The Plaza República Dominicana bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the armed

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

separatist group

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, ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain on 14 July 1986, which killed 12 people and injured another 32. The dead were all members of the Guardia Civil studying in the nearby traffic school on Príncipe de Vergara. The ETA members later convicted of participation in the attack included significant figures in the group, including Antonio Troitiño and

Iñaki de Juana Chaos José Ignacio de Juana Chaos (born 1955 in Gipuzkoa, Spain), better known as Iñaki de Juana Chaos, is a member of the Basque separatist group ETA. He was convicted of killing 25 people in 1987 and was originally sentenced to 3,000 years in prison ...

Background

The "comando España" of ETA had been responsible for 20 deaths in the previous year, these included an attack in Madrid three months earlier, which had resulted in five deaths, and another the previous month which had killed three people. ETA as a whole had been responsible for 24 deaths in 1986 prior to the attack; 18 of those had occurred in Madrid, leading to claims that the organisation was focusing on the Spanish capital because it believed that attacks there had greater influence on public opinion than attacks in the Basque region. The attack had the highest number of casualties since the El Descanso bombing, by suspected

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

s in April 1985, had killed 18 people.

Targets

The police convoy consisted of 70 civil guards, aged between 18 and 25, who had left a traffic school in order to head to Venta de la Rubia, on the outskirts of the Spanish capital, where police engaged in daily practice riding a motorcycle. The convoy consisted of a bus, a minibus and a

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

and followed the same route at the same time every day, making it easier for ETA to target it.

The attack

The car bomb was loaded with 35 kilos of Goma-2 explosives and significant quantities of shrapnel and was triggered by remote control by Antonio Troitiño, who had been waiting for the passing of the convoy at a nearby bus stop. One of ETA's most active members, Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, was waiting nearby in a vehicle to flee. The explosion threw the bus into the air. Four officers were killed instantly and 32 others were injured, including six civilians. A further four officers were pronounced dead shortly afterward at the nearby La Paz clinic, with a ninth dead announced at 21:30 the same day, and three others dying of their injuries later. Those injured included commuters waiting at a nearby bus stop, while cars and property in the Plaza were also damaged.

Reactions

The Plaza República Dominicana attack occurred three weeks after the general election and one day before the newly elected

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

opened. There was also speculation that the attack was in response to the

French government The Government of France (French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who i ...

's decision the previous day to

extradite Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...

José Iturbe, the alleged military leader of ETA, from

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

to face trial, though this theory was challenged by the

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

Alfonso Guerra, who pointed out that such an attack would have required a longer period of planning.

Mayor of Madrid The Mayor of Madrid presides over the Madrid City Council, the government body of the capital city of Spain. The mayor has the duty of boosting the local policies, it directs the action of the other executive bodies, leads the Local Executive Admi ...

, Juan Barranco Gallardo, called for solidarity with the victims and their families and requested a three-minute silence at midday the same day.

Arrests

Antón Troitiño, alias 'Miguel Ángel' and José Ignacio de Juana Chaos were apprehended on 16 January 1987, when anti-

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

mounted an operation against their base of operations, a flat on Río Ulla Street in Madrid. Four other ETA members: Cristina Arrizabalaga, María Teresa Rojo, Esteban Esteban Nieto, Inés del Río Prada and Inmaculada Noble were arrested in the same operation. In 1989, Troitiño was convicted of 22 murders and sentenced to 2,232 years in prison. However he was released from prison on 13 April 2011. Inés del Río Prada received sentences totalling 3,828 years for her participation in this and other attacks. These sentences were to run concurrently, making her eligible for release in 2008. However the new government of

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...

changed the laws, making ETA prisoners ineligible for early release on good behaviour grounds. As a result, del Río Prada became ineligible for release until 2017. She challenged this at the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

and won her case, resulting in her release on 22 October 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plaza Republica Dominicana bombing 1986 road incidents 1980s in Madrid 1986 murders in Spain 1980s road incidents in Europe 1980s trials 20th-century mass murder in Spain Bus bombings in Europe Bus incidents in Spain Car and truck bombings in Spain ETA (separatist group) actions Improvised explosive device bombings in 1986 Improvised explosive device bombings in Madrid July 1986 crimes July 1986 events in Europe Mass murder in 1986 Mass murder in Madrid Murder trials Road incidents in Spain Terrorist incidents in Spain in 1986 Terrorist incidents on buses in Europe Trials in Spain