1977 Massacre of Atocha

The 1977 Massacre of Atocha was a neo-fascist attack during the Spanish transition to democracy after the death of Franco in 1975, killing five and injuring four. It was committed on January 24, 1977, in an office located on 55 Atocha Street near the Atocha railway station in Madrid, where specialists in labor law, members of the Workers' Commissions trade union (CCOO), and of the then-clandestine Communist Party of Spain (PCE), had gathered. The next day, the massacre was defended by a group calling itself Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista (literally The Apostolic Anticommunist Alliance, abbreviated Triple A or AAA). The suspects arrested were close to Blas Piñar's Fuerza Nueva far-right party, the Falange-JONS and the Franco Guard. The indignation brought about by the killings accelerated the legalisation of the Communist party, which took place in Easter 1977. On March 24, 1984, the Italian daily Il Messaggero stated that, possibly, Italian neo-fascists had taken part in the shootings, pointing toward some kind of "Black International".