Importance of the Hipercor Attack (1987)

It was the most virulent and sadly popular attack that the Basque terrorist organization ETA perpetrated in Spain against a mostly civilian target and in a place certainly crowded as the Hipercor shopping center in Barcelona, ​​one of the largest and most important stores belonging to the company El Corte English.

ETA's cruelest attack against the Spanish heart and free spirit

It was the first time that justice held the state partly responsible Spanish for the damages and deaths since it was verified that ETA had made warning calls that the police did not take seriously.

The courts held that the June 19, 1987 Hipercor massacre could have been prevented.

It was also the debut of an explosive substance such as napalm, in the hands of ETA, capable of quickly sticking to the body and raising the heat to an impressive degree.

This raised the degree of sadism that the Basque terrorist organization had shown up to now because clearly the use of this explosive intended to burn people alive, in addition to destroying the center commercial.

It left 21 people dead and some 45 were seriously injured. consideration due to burns and suffocation.

The establishment also suffered shocking material damage such as the complete blowing up of the plant where the car bomb was parked, a deep crater and the total destruction of the parked vehicles over there.

The safety of massive damage

ETA knew perfectly well the great damage it could cause and the fear it would inflict on the people when the car bomb exploded in the parking lot of the famous supermarket located on one of the most popular avenues in the city catalan

And on the other hand he wanted to check the tranquillity in Barcelona, ​​which had been chosen a few days ago as the next venue for the Olympic Games (1992).

Although ETA made calls to warn of the coming explosion before the outbreak, the searches were not as rigorous and did not find the explosive material, disregarding these warnings, the hypermarket continued to operate with normal.

The responsibility of the state for the first time on a par with that of ETA

Although the 21 deaths returned to mourning a Spain that at that time lived in fear of the ETA violence, the immediacy with which the security forces and firefighters acted minimized the damage humans.

However, the subsequent investigations verified that there was no prevention before the alert and for that reason he condemned the state.

They won sanity and peace

Fear paralyzed one of the most populated and visited cities in Spain, but within a few days the Catalans and the rest of the country gave demonstrations of their communion against the terror of ETA and they marched en masse showing that they were not afraid and were going to continue fighting for the peace.

Seen from a distance, this union of society was the one that fortunately triumphed, ETA allowed itself to act armedly and cunningly in 2011 and to exist forever in 2018.

Fotolia image. 1000Pixels