Francisco José Alcaraz Martos (born 1 November 1968) is a Spanish politician, member of the Vox party, and activist, who served as president and spokesman for the

Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo The Association of Victims of Terrorism () is a Spanish association created in 1981 by victims of terrorist attacks. Its members include those injured by ETA, GRAPO, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Al Qaeda, as well as their families. It ...

(AVT, "Association of Victims of Terrorism") between 2004 and 2008. He is the founder and president of the association Voces contra el Terrorismo (VcT, "Voices Against Terrorism").

Career

Hairdresser by profession, when he was 19 years old, on 11 December 1987, his brother and two three-year-old nieces were killed by the explosion of an

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

placed in the barracks of the Civil Guard in Zaragoza. Before joining the AVT, he did it to the Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo "Esperanza Verde" ("Association of Victims of Terrorism 'Green Hope'"). Later he joined the AVT, where he held various positions until reaching the position of president. He was one of the leading promoters of the conspiracy theories vis-à-vis the authorship of the 11-M train bombings. On 13 May 2006 he was reelected president of the association with 86% of the votes cast, after the withdrawal of the candidacy of Pablo Broseta, son of Manuel Broseta, in the elections to the Board of Directors of the AVT. On 6 March 2008, he announced his retirement as president of the association by April of that year, alleging "personal reasons". In July 2009 he left militancy in the AVT after a harsh confrontation with the succeeding leadership, and after criticizing the widow of the last victim of ETA, , accusing her of having fallen "in the language of nationalists and terrorists". In 2010 seven associations of victims accused Alcaraz of breaking the unity against ETA for calling a demonstration against the government's policy on incarcerated ETA members which he considered too soft – a call with which they did not agree. In spite of this, tens of thousands of people attended the event summoned alone by the platform presided over by Alcaraz. He is currently the president of the Voces contra el Terrorismo ("Voices Against Terrorism") platform, of which he was founder.

Senator

On 31 January 2019, it was announced that Alcaraz would be appointed

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

by regional designation by the Vox party, following the results of the

2018 Andalusian regional election The 2018 Andalusian regional election was held on Sunday, 2 December 2018, to elect the 11th Parliament of the autonomous community of Andalusia. All 109 seats in the Parliament were up for election. As a result of the previous election, the Span ...

. He officially took office on February 19 as a member of the Mixed Group (Grupo mixto), of which

Bildu EH Bildu, short for Euskal Herria Bildu ( en, link=yes, Basque Country Gather or Basque Country Unite) is a left-wing, Basque nationalist, pro-independence political coalition active in the Spanish autonomous communities of Basque Country, Navar ...

is also a member. He left office after nine months. He was elected deputy for Vox in the Congress for Jaén in November 2019.

Personal life

Born into a Catholic family, Alcaraz became an active

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

in the 1980s ( avoiding conscription on the basis of those beliefs) before joining

Evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

ity, a group that he too later distanced himself from.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcaraz, Francisco Jose 2004 Madrid train bombings conspiracy theorists 1968 births 21st-century Spanish politicians Politicians from Andalusia Former evangelicals Former Jehovah's Witnesses Former Roman Catholics Hairdressers Living people Members of the 13th Senate of Spain People from Torredonjimeno Spanish conspiracy theorists Vox (political party) politicians Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain)