Posted on 03/11/2004 4:03:28 PM PST by El Conservador
Good afternoon to everyone.
March 11, 2004 has now its place in the history of infamy. This morning, in Madrid, terrorists have detonated several bombs placed in metropolitan commuter trains which circulated full of citizens.
In this moment of deep sadness, my first words are for the victims of these unqualifiable attacks. It's now more than one humdred dead, to which mourning has come without knocking, thousands living times of uncertainty. Let me tell you that I feel your anguish as my own, I want you to know that, in these hours of pain and democratic resolve, the national Government is with them, as well as most Spaniards.
I full well know that words aren't enough to comfort your pain. We are and we will be with all of them for whatever they need, now and always, and we won't forget what has happened.
We're living difficult hours, but we have also had the time to appreciate how many nameless people have given the best of themselves. The citizen response has been exceptional. The spontaneous collaboration to aid victims, to move wounded or donate blood is worthy of the highest recognition. In name of the Government I want to expres my deepest gratitude to all these people.
Equally, I want to thank the selfless work of the emergency service workers, the Madrid FD, the Madrid PD, and the security forces, as well as the judicial, local, regional and Government authorities for their effectiveness and their sense of responsibility and duty.
The national Government has taken all measures within reach to guarantee the safety of all citizens and to reestablish the affected public services. In collaboration with the Madrid authorities the evacuation of the wounded and the attention of victims and their families has been activated. Of course, the police investigations to pursue the killers has started right away.
I've informed HM the King. I've spoken with the leaders of the main political parties, as well with the representatives of the various institutions. Three days of mourning have been decreed, as public expression of the mourning we all share as law abiding Spaniards.
I've received expressions of solidarity and pain from numerous allied and friendly countries. In the name of the Spaniard people I've thanked those expressions and I've emphasized the importance of an international fight firmly determined to defeat terrorism.
The terrorists wanted to inflict as much damage as possible. It is a mass murder that, as every terrorist attack, lacks any justification. But terrorism isn't blind. They've killed many people by the mere fact of being Spaniards.
We all know this mass murder has not been first tried. The security forces have thwarted several times a similar tragedy. I want to express my strongest support to all its components, and the commanders of the antiterrorist fight. Thanks to their splendid labor the terrorist have been weaker than ever. Their killer instinct and their will to subdue Spain to their will are nonetheless, and tragically, active.
We'll defeat them. Let nobody doubt it. We'll defeat the terotist group with the force of the rule of law and the unity of all Spaniards. We'll finish them with strong laws, with security force and courts firmly backed by and decidedly resolved to uphold and enforce the law.
The criminals that today have caused so many dead will be detained. They'll be tried and convicted by courts only bound by the rule of law. They'll fully serve their sentences and will have no horizon other than to see dawn between the walls of prison.
We're on the victims' side. It's to them we have to support and give a voice. The families of those murdered today will always have the support and the aid of the Government and the institutions. They'll have the love of all Spaniards. No isntitution nor social group can protest the recognition and the respect they'll always deserve.
We're on the Constitution's side. It's the pact of almost all Spaniards that guarantees the liberties and rights of all. It's also the great accord over our political regime, and it's the expression of our united and plural Spain. We won't change our regime neither because they kill nor for them to stop killing.
That's why I tell all Spaniards that we shouldn't aspire to anything else less than the complete defeat of terrorism, its complete and total defeat, its unconditional surrender. There's neither possible nor desirable negotiation with these murderers that so many times have sown death throughout Spain. Let nobody be fooled: only with resolve we'll stop the attacks, a resolve that has to be present both in the antiterrorist fight and the opposition to the final objectives these terrorist want to achieve.
To defend these causes the Government asks Spaniards to demonstrate tomorrow in the streets of Spain. Under the slogan "With the victims, with the Constitution, for the defeat of terrorism" demonstrations have been called in all Spaniard cities tomorrow Friday at seven in the evening. I wish those demonstrations to be as overwhelming as the pain we feel today, as civic as our patriotism that makes us feel solidary with all those that suffer the consequences of terrorism's actions.
We're a great nation, we're a great nation which sovereignty resides in all Spaniards. Who decides is the Spaniard people. We will never allow, we won't ever allow, that a minority of fanatics impose us our choices about our national future.
Thanks to all for your attention and good afternoon.
"Let nobody be fooled: only with resolve we'll stop the attacks, a resolve that has to be present both in the antiterrorist fight and the opposition to the final objectives these terrorist want to achieve."
Just a word of encouragement from a friend in the South.
Huh?
Lets Roll!!
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