{"id":14023,"date":"2016-04-03T19:15:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T00:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=14023"},"modified":"2016-04-03T19:15:46","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T00:15:46","slug":"the-history-of-terrorism-how-a-spanish-assassination-helped-turn-a-dictatorship-into-a-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/03\/the-history-of-terrorism-how-a-spanish-assassination-helped-turn-a-dictatorship-into-a-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Terrorism: How a Spanish Assassination Helped Turn a Dictatorship into a Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spain\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Spain gasped when the rumor spread that Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco had been killed in an explosion the morning of Dec. 20, 1973. It wasn\u2019t until midnight that government-controlled media confirmed what many feared: The hand-picked heir to replace Gen. Francisco Franco had been assassinated.<\/p>\n

The bombing \u201cchanged Spain\u2019s history\u201d and contributed to a more rapid transition to democracy after over three decades of fascist dictatorship and hundreds of thousands of deaths, says Mikel Buesa, a terrorism expert and professor of economics at Complutense University of Madrid. Carrero Blanco was the country\u2019s first prime minister after the Spanish Civil War, a Navy admiral, head of the secret police to control dissent, and a longtime friend and confidant of the all-powerful caudillo<\/em>. \u201cHe was Franco\u2019s \u2018dauphin\u2019 and was called upon to pilot the transition once Franco died,\u201d Buesa says, referring to the French term for the next in line to the throne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Carrero Blanco symbolized better than anyone else the figure of pure Francoism.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

-ETA militant<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After tightened security made kidnapping unlikely to succeed, the Basque Country and Freedom group, aka ETA, decided to kill Carrero Blanco. From a rented basement, the\u00a0terrorists<\/a> dug a tunnel for five months and placed a bomb under a street where Carrero Blanco\u2019s car routinely drove after Mass. When his car drove past a line the bombers had painted on a wall, one of the three militants disguised as gas company workers remotely detonated the device.<\/p>\n

The vehicle was propelled into the air, clearing a five-story building and also killing Carrero Blanco\u2019s chauffeur and his bodyguard, before falling to a terrace on the other side. Hours later, an ETA militant would explain to journalists that the group\u2019s intention was to destabilize the regime. \u201cCarrero Blanco symbolized better than anyone else the figure of pure Francoism,\u201d the terrorist said, noting how \u201cnobody managed as he did to maintain the internal equilibrium of Francoism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone expected a crackdown in response. \u201cThere was a real fear the murder would trigger a hard-line reaction\u201d and unleash a \u201crepressive movement,\u201d says Buesa. Instead, it was as if the regime capitulated, allowing for its demise, much like ETA wanted. Even the 80-year-old Franco appeared to give up. \u201cThey have cut the last thread that tied me to this world,\u201d he was quoted as saying about Carrero Blanco\u2019s assassination. Franco would later cry in front of his ministers and during the funeral.<\/p>\n

Oddly, Carrero Blanco\u2019s death proved to be \u201ca blessing\u201d for democracy, says Tom Burns, a former Reuters journalist who has written numerous books about Spain\u2019s political history. \u201cIf he had taken over in 1975 [when Franco died], the movement toward democracy would have been much slower,\u201d Burns adds. To ensure the regime post-Franco, Carrero Blanco had been slowly leading a timid political and economic reform to placate prodemocratic camps. He was instrumental in introducing a backward Spain to Europe\u2019s competitive economy and in persuading Franco in 1969 to name Prince Juan Carlos as the future puppet head of state when he died, to add a semblance of reform.<\/p>\n

For two years after the bombing, the regime weakened along with Franco\u2019s health, in no small part because new Prime Minister Carlos Arias Navarro failed to unify Francoists: They were split between those who wanted more economic and political opening and those who preferred hard-line repression. Arias Navarro\u2019s new cabinet was \u201chostile\u201d toward the prince and to hints of reform within the regime.<\/p>\n