The Cafetería Rolando bombing was an attack on 13 September 1974 at the Rolando cafe in Calle del Correo,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

which killed 13 people and wounded 71. Though no claim of responsibility was made, the attack is widely believed to have been 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 Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

group

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

Background

The Rolando Cafe was located on 4 Calle del Correo in Madrid, close to the General Directorate of Security, the headquarters of the Spanish Police. It was regularly frequented by members of the police force and security services.

The attack

The bomb was placed at the entrance to the building and exploded on a Friday afternoon, during a busy lunchtime period. More than 300 people were eating in the neighbouring El Tobogan restaurant at the time of the explosion, two of whom were among the dead.La Vanguardia, 14 September 1974, p3
/ref> The explosion caused significant damage to nearby buildings, shattering the windows of the nearby General Directorate of Security, while two cars parked nearby were totally destroyed. The bomb caused part of the Rolando Cafe's ceiling to collapse and guests staying in a pension above were injured due to falling through the gaps in the ceiling. The police immediately arrived and cordoned off the scene. Two of the 12 initially killed and 11 of the injured were members of the police force. However the wounded included the number two of the Spanish Political Police, with the remainder employees and customers of the cafe. A thirteenth victim died in 1977 of injuries suffered during the attack.

Responses and arrests

The leadership of ETA was taken aback by the responses to the attack and on 15 September, issued a statement denying their responsibility, though implicitly defending the bombing, claiming that the cafe was full of police agents. This caused tensions within the group, with some members believing that the organisation had to admit responsibility for attacks carried out, even if the results were not those intended. The bombing gave those opposed to further liberalisation of the country, such as

Blas Piñar Blas Piñar López (22 November 1918 – 28 January 2014) was a Spanish far-right politician. Having connections to Catholic organizations, during the Francoist dictatorship he directed the Institute of Hispanic Culture (''Instituto de Cultur ...

, the opportunity to attack the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Carlos Arias Navarro Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquess of Arias Navarro (11 December 1908 – 27 November 1989) was the Prime Minister of Spain during the final years of the Francoist dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy. Arias ...

. In the immediate period of confusion following the attack, some blamed the attack on the

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

. The police, however, concluded that ETA were responsible and launched an operation against the group's infrastructure in Madrid. Initially the police also blamed the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain (; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of L ...

(PCE) of cooperating in the attack, but the PCE energetically denied involvement. Reports that police officers had received a circular advising them not to go to the Rolando Cafe or stand outside the building added to the mystery surrounding the incident. Leftists known to be sympathetic to ETA were arrested, including

Eva Forest Genoveva Forest Tarrat () was a Spanish far-left activist, writer and prisoner. Born into an anarchist family in Barcelona, she studied medicine in Madrid. During the 1970s, she supported the Basque terrorist organization ETA in their resistance ...

, wife of the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Alfonso Sastre Alfonso Sastre (20 February 1926 – 17 September 2021) was a Spanish playwright, essayist, and critic associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was an outspoken critic of censorship during the reign of General Francisco Franco and the e ...

, Mari Luz Fernandez and her relatives,

Lidia Falcón Lidia Falcón O'Neill (born 13 December 1935) is a Spanish politician and writer. With a degree in law, dramatic art, and journalism, and a PhD in philosophy, she has stood out for her defense of feminism in Spain, especially during the Transit ...

, the theatre director Vicente Sainz de la Peña, construction worker Antonio Durán, pilot Bernardo Badell and his wife María del Carmen Nadal, the actress María Paz Ballesteros, and the writer

Eliseo Bayo Eliseo, the Spanish or Italian form of Elisha, may refer to: *Eliseo Alberto (1951–2011), Cuban-born Mexican writer, novelist, essayist and journalist *Eliseo Castillo (born 1975), professional boxer *Eliseo Grenet (1893–1950), Cuban pianist an ...

. Between June 1975 and February 1976, courts dismissed the cases and released the defendants. However Eva Forest and Mari Luz Fernandez remained in prison as they were charged with complicity in the

assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco On 20 December 1973, Luis Carrero Blanco, the Prime Minister of Spain, was assassinated when a cache of explosives in a tunnel set up by the Basque separatist group ETA was detonated. The assassination, also known by its code name Operación ...

one year before. However, neither Forest nor Luz Fernandez were tried for the Rolando bombing, as they were released in June 1977 as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners. In 1981 Lidia Falcón published a denunciation of Eva Forest which suggested that Forest's role in the Rolando attack had been considerable. The government also offered a reward of one million pesetas for information leading to the capture of Juan Manuel Galarraga Mendizabal who they suspected of being a high ranking ETA figure involved in the bombing.La Vanguardia, 15 September 1974, p3
/ref> Exact authorship of the bombing has however remained a mystery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cafeteria Rolando bombing 1970s in Madrid 1974 murders in Spain 20th-century mass murder in Spain Building bombings in Madrid Attacks on coffeehouses and cafés in Europe ETA (separatist group) actions 1974 building bombings Mass murder in 1974 Mass murder in Madrid September 1974 in Europe 1974 disasters in Spain Terrorist incidents in Europe in 1974 Terrorist incidents in Spain in the 1970s Restaurant bombings in Spain