The Puerto Hurraco Massacre was a mass murder that occurred on 26 August 1990 in Puerto Hurraco, a village in Benquerencia de la Serena municipality, Province of Badajoz, (Extremadura, Spain). The perpetrators were brothers Emilio and Antonio Izquierdo, who murdered 9 people in the street, some belonging to the Cabanillas family, which had a long-time enmity with the Izquierdos, and caused serious injuries to 12 others. The perpetrators fled but were apprehended the next morning, and were later sentenced each to 342 years in prison.La matanza de Puerto Hurraco, Fin de semana (July 22, 2005)Los hermanos Izquierdo, condenados a 684 años de cárcel por la matanza de Puerto Hurraco, El Mundo (January 26, 1994)
Background At the time of the massacre, Puerto Hurraco had 130 inhabitants, which increased to 200 in the summer with the return of people who had migrated to work outside, mostly in the Basque Country.
According to some sources, the rivalry between the Cabanillas (locally nicknamed Amadeos) and the Izquierdo families (Patas Pelás or Patapelás, "Bare Legs")Ecos de los disparos en una silla de ruedas (January 17, 1994) went back to the 19th century, when the Cabanillas arrived in Puerto Hurraco from Cuba, and a stabbing had already taken place over an unapproved relationship between an Izquierdo male and a Cabanillas female in 1929. Manuel and Isabel Izquierdo moved to Puerto Hurraco from Benquerencia de la Serena with their six children: sons Jerónimo, Emilio, and Antonio, and daughters Emilia, Luciana, and Ángela. Only Emilia married and moved out of the parental home while the others stayed with them. The youngest son, Antonio, lost one eye after being attacked by a chicken when he was a child.Territorio Negro: 30 años de la matanza de Puerto Hurraco. Julia en la Onda, Onda Cero
This generation had the first quarrel in 1963, when Amadeo Cabanillas drove a plough on land owned by Manuel Izquierdo. According to a widespread story, Luciana Izquierdo wanted to marry Amadeo Cabanillas, but he rejected her, which caused her great suffering. Luciana's eldest brother, Jerónimo Izquierdo, took this as an insult to the family and fatally stabbed Amadeo Cabanillas on January 22, 1967, a few days after the rejection. However, a neighbor dismissed the story as a baseless rumor, claiming that the enmity of the families was rooted solely on land disputes. In either case, Jerónimo was arrested and served 14 years in prison for the murder, after which he moved to Barcelona.
Isabel Izquierdo died in a house fire at their residence in Carrera street on October 18, 1984. She was invalid and bedridden. Although investigators determined that the fire was accidental, the Izquierdo siblings blamed Antonio Cabanillas, brother of the murdered Amadeo, and accused the Cabanillas of watching the house burn while doing nothing about it. Civil Guard Vicente Salguero, one of the officers that arrested Antonio Izquierdo later, cast suspicion on the Izquierdo siblings instead, pointing out that they saved a refrigerator from the fire but not their mother.
In 1986, Jerónimo Izquierdo returned to Puerto Hurraco and attacked Antonio Cabanillas with a knife, but he survived. The attacker was interned in a psychiatric hospital on August 8, 1986, and died there nine days later.25 años de la tragedia Puerto Hurraco quiere olvidar – El País (August 26, 2015)
While in Puerto Hurraco, Luciana and Ángela were known to insult Civil Guards from the balconies of their home, but Emilio and Antonio were not involved in any disorder. After the fire, the siblings moved to Monterrubio de la Serena, where they "spiraled into madness". Luciana and Ángela would kneel before the local Civil Guard barracks, clamoring for justice; they also asked neighbors to turn off their electric domestic appliances, fearing that they had bombs inside. An employee of a Monterrubio pub said that the sisters were "totally paranoid", depressive, fanatically religious, and mentally unwell. They claimed to hear noise constantly, which they attributed to the electricity meter, and cut all electricity to their house.Villatoro, M. P. (2020) El triste final de los asesinos que perpetraron el crimen de Puerto Hurraco, ABC.
Shooting According to their sisters, on Sunday, 26 August 1990, Emilio and Antonio Izquierdo left their house in Monterrubio de la Serena after saying that they were going to hunt turtle doves. Dressed as hunters and armed with 12 gauge shotguns, they put as much ammunition in their clothes as they could carry and hid in an alley of Puerto Hurraco. Emilio, the elder brother, was the leader of the shooters. He later told psychiatrists that "vengeance had to be in summer because, though I'm a good shooter, the winter cold numbs my hands and I feared failing," and that "before leaving [for Puerto Hurraco] we took a 3 mg Lexatin so that our pulse wouldn't tremble when we pulled the trigger." Around 21:30 the brothers walked into Carrera, the main street in Puerto Hurraco, where many neighbors sat outside a bar and their own homes to get fresh air in the evening. According to Emilio Izquierdo, the intended targets were Antonio Cabanillas or his daughters, "so they know what it is to lose a loved one and leave them a memory they will never forget".
