Posted on 03/12/2004 1:27:22 PM PST by areafiftyone
Hundreds of transplanted Spaniards and sympathetic New Yorkers gathered on a Manhattan street Friday to observe a moment of silence for the victims of the Madrid terrorist attacks that killed 199 people.
Teary-eyed and hugging, people along East 49th Street went silent at exactly 1 p.m., coinciding with a similar observance throughout Spain.
"A lot of people here are not Spanish, but we are civilized, and whoever did that is an animal," said Lee Nolan, a Manhattan attorney whose wife is from Barcelona.
For security reasons, the moment of silence was observed in front of the Cervantes Institute, a Spanish cultural organization, rather than the Spanish Consulate.
Several hundred mourners stood silently behind police barricades, while a single demonstrator across the street held up a placard blaming Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for the terrorist attack.
"In part, the Americans and Aznar are responsible for what happened in Madrid," said Dionisio Canas, a Spanish poet who teaches at the City University of New York and has family in Madrid.
"No al terror," meaning, "No to terror," said a placard the poet raised above his head.
Said Canas: "Aznar joined the lies of the American government, even if he's not directly involved."
The Spanish prime minister supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a decision that was widely unpopular in his country.
Nolan said he and his wife called about 20 friends in Spain after the blast, checking to make sure they were safe. He said that Thursday's bombings unified people who had endured terrorism around the world.
"I got calls from Israeli friends, Irish friends and English friends, all people who have lived it," said Nolan, a Soho resident. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was at the World Trade Center site trying to assist victims.
When he left New York for a post-Sept. 11 vacation in Spain, he was blown out of his bed by a terrorist bomb.
Many in the crowd wore black mourning ribbons, while others distributed fliers announcing a bigger demonstration at the United Nations on Saturday.
Disgusting!
Waa????
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