Back مذبحة أتوشا 1977 Arabic Matança d'Atocha Catalan Blutbad von Atocha German Mortigado de Atocha en 1977 Esperanto Matanza de Atocha de 1977 Spanish Atochako sarraskia Basque Massacre d'Atocha de 1977 French Matanza de Atocha de 1977 Galician Masakr na Atochi Croatian 1977-es atochai mészárlás Hungarian
 Front page of the 26 January 1977 edition of the Ya newspaper depicting the victims | |
| Native name | Matanza de Atocha de 1977 |
|---|---|
| Date | 24 January 1977 |
| Time | 22:30 CET (21:30 UTC) |
| Location | Calle de Atocha 55, Madrid |
| Coordinates | 40°24′46.4″N 3°41′59.5″W / 40.412889°N 3.699861°W |
| Perpetrator | Neo-fascist extremists with links to New Force and Warriors of Christ the King |
| Deaths | 5 dead |
| Non-fatal injuries | 4 wounded |
The 1977 Atocha massacre was an attack by right-wing extremists in the center of Madrid on 24 January 1977, which saw the assassination of five labor activists from the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and the workers' federation Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO). The act occurred within the wider context of far-right reaction to Spain's transition to constitutional democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco. Intended to provoke a violent left-wing response that would provide legitimacy for a subsequent right-wing counter coup d'état, the massacre had an immediate opposite effect, generating mass popular revulsion of the far-right and accelerating the legalization of the long-banned Communist Party.
On the evening of 24 January, three men entered a legal support office for workers run by the PCE on Atocha Street in central Madrid, and opened fire on all present. Those killed were labor lawyers Enrique Valdelvira Ibáñez, Luis Javier Benavides Orgaz and Francisco Javier Sauquillo; law student Serafín Holgado de Antonio; and administrative assistant Ángel Rodríguez Leal. Severely wounded in the attack were Miguel Sarabia Gil, Alejandro Ruiz-Huerta Carbonell, Luis Ramos Pardo and Dolores González Ruiz.
The perpetrators all had links to neo-fascist organizations in Spain opposed to the democratic transition. Those involved in the massacre and their accomplices were sentenced to a total of 464 years in prison, although these terms were later significantly reduced and a number of the perpetrators escaped custody. Doubts remain as to whether all culpable persons were brought to justice.
The events surrounding the massacre are generally considered a crucial turning point in the consolidation of Spain's return to democracy in the late 1970s. Writing on the 40th anniversary of the massacre, journalist Juancho Dumall noted: "It was a terrorist act that marked the future of the country in a way that the murderers would never have suspected and, instead, was the one desired by the victims." Memorialized annually, across Madrid there are 25 streets and squares dedicated to the victims of the Atocha massacre.