MADRID, Spain.- As every year, this March 11, Spain remembers the 192 fatalities and almost 2,000 injured by the attacks that occurred in Madrid in 2004; the largest terrorist massacre in the history of the European country.
Between 7:36 and 7:40 in the morning of that day, terrorists from an Al Qaeda cell exploded thirteen bombs in four regional Cercanías trains at different points in Madrid.
Three of the bombs exploded in a train located at the Atocha station, one of the most important in the Spanish capital.
The attack occurred three days before the general elections. The outgoing government was that of José María Aznar, who had incorporated Spain into the coalition of countries that supported the United States in the Iraq war.
With the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and after a long trial that concluded in October 2007, 21 people belonging to a group of jihadist-inspired extremists were sentenced.
The nationality of the victims of the attack on March 11, 2004 in Madrid: 130 Spaniards, 16 Romanians, seven Ecuadorians, 12 Bulgarians, four Poles, seven Peruvians, two Colombians, two Dominicans, two Hondurans, two Moroccans, two Ukrainians, one Brazilian, Chilean, Filipino, Guinean, French and Cuban.
The Cuban who died victim of these attacks was michael michel rodriguez, 27 years old. The young man, a native of the Havana municipality of Marianao, He lived in the Madrid neighborhood of Vallecas. She worked in construction during the day and at night distributed publicity at the door of a nightclub on Calle Huertas.
As a result of these attacks, the European Union declared March 11 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Terrorism.
