Beneath the surface: Atocha Street 55, Madrid

The Atocha massacre happened on 24th January 1977, on Atocha Street 55, in central Madrid. Members of the far-right Fuerza Nueva and Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey joined forces in a premeditated attack on the legal support office run by the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and the workers’ federation Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO). The target was Joaquín Navarro, the general secretary of Comisiones Obreros, but he was not there at the time. Five individuals, however, were: Enrique Valdelvira Ibáñez, Luis Javier Benavides Orgaz, Francisco Javier Sauquillo, Serafín Holgado de Antonio, and Ángel Rodríguez Leal.

The attackers arrived between 10:30 pm and 10:45 pm and asked for Navarro, then entered and shot everyone in the office. The victims were labor lawyers and advocates, people working for the cause of the working class. Rodríguez Leal was the first to be killed, followed shortly by the others, with the exception of the fifth, Ángel Rodríguez Leal, who was gravely injured but survived. The attackers then left the office and the building via a rear entrance.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons