29 years ago, a tragic event took place on board the fishing boat Cruz del Mar in the Saharan-Canarian bank, in a period in which a territorial conflict was taking place in the Sahara. On November 28, 1978, the ten occupants of the boat, who had a family and friendship relationship with each other, had left from Las Palmas for a short trip, as Christmas was near. They were all from Conejero, except one, "El Sevilla". They arrived at Cabo Cabiño, cast their fishing gear and anchored near them at night, intending to collect the catch the next morning. However, it could not be. The occupants of a zodiac that boarded the boat killed 7 of the fishermen, including a 14-year-old boy, Sebastián Cañada. Only three survived this brutal assault.
One of them was Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, chief engineer of the Cruz del Mar, who was then 22 years old. On the 29th anniversary of the tragic event, he was present at the tribute held at the Cruz Centenaria de La Rocar to his murdered colleagues.
That day you finished your working day and were resting on the boat. What happened when the zodiac approached the Cruz del Mar fishing boat?
Some of us were eating, others playing cards, and then we saw a zodiac coming with people with machine guns and dressed in diving suits. They boarded and we fed them, they were asking who was the machinist, who was the skipper..., all in perfect Spanish. At that
moment, we thought it was a reconnaissance. They knew the Canary Islands perfectly, they knew Lanzarote very well and when they tried to get us to take the boat ashore we told them we couldn't. Then, they put us on the bow of the boat. Their first intention was to cut our throats. They took our watches, started looting the boat, breaking everything and then started machine-gunning us. I remember some running forward, others back and others jumping into the water. I was one of them, and that's how three of us were saved, Manuel Hernández, my brother Eusebio and I. We had the reaction to jump and flee the boat, when your mind is blank you don't know what you're doing.
Afterwards, once you jumped into the water, how did you manage to get to safety?
When the men left, Manuel and I returned to the boat. They had destroyed everything. We took a raft that was broken and threw it into the water. We found my brother Eusebio later, halfway there. Manuel and I were talking and he heard the voices, he shouted if we were okay and we shouted back to him too, because with the machine-gunning that took place we thought he was wounded. We spent almost the whole night in that "floating rubber", because you can't call it a raft, until we reached the Chico Grande boat dragged by the current.
When you returned to the boat in search of something that could help you, your lives were in danger again. What happened?
When we returned to the boat, I went down to the engine room, and I saw something with some cables that was not normal. I imagined it was a bomb, and when we were a few meters away the boat blew up.
Until you reached land, how much time elapsed?
One day. After they found us they called Las Palmas and then we moved away from the area. In the morning planes and warships came. There were also artisanal boats, which there were many of at that time, and we were checking the whole coast in case we found something. We found a corpse. In the afternoon, they transferred us to a warship and that was the one that brought us to Las Palmas.
29 years have passed. What mark has what happened that November 28 left on your life?
I feel worse and worse. When you are 22 years old things seem different, but as time goes by what happened that day has become more engraved on me, it becomes heavier. These are things that cannot be forgotten, you are left with many after-effects. We were never forbidden to go fishing there, even though the waters were rough. The Polisario Front had kidnapped some boats from Lanzarote, but then released them. We always tried to make sure that nothing happened to us, and the least we could think was that someone would machine-gun us.
There were no arrests. What response did you get from the institutions?
None. We only heard rumors. It was said that it was the Polisario Front, that it was Morocco, that it was some mercenaries that someone had sent, but so many things are said... nothing is known yet. The Spanish State has never given us an answer. Even at that time it was considered as a work accident and the widows received a minimum aid that the State gave, the charity (widow's pension).
Now you are part of the Canary Association of Victims of Terrorism. Last Tuesday you met for the first time with the Director General of Support to Victims of Terrorism of the Ministry of the Interior, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes. What do you want to achieve?
The Association is formed by the Canary Islands affected by the conflict in the Sahara. It has been supported by many sailors and workers who suffered machine-gunning, who were kidnapped or imprisoned. Senator Cándido Armas managed to get my dead colleagues recognized as victims of terrorism some 20 years after the Cruz del Mar incident, but not us survivors and we are also victims of terrorism.
This multiple murder occurred at a complicated moment in the history of Spain. Do you think there has been an attempt to silence it?
Yes (he answers emphatically). I don't know why they only usually try to revive it in political elections. We with the Association are not looking to stir anything up. What we want is to help many people who are misinformed and abandoned, who in the coast of Africa happened things coinciding with the Green March.
