On Monday it will be twenty years since the dramatic attacks of 11-M in Madrid and the ephemeris has been warming up engines for days. A week ago, Jordi Évole’s program on La Sexta d’abans-d’last night dissected how the PP government tried to keep the authorship unknown in order to tie up the result of the elections that were held three days later, on March 14.
It gave the PSOE a comfortable advantage, but if ETA was the author of the massacre, it would surely sweep the polls because the PP was a tough hand against terrorism. But if it was Al-Qaida, it might not have gone so well for them because the attack would be linked to that government’s support for the invasion of Iraq.
So the government conspired to maintain ambiguity for three days.
Aznar soon gathered his hard core with a self-descriptive absence: the National Intelligence Center was absent. This detail is recalled by the veteran journalist of the SER Iñaki Gabilondo in the documentary, in which seven other journalists appear: also from the SER the head of courts and events, Javier Álvarez, and Mamen Mendizábal; from TVE Josep Puigbó, who presented the news, Fran Llorente, from La 2 news, and Oscar González, coordinator of Informe Semanal; and from ABC its director, José Antonio Zarzalejos, and its events editor, Cruz Morcillo.
Évole details in a pornographic chronology how in the appearances of President Aznar and his Minister of the Interior, Ángel Acebes, the information they offer does not correspond to that obtained by the police services. In those days, it was already well known what the truth was that was being imposed, but twenty years later everything is known, and that government remains – with forgiveness – absolutely in the balls.
Because it would have been enough to be less vehement in pointing out ETA so that the voter’s indignation would be less.
In the documentary, it is made even more interesting by the mea culpa voiced by some of the interviewees.
Gabilondo remembers how they rectified the information that pointed to the presence of a suicide bomber on the trains (and ruled out ETA).
Amidst the chaos, there was confusion – no need to go into details – because of how some bodies had been left in the explosions. Gabilondo emphasizes that not everyone corrected the mistakes of that or those days. Puigbó regrets not having been more belligerent, and asserts that “asking questions does not bring poison”, for his interview with a presumed expert – who he did not choose – who pointed to ETA on the set.
José Antonio Zarzalejos wishes he had “got it right from minute one”, from the first cover. Its then-events editor, Cruz Morcillo, recounts the rage she felt because, with all police sources pointing to Islamist terrorism, her paper had to believe Aznar.
He understands (today) the position of his director: the person calling him was the president of the government, nothing more and nothing less. In such a sensitive matter could a prime minister lie?
Acebes maintains absolute silence about those days, but Évole rescues in the program a cut of Aznar from 2021 in which he maintains: “That government can be accused of anything but one thing: not telling the truth.”
It is true that finally – on Saturday afternoon, with three Moroccans already arrested – they said that there were two lines of investigation, admitting the option of Al-Qaida, but it had been many hours since there had only been one one
Last week, in Valencia, Aznar made a speech, this time at an event with businessmen, in which he assured that today we are living “the moment of greatest crisis in Spain since the beginning of democracy” and that for this reason a “competent people” government.
He did not specify in which subjects.
