FUNDACIÓN VÍCTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO 96 - ENGLISH

THE INDELIBLE MARK OF THE CIVIL GUARD OFFICERS MURDERED BY ETA 40 YEARS AGO Attack in Plaza de la República Dominicana THE CIVIL GUARD ORPHANS’ SUPPORT ASSOCIATION HOSTED 12 LIVES. A LASTING WOUND, AN EXHIBITION HONOURING THE TWELVE OFFICERS MURDERED IN THE ATTACK IN PLAZA DE LA REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA ON 14 JULY 1986 AND DEFENDING VICTIMS’ REMEMBRANCE AS A COLLECTIVE COMMITMENT AGAINST OBLIVION Some names should never become a statistic. On the morning of 14 July 1986, young Civil Guard officers, most barely in their twenties, set out for a day of traffic training. Twelve never returned. ETA had prepared one of its most devastating attacks in Madrid’s Chamartín district: a car bomb packed with explosives and shrapnel that killed the officers and injured more than six- ty people. Forty years later, their faces, their stories and their shattered dreams once again take their rightful place: at the heart of remembrance. The exhibition remained at Principe de Vergara, 248 (Madrid), until 24 July. Or- ganised by the Memorial Centre for the Victims of Terrorism and the Victims of TerrorismFoundation, it pays tribute to the murdered and injured Civil Guard officers, some of whom still bear the physical and psychological consequences of an attack that marked the Civil Guard and Spanish society forever. Photographs, historical documents, per- sonal belongings, testimonies and graphic materials form an exhibition that goes beyond simply recounting events. It gives faces to the victims, recovers their personal stories and recalls that behind every attack are interrupted lives, broken families and wounds that time cannot heal. The opening brought together the Presi- dent of the Civil Guard Orphans’ Support Association, General Jaime Cereceda; the Director of the Memorial Centre for the Victims of Terrorism, Florencio Domín- guez; and the Vice President of the Vic- tims of Terrorism Foundation, Francisco Javier López, representing its President, EDUCATION AND COEXISTENCE 26 EXHIBITION AT THE ORPHANS’ SCHOOL