Qualla: 2009 Palma Nova Bombing

2009 Palma Nova Bombing: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Carlos Saenz de Tejada Garcia had been on Majorca for eleven days. The 28-year-old Civil Guard officer from Burgos had arrived on July 19, 2009, posted to the island after joining the force just eighteen months earlier. On July 30, at 1:50 in the afternoon, a three-kilogram limpet bomb detonated beneath his patrol car on a quiet street in Palma Nova. He and his colleague Diego Salva Lezaun died in the explosion. The attack struck at the heart of Majorca's tourist district and shattered the island's reputation as a place beyond the reach of Basque separatist violence.

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2009 Palma Nova Bombing: An Island That Thought Itself Safe

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Majorca had long been one of Spain's regions least touched by ETA's campaign. The separatist organization had operated on the island before -- a bomb deactivated near a seafront walk in 1977, two small explosions in Palma in 1991, a foiled assassination plot against King Juan Car...

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2009 Palma Nova Bombing: Operation Cage

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Within hours of the bombing, the Civil Guard and National Police launched the largest manhunt in Majorcan history. Checkpoints went up across the island. Palma de Mallorca Airport closed at 4:00 pm and did not reopen until 5:55 pm. Ports were temporarily shut down. At least 1,600...

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2009 Palma Nova Bombing: Ten Days of Terror

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The violence did not end on July 30. On August 9 -- the same day ETA officially claimed responsibility for the killings -- four more bombs exploded across Palma, targeting restaurants and a shopping center. ETA made three warning calls beforehand, each giving contradictory detail...

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2009 Palma Nova Bombing: The Hunt and Its End

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The investigation moved slowly across borders. On August 25, a suspected bomber was identified. On October 11, Joanes Larretxea was arrested in the south of France, and the operation uncovered nearly a ton of explosives hidden in twelve small caches across the country. On January...

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