The Puerto Hurraco Massacre was a mass murder that occurred on the afternoon of sunday, 26 August 1990 in puerto Hurraco, a village in Benquerencia de la Serena municipality in the Province of Badajoz, (Extremadura, Spain). The perpetrators were brothers Emilio and Antonio Izquierdo, who murdered 9 people in the street, some of whom belonged 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 684 years in prison.[2][3] They died in prison, aged 72 and 74.
The quarrels between the Cabanillas (nicknamed the Amadeos) and Izquierdo families (Patas Pelás, lit. "Bare Legs")[4] arose from a boundary dispute in 1963, when Amadeo Cabanillas drove a plough on farmland owned by Manuel Izquierdo[who?] in Puerto Hurraco.[5][citation needed] Amadeo Cabanillas also had a romantic relationship with Luciana Izquierdo, sister of Emilio and Antonio, but he refused to marry her, which affected her greatly.[6][bettersourceneeded] A few days after the rejection, on January 22, 1967, Amadeo Cabanillas was fatally stabbed by Jerónimo Izquierdo, the eldest of the Izquierdo brothers, who was arrested and served a 14-year prison sentence for the murder.
Jerónimo's mother, Isabel Izquierdo Caballero, died in a house fire at her residence in Carrera street on October 18, 1984. An investigation did not identify a perpetrator, but the Izquierdos blamed Antonio Cabanillas, brother of Amadeo. After release from prison in 1986, Jerónimo Izquierdo returned to Puerto Hurraco and attacked Antonio Cabanillas with a knife, who survived. Jerónimo Izquierdo was then interned in a psychiatric hospital on August 8, 1986, where he died nine days later.[7]
Shooting
On Sunday, 26 August 1990, Jerónimo's younger brothers, Emilio and Antonio Izquierdo, aged 56 and 52 respectively, said goodbye to their sisters, Ángela and Luciana Izquierdo in their house of Monterrubio de la Serena, claiming that they were "going to hunt turtle doves". Dressed as hunters and armed with 12 gauge shotguns, they hid at nightfall in an alley in Puerto Hurraco before coming out and shooting cartridges against several members of the Cabanillas family, then turned their guns on anyone they came across on the street. They shot twenty-one people in total. Nine died, including 13 and 14-year old sisters Encarnación and Antonia Cabanillas, daughters of Antonio, who were executed point blank on a public square.[citation needed] Twelve more people were injured, including a six-year-old-child, Guillermo Ojeda Sánchez, who was shot in the head and left in coma until he recovered on September 1.[8] Before escaping, the Izquierdos shot at a Civil Guard cruiser that had arrived from Monterrubio de la Serena, seriously injuring two officers inside who could not return fire.[citation needed]
The Izquierdos hid in the Sierra del Oro hills, but were found asleep in the morning by the Civil Guard, who arrested them without resistance and took them to the courthouse in Castuera. The brothers showed no remorse after their detention. Emilio Izquierdo commented: “Let the town suffer now like I have been suffering all this time”, while his brother, Antonio claimed they planned to continue the shooting: “If you hadn’t caught us we would have returned to shoot everyone during the burial of the dead.”[9]
The sisters, Luciana and Ángela, fled by train to Madrid, but were summoned to testify in Castuera four days later, on August 30, 1990. Antonio Cabanillas was found waiting for them outside of the courthouse, armed with a knife, and was disarmed and arrested by the Civil Guard.[citation needed]
Victims
Fatal victims
Reinaldo Benítez Romero, 62
Manuel Cabanillas Carrillo, 55
Antonia Cabanillas Rivero, 14
Encarnación Cabanillas Rivero, 13
Isabel Carrillo Dávila, 70
Andrés Ojeda Gallardo, 36, son-in-law of Isabel Carrillo
Araceli Murillo Romero, 60
Antonia Murillo Fernández, 58
José Penco Rosales, 43
Wounded
Guillermo Ojeda Sánchez, 6
Antonio Cabanillas Benítez, 24
Juan Antonio Fernández Trejo, 31
Ángela Sánchez Murillo, 42
Felicitas Benítez Romero, 59
Vicenta Izquierdo Sánchez
Isabel Cabanillas
Manuel Calero Márquez
Trial
In January 1994, the two brothers were sentenced to 684 years in prison and to pay 300 million pesetas in compensation to the victims. The magistrate stressed: "Their intelligence is within the norm, a fact that is corroborated since that they were capable of managing a flock of about a thousand sheep, had leased farms and [now] possess, [even] with the crisis that is going on in the countryside, a 10 million pesetas passbook", "the accused outlined a 'plan to exterminate' the largest possible number of inhabitants of the town of Puerto Hurraco", "they chose the alley and the night because they knew the habits of their neighbors and they knew that 'at that time and from that place they could kill more people'". The sentence also claimed the accused exhibited "a cultural primitivism and an affective impoverishment that determines contempt for human life", "fed their own phobias and obsessions due to an abnormal social isolation and the fact that they lived together in a closed group".
The prosecution initially charged Angela and Luciana Izquierdo with induction of the crime, but they were acquitted due to lack of evidence. However, they were admitted to the psychiatric hospital of Merida on medical recommendation, as they were diagnosed with paranoia and a shared delusional disorder related to revenge for the death of their mother in the fire.[citation needed]
Aftermath
Luciana Izquierdo died on 1 February 2005, in the mental hospital of Merida at the age of 77. In November of the same year, her sister Ángela died in the same hospital at the age of 64. Emilio Izquierdo, 72, died of cardiac related causes on 13 December 2006, while interned in Badajoz prison. Antonio was allowed to attend Emilio's funeral, where he said: “Brother, you go to heaven at 74 but you go with the satisfaction that your mother's death has been avenged.” [10]
Antonio Izquierdo died on 25 April 2010, in Badajoz prison, aged 74. He hanged himself with bed sheets while at the nurse unit, where he was staying due to his delicate health.[11] Izquierdo was scheduled for release on that same day, before he was prevented due to the application of the 2006 Parot doctrine, which delayed his excarceration for five years. Izquierdo expressed disconformity with the application of the doctrine before his death.[citation needed] None of the Izquierdo siblings had descendants, and only one daughter of the Cabanillas survived, resulting in the extinction of both family names.[12][relevant?]
In pop culture
The case inspired the song Veraneo en Puerto Hurraco by the band Def Con Dos. Italian skapunk band Persiana Jones released an album named Puerto Hurraco in 1999, but the title is a tribute to an unrelated bar in Barcelona.[citation needed]
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