Spain is shaken by a series of letter bombs sent to strategic personalities or organizations such as the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. Only one of them was activated this Wednesday at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, slightly injuring one person. At the time of publication of this article, the Spanish authorities reported the number of six letter bombs intercepted in less than a week.
· Who were these six bomb letters intended for?
According to information provided by the Spanish authorities on Thursday, two letters were sent to members of the Spanish government. On November 24, one of them was intercepted when he was going to the “president of the government Pedro Sánchez.” The other was on December 1 when it was addressed to the Spanish Defense Minister, Margarita Robles.
Two letters were also sent to embassies. The first is the one that was intended for the Ukrainian ambassador in Spain, Serhii Pohoreltsev and that was activated this Thursday within the Ukrainian representation, located in Madrid. She slightly injured the hand of the security officer in charge of the post, who was handling it. The second was aimed at the United States Embassy in the Spanish capital.
Two other missives were also discovered in sensitive sites, according to the police: one of them was sent to an arms company, Instalaza, based in Zaragoza (northeast Spain) that manufactures in particular grenade launchers, several of which were donated by Madrid Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The other was found at the Torrejón military base, on the outskirts of Madrid. It is administered by the Spanish Air Force and serves in particular as a departure and return point for air travel by members of the Spanish government. Also from there the weapons were sent to Ukraine.
· What are the characteristics of the envelopes?
“In all six cases, the characteristics of the brown envelopes that contain the devices and their content are similar. They had the same writing in the addresses, in pen and in capital letters,” reports the Spanish newspaper. The world.
In detail, the envelopes were “brown cardboard, about 18 by 10 centimeters.” They were sent “by ordinary mail with a postage of 2.70 euros (sufficient to send letters of 100 to 500 grams in the peninsula [espagnole] and the Balearic and Canary Islands), although there is no postmark”, further specifies The country.
As for the explosive device itself, “the substance used in the envelope intercepted in the presidency of the government is a component or ingredient with characteristics similar to those used in fireworks,” the Spanish Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, also indicated before Refuse to give more information about the investigation.
· Who sent them?
There has been no information on the identity of the recipients at the moment while the investigations are still ongoing. Rafael Pérez, however, indicated at a press conference that “first clues” point to the fact that these letters were sent from Spain, particularly by the aforementioned postal brands.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s ambassador to Spain, Serhii Pohoreltsev, had implicitly accused Russia of being the source of the bombed mail sent to him. “We are well acquainted with the terrorist methods of the aggressor country,” he said on Spanish public television.
In a tweet published this Thursday, the Russian Embassy in Spain condemned the sending of these letter bombs.
“Face aux informations sur les paquets explosifs envoyés à l’ambassade d’Ukraine en Espagne et à des entités officielles espagnoles, nous déclarons que toute menace ou acte terroriste, de surcroît dirigés contre une mission diplomatique, sont totally condemnables”, at -ella write.
· What was the reaction of the authorities?
The explosion of the letter bomb at the Ukrainian embassy was described as an “attack” by the head of Spanish diplomacy. He led kyiv to order increased security at all its diplomatic missions. Madrid, for its part, announced “an increase in security measures around diplomatic representations” in Spain.
The investigation opened this Wednesday by the Spanish justice for alleged acts of “terrorism” after the explosion of the Ukrainian embassy has been extended to all these letters, indicated a spokesman for the National High Court before the announcement of the letter addressed to the American embassy.
This letter bomb salvo also rekindles the trauma for Spanish authorities when Spain was rocked last year by sending threatening letters containing assault rifle bullets to various political leaders, including the Minister of the Interior.
Source: BFM TV
