You may have heard the stories already about what happened in Madrid. This story held significance for me not just because it is a terrible terrorist attack, but because of my family in Spain–an aunt, uncle and cousins live in the part of Madrid where the attacks took place. Not long ago I had a conference call between my father in San Francisco and my aunt in the eastern section of central Madrid. She was terribly upset over the attacks, pointing out that the trains bombed were mostly used by working people in the communities hit. Her son, my cousin, used to take that exact train line to get to work, but not recently, and everyone in the family is all right. There are shades of the Tokyo gas attacks here, not a little because my brother and his wife narrowly missed that attack themselves.

Latest reports put the death toll at 186, with more than 1,000 injured. Stories are coming out of the gruesome nature of the blast scenes, stories of survivors, reminiscent of 9/11 in some ways. (I understand that this is perhaps the worst terrorist attack in Western Europe for some time.) My aunt was particularly touched by the story of an infant, with no parents to be seen, who was found near one of the trains. The child was brought to a hospital, and it turned out that its mother was there, a survivor, and they were reunited.

The government and the people seem pretty certain this was ETA, although some have mentioned the name al Qaeda. My aunt is not buying that, however, and blames the ETA for trying to blame someone other than themselves for their own attack. She says that news reports cite analyses of the explosives used in the attack and show that they are the ETA’s materials. The ETA are Marxist Basque separatists, an extreme terrorist faction. The Basques, repressed by Franco during his regime, are similar to Quebecers in that they are independent and would like a free state (Basques claim an area mostly in northern Spain, but that extends into France); Basque regions now have relative autonomy, and like many regions of Spain, their own distinct language dialect.

As for why ETA would commit this repugnant attack, when it seems like it would only hurt their cause, there is speculation that they are trying to influence the elections Sunday; that such an attack would favor the conservatives, the conservatives would be tougher on the Basques, and that would push the Basque people more toward the direction that the ETA wants to go.

Time will tell more about the story; like all breaking news, there are bound to be many missing and erroneous details.