2023-04-27 12:35:26
The murderer was barefaced and did not hesitate before sealing the fate of his victims that January 24, 1977. “Hands up, everyone together.” When he saw that one of those present was clueless, he repeated them with a smile: “Let’s raise those little hands.” michael sarabia, one of the lawyers from that office located at number 55 Atocha Street, the same one whose memory is stained with blood today, knew then that they were coming to kill them. Minutes later another guy arrived and the slaughter began. The shots from the submachine guns cut through the wind and took the souls of five people, in addition to injuring four others.
The massacre of the lawyers of Atocha it has remained indelible since then in the memory of the capital, but also in that of the whole of Spain. Normal, because the objective of those soulless was to blow up the long-awaited Transition. For this reason, due to all that pain that shook the country, it was surprising to learn this week that one of the gunmen –Carlos García Juliá, sentenced to 193 years in prison for five murders and four attempted murders– is presenting himself in the municipal elections of the next May 28 for the lists of Spanish Phalange of the JONS to the Bilbao mayor’s office.
witnesses to the disaster
Witnesses and affected by barbarism there are still in pairs, and well known. Manuela Carmena lost several companions in the massacre. The former mayor, founder of that office, left number 55 a few minutes before the gunmen arrived. Her target was a nearby building; she had decided to move her next meeting there to give her companions more privacy. She has repeated over and over again that if she had delayed a little, she would have lost her life.
“It was taking off our coats when we heard the sirens and saw a police car. The neighbours, who knew us and loved us, told us ‘run, run, they are killing you!’ We, of course, did not leave, “recalled the former councilor of the capital in an interview given in 2017. They made several calls, but no one answered them. She then called the Bar Association. She did not know what to do.
he was lucky too Cristina Almeida, then deputy of the Madrid Assembly. The lawyer had traveled to Chile those days in January to do a job on missing women and children. Her companions advised her to stay in the capital for fear of the Pinochet dictatorship, but she refused. “She called every day to check that nothing was happening to me,” she stated in 2021. When they informed her of what had happened to her colleagues, she fell round on the hotel floor. Back, she put arrests on him and entered her office. «I have not forgotten in life. «When they ask me: what is the most unfortunate day? The day the Atocha companions were killed », she declared.
Madness in Atocha
The nightmare theater on which the show took place was a Labor office of Workers Commissions related to a communist party who was still sailing illegally. And the times were not rosy. A sigh had passed since the death of Francisco Franco, the Transition was in its infancy and a sharp blow could be lethal for democracy. Aware of the tense political moment, an extreme right-wing commando linked to New Force and Falange arrived at number 55 Atocha street when the clock marked half past ten at night. Two went in search of the lawyers. The third was in charge of cutting the telephone cables and searching the rooms.
The ultimate goal of the group was to end the lives of those they considered enemies of the homeland. On paper, they were looking for the communist leader Joaquin Navarro, but, not finding it, they intimidated the rest. As Sarabia, whose testimony was key for the police, recalled, one of the guys opened the door and, with absolute serenity, pointed a gun at them. The only thing that came out of his mouth was hands up. The gunman waited for another of his colleagues to arrive and, without saying a word, opened fire on those present. There had been no provocation, no insult. He was saved because, wounded, he dragged himself into the hallway. Then he called 911 and went out to the terrace to ask for help.
Three lawyers –Enrique Valdelvira, Luis Javier Benavides and Javier Sauquillo–, the law student Serafín Holgado and the administrative Ángel Rodríguez Leal were killed. And they saved their lives, although they were seriously injured, Miguel Sarabia, Alejandro Ruiz-Huerta, Luis Ramos and Dolores González.
A day later, the news jumped to the pages of ABC: «From the steps taken, it was learned that on the aforementioned floor, third left of the 55 Atocha street farm, and labor lawyers office, they presented themselves unexpectedly, the individuals, of medium height and approximately twenty-five years of age, who, holding submachine guns, fired bursts at the people who were in that place.
count the dead
Hours later, Sarabia handed over endless data to the police. He stated that both he and his colleagues had settled in a corner of the office’s main room; that one of the assassins knew the place, because he moved around it like a fish in the water; that the burst of shots began without the murderers saying a word and that they did not use a silencer. shocking. The murderers did not leave the country; far from it. They thought they were safe because of their political contacts. But they were wrong. Less than two months after the massacre, they were arrested and brought to justice. In 1980, the National Court handed down a sentence against José Fernández Cerrá, García Juliá and Francisco Albadejo.
The first two were sentenced to 193 years in prison; the last one, at 73. The man who today presents himself for the Falange, however, did not exceed three decades behind bars by law. In 1994 he violated his probation and fled after being allowed to reside in Paraguay. Thus, until 2018, when he was arrested in Brazil. After less than a year, he authorized his extradition to Spain. Everything seemed over, but, once again, Spain has reopened what is one of its darkest episodes. Although also one of those that generated the most union, since there were thousands of people who gathered in Madrid to protest that madness.
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