Antonio Lancharro Reyes

Description

Each morning, a Civil Guard convoy consisting of a coach, a minibus and an off-road vehicle took seventy officers, aged between 18 and 25, from the Traffic School on Calle Príncipe de Vergara to the motorcycle practice ground in Venta de la Rubia, on the outskirts of Madrid. On the morning of 14 June 1986, ETA terrorists planted a van containing 35 kilograms of explosives and various kilograms of shrapnel in Plaza de la República Dominicana. They detonated the explosives as the Civil Guard convoy was passing Number 7. Twelve civil guards were killed and a further 78 people (including officers and passers-by) were injured by the huge blast.

Antonio Lancharro Reyes was originally from Monesterio (Badajoz). “He joined the Civil Guard because he enjoyed it. He joined the auxiliary. From the outset, to be honest, I was opposed to him joining — Antonio’s father told the TV programme Informe Semanal. On Saturday when he came home I told him: ‘Why don’t you give it up, lad; we all know what’s happening. I just wish you’d fail your motorbike test’. And he answered: ‘Look, Dad, if I fail the motorbike test, I’ll still stay in the civil guard. I like what they’re doing. And death is a constant factor in the Civil Guard. If I die, I’ll die happy.”

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