“It’s almost like 9/11 followed me here,” said Isabel Depina ’05 about the March 11 bombings in Madrid, Spain. Depina is currently studying in Seville, Spain, only a few hundred miles from the attacks.
The attacks, which took place at the height of the morning rush hour, killed 190 people and injured around 1,400 people. Three separate trains were hit by near-simultaneous attacks around 8 a.m. in Santa Eugenia, El Pozo, and the worst explosions were in Atocha, according to CNN.com.
This semester Fairfield has fourteen students studying in Spain; three are in Madrid, eight in Seville, and one each in Alicante, Salamanca and Granada, according to Susan Fitzgerald, director of international education.
“I heard about it [the bombings] first thing, 5 a.m., on CNN,” said Fitzgerald. “I received word that all Fairfield students were accounted for and safe around 9:30 a.m.-
Amazingly quick response.”
According to a press release from the university released on March 11, Fairfield staff were in contact with Academic Programs International, the organization that Fairfield uses for the study abroad program in Spain. The organization confirmed that all of Fairfield’s students were safe. After getting this word, Fairfield staff e-mailed the students in Spain and called their parents to confirm that the students were safe.
The three students studying in Madrid were on a scheduled trip to Rome at the time, according to the press release.
This attack cannot help but remind Fairfield students of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
“Images began to appear on the [TV] screen and family members stared wide-eyed,” said Chris Donato ’05, who is studying in Spain.
“You could not help but think, ‘I have seen that look before.’ It had only been 911 days after September 11, 2001 and the memories of that day were still fresh and now even fresher,” he said.
On the day of the attacks, ministers in the then in-power government of the Popular Party quickly placed blame on the terrorist organization ETA.
ETA is a militant group from the ethnically Basque region of Spain and has been responsible for numerous smaller scaled terrorist attacks. However, after a link was made to Moroccans and Indians, Islamic militants quickly became the focus of the investigation.
Nine suspects have been arraigned and sent to jail, as of Tuesday, according to published reports. So far only one is a Spaniard while six other suspects are from Morocco and two are Indian.
The government’s quick blame of ETA for the attacks and an already unpopular government stance in favor of the war in Iraq may have undermined the ruling Popular Party and shifted the balance of power to the Socialists in elections held the day after the bombing.
Donato said he was surprised by the Spanish response to the attacks.
“American protests are loud, there are many signs, and people not only want to be heard but also seen. American protests seem to carry a carnival air to them,” said Donato.
“Here the people are solemn and only want to join others in great numbers to let people see that as a country they are against violence. No one was calling for war or retribution but rather for thought,” he said.
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