Carrero Blanco Bombed by ETA (1973)

Thu Dec 20, 1973

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Image: Policemen search among the damages caused by a bomb attack, in which Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco was killed. [STAFF/AFP/GettyImages]

On this day in 1973, Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco, the hand-picked successor to fascist Francisco Franco, was killed in a car bombing by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a left-wing, Basque separatist group.

Blanco (1904 - 1973) had previously served as a naval officer on the Francoist side of the Spanish Civil War, eventually becoming Chief of Naval Operations in 1939. In 1973, he was appointed to the position of Prime Ministers. Six months into his term, he was assassinated by the ETA while returning from mass at San Francisco de Borja church.

For five months, the ETA members dug under the street from a rented out basement near his route. On the day of the attack, members disguised as electricians were present on the scene to trigger detonation.

In a collective interview justifying the attack, the ETA bombers said Carrero Blanco “symbolized better than anyone else the figure of ‘pure Francoism’ and without totally linking himself to any of the Francoist tendencies…” and called him “a man without scruples”.

The assassination had far-reaching political implications, and is credited with helping Spain become more democratic. Carrero Blanco’s successor, Carlos Arias Navarro, promised liberalizing reforms, including the right to form political associations. Franco himself died in 1975, and elections in Spain were held in 1977, with a new constitution being approved the following year.