Every year, as the date approaches, Spaniards relive the pain they felt on March 11, 2004, when ten bombs destroyed four carriages of different Madrid trains that were full of passengers.
192 people died and almost two thousand were injured.
From the first moment, the government at that time, whose president was José María Aznar, of the Popular Party,
pointed the finger at the Basque terrorist group ETA
despite the fact that, two hours after the detonation of the explosives, the evidence smacked of a jihadist attack. .
What followed were desperate attempts by the Aznar government - which a year earlier had supported the United States intervention in Iraq -
to maintain the official version that, in the following days, began to fray.
Three hours after the attacks, Arnaldo Otegi, spokesperson for Batasuna, the Basque nationalist political party that had been declared illegal, stated: “We want to make it absolutely clear:
neither by its objectives nor by its modus operandi
can it be stated today that ETA is behind what has happened in Madrid.”
Video
This 2024, two decades after the worst attack in Europe so far in the 21st century, Spain reviews those days of March 2004 in which anguish, confusion, bewilderment and
manipulation reigned over the information
that circulated regarding who They were responsible for the attacks in Madrid.
One of the most incredible episodes was the interview that the then US president George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, gave to the Spanish public television correspondent in Washington, one day after the terrorist attack, and that Radio Televisión Española (RTVE)
never aired in full.
Bush carried on his shoulders the attacks by Bin Laden on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Perhaps that is why, the day after the bombs in Madrid, his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called to the Spanish ambassador to the United States, Francisco Javier Rupérez, to ask him if he was going to be at the diplomatic headquarters:
President Bush and his wife wanted to give him their condolences for what happened in Madrid
.
And she offered that the presidential couple be interviewed by the RTVE correspondent, who was Lorenzo Milá.
In the attack, 192 people died and almost two thousand were injured.
AFP Photo
The Bushes arrived at the Spanish embassy, signed the book of condolences and left a wreath at the foot of the Spanish flag mast.
“It has been others”
“Bush asked me if we had the possibility of having a private conversation,” former ambassador Rupérez recalls today.
They entered his office and the American president asked the diplomat who the Spanish government believed had been the author of the attack.
“I am convinced that it was ETA
and that there is a government version that is exactly the same,” answered Rupérez, who was ambassador to the United States between 2000 and 2004.
"Then he told me:
'Well, my services tell me that maybe it was someone else',"
says the diplomat.
I took note.
My obligation was to call Madrid.
I spoke with Moncloa and said: 'The president of the United States has told me that his services tell him that, perhaps, it was someone else.'
He didn't tell me who he was either."
Bush also
implies in the interview that public television never aired in full
and that from now on it can be seen on the RTVE website.
“These people kill because they hate freedom and they hate what Spain represents,” the American president told the Spanish correspondent.
“He was talking about a type of terrorism - 'they kill because they hate freedom'.
Very clearly.
At that moment I didn't realize it
,” Milá admits in the documentary that reproduces what was never seen of his talk with George Bush.
“Murderers kill.
And I think we shouldn't give them too much credit.
All they're trying to do is
shake up the free world
.
"They hate freedom and are willing to intimidate people into changing," said the American president in another part of the interview.
And the Spanish government will never change its love for freedom.”
“Evidently they were talking about a type of terrorism.
Of Islamist terrorism - the journalist acknowledges today -.
He was not talking about ETA
.
He was talking about the same thing we had heard him say since 9/11 (September 11, 2001).”
Injured and dead on the roads.
Reuters Photo
“I listen to this and now I understand that, perhaps,
Bush had not given a single minute of credit to the ETA version
,” says Milá.
Few words
When he called Madrid to let them know that he had this material, the correspondent remembers that they asked him for a couple of texts of the talk with Bush.
Two clips of the interview were reproduced on the news.
In one, the president of the United States said: “People are going to realize that there is going to be a lot of speculation here and that is all there is going to be.
People will take credit.
Or not.
There will be people who say:
'We didn't do it' or 'We have done it' to create a sense of confusion
, but the facts will come out after a while."
In another fragment, Spaniards saw Bush saying: “Once the facts are known and we know who did it, the United States will join the Spanish government in hunting down the terrorists and bringing them to justice.”
ETA or Al Qaeda?
But the American president had said much more: “We still don't know who did this.
I wouldn't rule anyone out.
Rumors will be heard all the time and it will take time to find out the facts.
"The United States government will help the Spanish government uncover the facts, if it wishes."
-Would it make any difference if it were ETA, Al Qaeda or some radical group?
the correspondent asked Bush.
-It is difficult to speculate.
We have already seen statements that attribute it to them.
'No, we didn't do this.'
Sometimes when someone says, 'No, we didn't do it' it means that they did.
Sometimes these people want to deceive.
But we don't know yet.
And all I can assure the people of Spain is that, to the extent that the government wishes, we will help find out the facts.
And if these terrorists are abroad or are plotting from abroad or anywhere in Europe, we will lend them our expertise in gathering intelligence to help the Spanish authorities bring these people to justice.
This is what the Spanish expect.
These people have to be brought to justice and we will help in any way we can.
The call from the White House
Hours passed and the interview was not broadcast.
“We thought that since the government had taken the path of ETA with such conviction,
they would not be interested in being a friend of Bush at that time
,” Milá recalls.
The president of the United States had been forceful: “We want to help discover it,” said Bush.
But I don't think it can be known immediately.
This happened in our country.
And there was all kinds of speculation as to who attacked, who started the attack.
And it took us a while to be sure we knew it.”
“But over time,” Bush continued, “our intelligence services got to work and the security forces got involved and I think this will also happen in Spain.
The facts will be known.
And then it will be easier for the government to make decisions on how to proceed
.”
A scene of the largest terrorist attack in Europe.
AFP Photo
Not seeing the report on RTVE, the White House called the correspondent and Milá mentioned it to Ambassador Rupérez.
“I called Spanish Television to tell them to broadcast it.
Which was very important
.
It was an unusual interview.
How many times does a journalist of any nationality get the president of the United States and his wife to grant him an interview? Very few.
In the Spanish case it was the only time,” says Rupérez.
“They told me they were going to see it but it wasn't broadcast at all,” recalls the former ambassador.
“It was an enormously unfortunate story for all Spaniards and for all of Spain,” he points out about the attacks.
There is a before and after for Spain after 11M and it is certainly not a better after.
Deep down, what shocked me and still seems obscene to me is that in the end, the socialist opposition at that time managed to convey the idea that the government and not the murderers were responsible for the attack."
In the street, people demonstrated with banners asking
“Who was it?”
Three days after the attacks, on March 14, 2004, Spaniards voted for a new government.
Feeling “scammed” by the story according to which the ETA members were the ones who had planted the bombs,
the polls gave the winner to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
who, as soon as he went out to the PSOE balcony to celebrate the victory, asked for a minute of silence for the victims of the 11M (March 11).