Carrero Blanco: Cuba, the Unfired Nuke, and the Shadow of Foreign Interference

Carrero Blanco: The Nuclear Bomb, Cuba, and the Unclosed File

At 11:00 a.m. on December 20, 1973, Franco received the call reporting the assassination and asked a question that remains open: "Could it not be a sad coincidence?" The judicial path attributes the attack to ETA and a commando that dug a tunnel under Claudio Coello Street. Another line of analysis argues, without a binding verdict, that this cannot be explained without the intelligence and financing of a state.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Luis Carrero Blanco's death, an uncomfortable photograph resurfaces: Fidel Castro alongside Alfonso Sastre and Genoveva Forest. The image, which also places writer Mario Benedetti, proves nothing on its own. However, it fuels a hypothesis that has been debated outside Spain for half a century.

Genoveva Forest, Madrid Apartments, and the Embassy Librarian

According to the official summary version, Forest allegedly sheltered members of the Txikia commando in several Madrid homes, apartments she supposedly controlled alone. She was arrested after the Correos Street attack, not before. The most repeated detail: her substitute in the conspiracy's organizational chart worked as a librarian at the Cuban Embassy.

Trips are counted on fingers: Alfonso Sastre visited the island three times before the assassination; Forest, once, in 1966. Cuba is credited with cooperating with ETA since 1964, according to the thesis popularized by Claire Sterling. And Forest's nickname, La Tupamara, remains unclear, alongside the presence in the same photo of someone a participant identifies as one of the founders of the Uruguayan Tupamaros.

The Islero Project: Why Carrero Blanco Wanted the Bomb

Carrero was no ordinary obstacle. Data cited by a participant in the debate indicates that Spain had the second-largest uranium reserves in Europe, agreements with France for reactor purchases, and the capacity to produce three nuclear bombs annually. The regime had not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and in 1973, that Spain was not a comfortable partner for Washington.

The Yom Kippur War tightened the noose. Spain aligned with the Arab world, and Carrero Blanco opposed US planes refueling on Spanish soil, although he practically allowed it; refueling was ultimately resolved with tankers and the Lajes base in the Azores. Kissinger left Madrid without a bilateral defense guarantee. The nuclear project, in this context, was the card Carrero did not intend to discard.

Why Would the USSR Want to Kill Carrero Blanco?

The most elaborate hypothesis does not point to Cuba as an autonomous actor, but as a Soviet piece. The reasoning: eliminating Carrero would precipitate a radicalization of the regime, prolong the dictatorship, and block Spain's entry into NATO, which required a democratic system. Cuba acted, in this reading, as a proxy for Moscow.

And a highlighted detail: commercial exchanges between Spain and the island accelerated after the assassination, something argued to have been analyzed in depth by no one. Against this stands the question raised by other commentators: what benefit did the USSR gain, or what did Cuba gain, from Carrero's death?

Claire Sterling and the Book Never Translated into Spanish

"The Terror Web" was a bestseller at the time. Its chapter 10, "Terror in the Basque Lands," places ETA within an international terror network sponsored by Moscow. It was never translated into Spanish. For some, this proves someone prevented its circulation; for others, it was CIA disinformation, a common accusation against the author.

Historian Ricardo de la Cierva appears in the thread as a reference among those dismissing the simplified official version. His work on the assassination is considered serious, though incomplete. The nuclear thesis sustained here is Cierva's "but a few steps further."

Who Killed Carrero Blanco? The Four Competing Hypotheses

One front sticks with ETA alone, with more or less improvised logistical support. Another adds the CIA: it is noted that the tunnel was dug for months next to the US embassy and that the agency knew of ETA's movements without warning. A third places Cuba and the USSR at the center. And a fourth points to France, the UK, and the US, attributing ample motive to not see a Spanish de Gaulle with an atomic bomb.

Notably, almost no one denies that the assassination was poorly investigated. Foreign files cited contradict, it is argued, the version given here, and the technical detail mocked by some—a mine "under the car"—is explained simply: it is an earth mine, placed under the pavement of a tunnel, just as in other attacks of the era.

What the Archive Still Has Not Closed

If Carrero's assassination was linked to foreign intelligence, documentary evidence has not appeared in half a century. What is sustained is something more modest: the official version was never fully investigated. Half a century later, with the photo on the table and files open outside Spain, Franco's question remains unanswered. Perhaps coincidence exists. Perhaps no one has interest in ruling it out completely.