In the infernal career of the ETA gang, some of its blows had an extra cruelty. One of them was undoubtedly the bomb that exploded in the Rolando cafeteria, located at number 4 of Calle del Correo. It was its first massive and blind attack, and it mainly affected the civilian population: the death toll was 13 – eleven in the act and two more later, as a result of injuries – and more than 70 injured. On September 13, it will be 50 years since that horror, and it is for this reason that the Victims of Terrorism Foundation is inaugurating the exhibition “Fifty Photos for Memory”. It is precisely for this reason: to remember.
Antonio and María Jesús, he a mechanic and she a telephone operator, were in Madrid that day in 1974 for their honeymoon: they had gotten married six days earlier. Manuel, a 26-year-old waiter, and Gerardo, his partner at Rolando’s, died in the attack, as did Francisco, a 31-year-old cook. The student María Ángeles, 20, had the misfortune of going to eat with friends; and the same thing happened to Antonio, a railway worker (55); to the couple formed by the baker Baldomero and Josefina, a housewife; to Concepción, a 65-year-old administrative worker; to Luis, 78, a retired sales agent who was staying there with a client; or to the teacher Francisca, 45, who worked in Valdepeñas but that day she was shopping in Madrid and had met her cousin for lunch.
Apparently, the terrorists chose this place because it was very close to the General Directorate of Security, which was located in the Royal Post Office. But since it was inaccessible, they thought that the Rolando cafeteria, where many police officers went because of its proximity to the DGS – they hardly had to cross the street – would be a good alternative. They did not take into consideration the fact that they were next to the Puerta del Sol and that many other citizens regularly entered it. Or they did not care. Of the 13 dead, only one was the National Police inspector, Félix, 46, who died two and a half years after the attack from his injuries. Among the more than 70 injured, there were agents and administrative staff who worked at the DGS.
The Victims of Terrorism Foundation, in collaboration with the Community of Madrid and the City Council of the capital, and with the help of the EFE agency, has shaped the exhibition that will open its doors in September so that no one forgets, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the horror that was experienced on Correo Street that day.
It was Friday. Subsequent investigations determined that two ETA members, Bernat and Maria, entered the cafeteria with a briefcase containing 30 kilos of explosives and 2-centimeter-diameter nuts. They sat down at a dining room table and left after a while, leaving their deadly cargo behind. Shortly after, around 2:30 p.m., during lunchtime and when the establishment was full, the bomb exploded.
The exhibition “Fifty Images for Memory” will be open from September 9 to 15 at the Real Casa de Postas (Plaza de Pontejos, 3). It looks back at the beginnings of the organization, its first attacks, the response of the state apparatus, significant events such as the court martial of Burgos or the assassination attempt on Admiral Carrero Blanco. And what happened on Correo Street.
It was, the exhibition’s organizers recall, the first time that ETA attacked the civilian population indiscriminately. The shock wave of the very strong explosion caused the roof of the restaurant to collapse, crushing its occupants. And this was also felt in the neighboring establishment. It was the attack with the highest number of deaths caused by ETA to date.
The In Memoriam exhibition is composed of fifty photographs selected from the documentary collection of the EFE Agency, as well as images of the fatal victims of this brutal attack, provided by their families. They are also accompanied by the front pages of the newspapers of the time, which reported the horror of what happened and the very high number of citizens killed or injured as a result of the explosion.
In addition to the exhibition, an informative video will be broadcast, with images provided by RTVE, on what happened that day in Madrid, as well as a podcast with the testimonies of four victims of the attack.
He didn’t claim it
The exhibition shows the context of the events, the attack, the victims and their personal situation, with shocking human details, and what happened in the police investigation in relation to these events: those arrested, those who were later amnestied and the consequences of all this.
Each of these sections is illustrated with photographs which, accompanied by their explanatory captions, help to understand what happened and its implications.
This attack on Correo Street has the sad record of being, at the time it took place, the one that caused the greatest number of deaths among citizens. It was only surpassed years later by another major indiscriminate attack by ETA, the one committed at the Hipercor in Barcelona on June 19, 1987, where 21 people were killed and 45 others were injured to varying degrees.
Even the ETA leaders were surprised by the seriousness of the attack and the number of civilian victims; it is known – they indicate in the exhibition – that the events gave rise to a bitter internal debate and that it was finally decided not to assume responsibility for what had happened.
It took more than 40 years for the terrorist organization to acknowledge its responsibility for the attack on the Rolando cafeteria. It did so in its last Zutabe – the group’s internal bulletin – published before its dissolution in 2018. In this document, the terrorist group acknowledged its responsibility for two attacks that had not been claimed until then: the murder of three people in Tolosa (Guipúzcoa) in 1981, whom it mistook for police officers, and the attack on the Rolando cafeteria in 1974.
