Javier Guerrero Cabrera

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Javier Guerrero Cabrera, aged 25 years, was about to complete his degree in computer studies and was working as a systems programmer in the Royal Palace. In the hours following the 11 March bombings, the emergency services found his national identity card on the train that was blown up next to Calle Téllez. However, his steel keys and titanium watch were missing, enabling his family to cling to the hope that he might still be alive, lost or suffering memory loss as a result of the explosions. They continued to put up posters around Madrid with his photo, asking “Have you seen this man?” until 17 March, when DNA tests confirmed that his body was among those found on the train.

11 March 2004 fell on a Thursday. Early that morning, a number of terrorists with links to Al-Qaeda planted thirteen bombs on four suburban trains covering routes running through Madrid. Ten of the bombs exploded between 7.37 and 7.39 am, when the trains were at Atocha, El Pozo and Santa Eugenia stations and alongside Calle Téllez. 191 people were killed in the attack and around 1,500 were wounded. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Spanish history. On 3 April 2004, agents from the Special Operations Group (GEO) were about to enter an apartment in Leganés where the perpetrators of the attacks were believed to be hiding when the terrorists detonated twenty kilograms of explosives in an act of collective suicide. The ensuing blast killed one of the officers, bringing the total number of people killed by the 11 March bombers to 192.

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