The first victims were Encarnación and Antonia Cabanillas, two of the three daughters of Antonio Cabanillas, who were 13 and 14 years old, respectively. Manuel Cabanillas, an émigré who was in Puerto Hurraco for a family vacation and was readying a car to visit the local festivities in nearby Esparragosa de la Serena, approached the shooters and yelled: "Emilio, what the fuck are you doing?" Without reply, Emilio Izquierdo pointed the gun to Manuel Cabanillas, who turned around and was shot in the back. From this point, the brothers would "shoot any bulk", "aiming for the heart and head," because they feared the whole village would attack them. The brothers shot Manuel's wife Felicidad next, who suffered minor injuries, and their 24-year-old son Antonio Cabanillas (not the father of the slain girls), who was left paraplegic. A 60-year-old woman, Araceli Murillo, was murdered when she tried to help the girls.Ortiz, A. M. (2020). Puerto Hurraco: 30 años del último gran crimen de la España negra. El Mundo. After checking that Encarnación Cabanillas was dead, Manuel Cabanillas's other son, Jesús Fulgencio Cabanillas, helped his father and Antonia Cabanillas in his Ford Fiesta and drove them to a hospital in Don Benito, where they died half an hour later.
Manuel Benítez, his sister-in-law Antonia Murillo, and brother Reinaldo Benítez were shot when they tried to flee Puerto Hurraco in a car, injuring the former and killing the other two.Puerto Hurraco. La Revista de El Mundo. The Izquierdo brothers then waited at the main entry to the village to shoot incoming vehicles. Here they killed José Penco, who had driven two wounded girls to Castuera and was returning to Puerto Hurraco to help more victims. A Civil Guard 4L arrived next, and the siblings shot officers Antonio Fernández and Manuel Calero, who were injured. One of the officers jumped out of the car and fired his weapon. When the attackers heard returning fire, they fled.Fernández de Vega, E. (2011) El guardia civil que detuvo a Antonio Izquierdo rompe su silencio, Hoy.
In total, the brothers shot twenty-one people in fifteen minutes, resulting in nine deaths and twelve injuries. Some fatal victims were finished while laying on the ground. Critical victims were moved to Infanta Cristina Hospital in Badajoz, including six-year-old Guillermo Ojeda, who was shot in the head and left in coma until he woke up on September 1. Ojeda was left hemiplegic, while his father, Andrés Ojeda, and grandmother, Isabel Carrillo, died in the same hospital.La novena víctima de Puerto Hurraco será enterrada en San Sebastian – El País (12/09/1990)
Guillermo Fernández Vara performed the autopsies of some victims and collaborated in the psychiatric evaluation of the shooters.Lozano, A. (2020) Puerto Hurraco, 30 años de la matanza: relato inédito de quienes se cruzaron con los hermanos Izquierdo. El Español.
Manhunt Following the attack on the 4L, the entryways to the village were closed off by the Civil Guard. A group of officers reached the Cabanillas family home to inform of the massacre and the deaths of their daughters. Antonio Cabanillas, who was in bed, overheard the officers talking to his wife, and walked out with his own shotgun and two cartridges, saying that it was war because the Izquierdos wanted it and that it was going to end. He was then convinced to let go of the weapon.
The Izquierdo brothers fled through an alley to an orange grove, twenty to twenty-five meters from the end of the village, where they separated. Antonio stayed in the grove during the night, while Emilio reached the opposite side of the village. In the dark, a patrol of four Civil Guard officers walked near Antonio Izquierdo without noticing him, as they were only helped by a small lantern. Eventually, the manhunt reached eighty to two hundred Civil Guard officers, dogs, off-road vehicles, and one helicopter. Antonio Izquierdo was found at 8:00 in the morning by officer Blas Molina, still armed with his shotgun. Molina took cover behind some rocks and fired two shots in the air, then yelled Izquierdo to throw the gun or be shot. Izquierdo surrendered and was taken back to the street. When addressed, Izquierdo told officers to kill him if they wished to, and later asked Molina to shoot him twice. As Izquierdo was introduced in a vehicle, the mayor of Puerto Hurraco, Braulio Nogales, attempted to stab him with a knife. Molina put himself between both men and no one was injured.
Emilio Izquierdo was found by the helicopter one hour later, hiding in a bramble patch. Neither brother was aggressive when arrested. The two were taken to the courthouse in Castuera, where a crowd gathered calling them "murderers" and "to hang them".Arrizabalaga, M. (2020) Dolor, rabia y deseos de venganza en Puerto Hurraco: «¡Asesinos! ¡Hay que colgarlos!» ABC Neither showed remorse after their detention. Emilio Izquierdo later declared: "Let the town suffer now like I have been suffering all this time", and Antonio claimed that they planned to continue the shooting: "If they had not caught us we would have returned to the village to shoot them during the burial of the dead."
Emilio and Antonio Izquierdo were imprisoned pending trial in Córdoba, where they shared a cell and were considered model, non-troubling prisoners. Emilio considered the pair innocent and different from other prisoners because in his opinion, vengeance was a duty, not a crime. Antonio tried to apologize, but would always obey his brother without question.
The sisters travel to Madrid
At the same time as the massacre occurred, Luciana and Ángela Izquierdo traveled by train to Madrid, where they wished to be received in the Palace of Moncloa by president Felipe González and tell him that their family was victim of a plot by the Cabanillas family, the town of Puerto Hurraco, and the Civil Guard. To this end, the four siblings joined the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party before the massacre. On August 27, the sisters appeared in Moncloa, fully dressed in black, where they showed the four party IDs and requested a meeting with the president. However, they were not let in for lacking an invitation.Prieto, C. & García, P. (2020) "Parecía la ETA". Puerto Hurraco: cuando a la España vacía se le cruzan los cables. El Confidencial.