On December 20, 1973, an ETA attack ended the life of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, at that time President of the Government and one of the closest collaborators of the dictator Francisco Franco. Half a century later there are still unanswered questions: How is it possible that a trial for this murder was not held? Why have those involved, such as the members of the ETA commando or the secret services, maintained absolute silence during all this time?
Matar al Presidente, a new original production by Movistar Plus in collaboration with 100 Balas (The Mediapro Studio), is developed around these issues and consists of three episodes that will premiere on Tuesdays the 5th, 12th and 19th of this month. “The docuseries discovers aspects that were not known or that had not been given as much importance as the fact that a trial was never held,” says its executive producer Alejandro Flórez, who has also produced other documentaries for Movistar such as Lola (about Lola Flores). or The Iraq 8 (about the attack suffered by eight members of the Spanish CNI 20 years ago).
“There are two key elements of the case and they are true: ETA was the author of the murder and Carrero Blanco was blown up. But there is much more because in life not everything is black and white and there are many grays,” clarifies the creator of the documentary, Eulogio Romero (Edelweis, RTVE Play), who highlights one of the phrases heard in the series: “A “Carrero Blanco was murdered and the next day they forgot him.” Why did they want to shelve the case?
“Everyone wanted Carrero Blanco dead,” says the admiral’s daughter. Many theories have circulated about this case, most without evidence, including the possibility of the existence of a conspiracy within the regime itself or a shadow of suspicion that points to the CIA and the interests of the United States regarding the future of Spain. Romero adds in this direction that the attorney general at the time and the judge in the case, among others, also suspected that there was someone else behind the attack besides the ETA commando.
“Investigators and journalists state that there was help from the CIA and that there was abandonment by the Government of Spain,” continues Flórez. “The same terrorists said that at the Mindanao Hotel a person informed them about the president’s routines, where he went every day at 9 in the morning and that he barely had any protection. “Who was that man?” asks Romero.
The assassination had decisive consequences in the drift of the regime and in the immediately subsequent events that marked the course towards the democratic Transition. At that time there was a very strong power struggle to succeed Franco and Carrero Blanco was the strong man of the regime. ”There were people who wanted to change the regime and others who wanted to continue it but in a different way and none of those sides were interested in Carrero Blanco,” says Romero. “They saw him as an inconvenience to his interests and above all that he was the person in power and obviously the person to get out of the way,” adds Flórez.
“I’m not saying that everyone wanted to kill him, but in some way everyone was interested in him disappearing from the scene,” Romero clarifies. Furthermore, Carrero Blanco did not have a single friend except for Franco. “He was a very secretive person who only followed in the footsteps of the leader and that obviously generated many enemies for him, especially when he began to fight against internal corruption within the regime.”
