies, panicked travelers, cries for help, shoes and personal effects scattered by the explosions, the bomb squad set off two more devices found in two backpacks.
A third, connected to a cell phone, recovered near the Leganes police station, south of the capital, was deactivated.
And it will be key to the investigation that will lead to the identification of the perpetrators of the first mass indiscriminate jihadist attack in Europe.
Three days before the elections.
"20 years have passed since March 11th: the greatest terrorist act in Europe, the greatest infamy, the greatest lie of a political leader: José María Aznar", said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, recalling the massacre.
In fact, the suspicions of the Interior Minister of Aznar's conservative government immediately focused on the Basque armed secessionist gang Eta, which he denied within a few hours.
On the same afternoon as the attacks, the clues led to Islamic fundamentalists, with the discovery of 7 detonators and a tape of verses from the Koran in a stolen van in Alcala.
And a first claim by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, on behalf of Al Qaeda, delivered to London, which the government decided to hide.
To insist instead on the hand of Eta, with pressure on the national and international media and in foreign chancelleries.
The next day, 12 million Spaniards demonstrated against terrorism across the country, shouting "We were all on those trains!".
"The Islamic massacres were the cost that Spain paid for Aznar's alliance with Bush in the invasion of Iraq, an adventure which public opinion had opposed en masse", recalls José Antonio Zazalejo, then director of ABC.
"The government intensified Eta-oriented messages to avoid the impact at the polls."
On Saturday 13 March the arrests began which would lead to the disintegration of the jihadist cell: three Moroccans and two Indians, connected to Leganes' cell phone.
However, the Aznar government continued to speak of connivance between Eta and Islamic terrorist groups - "incompatible like water and oil", according to the then head of CNI intelligence, Jorge Descallar - fueling conspiracy theories even in the years to come.
A second videotape claiming responsibility from an Al Qaeda spokesperson was found on March 14, when the polls were open.
The electoral results confirmed the turnaround and the victory of the socialist José Luis Zapatero, whose first decree signed will order the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
The first degree trial in 2007 confirmed the accusation: the attack was inspired but not carried out directly by Al Qaeda, but by the Moroccan Islamic Fighting Group (GICM), representative of the Salafist jihadist movement in Spain.
In the dock, as accused, 29 of the over 100 suspects, mostly Moroccans, but also Spaniards and an Egyptian.
At the end of the appeal, there will be 18 people sentenced, including 3 with sentences ranging from 34,715 to 42,924 years in prison: Jamal Zougan, Othman el Gnaoui and José Emilio Suárez Trashorras, the miner from Asturias who procured the explosive.
Twenty years later they are the only ones still in prison, at least until 2044.
Trashorras asked for euthanasia a week ago, after being denied legal benefits.
Rabei Osman 'Mohamed 'El Egipcio', Hassan el Haski and Youssef Belhadj 'Abu Dujan' were acquitted of being the ideologists of the massacres.
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