The new Spanish TV series “Robbery at the Central Bank” arrives on Netflix on November 8th, consisting of 5 episodes and directed by Daniel Calparsoro, who was based on the screenplays written by Patxi Amezcua. Let’s discover together the plot and the true story behind the heist series “Central Bank Robbery” coming out on Netflix.
Central Bank Robbery: the plot
The plot of “Central Bank Robbery” revolves around the robbery of the Central Bank of Barcelona in 1981, when some hooded men kidnapped around 300 people to blackmail the Spanish government: the aim was not money, but to obtain the release of some responsible officials of the attempted coup which occurred three months before the assault in question. The real objective of the kidnappers, however, will only be discovered over time, and it is not just the police who will investigate the reasons for this dangerous gesture: a reporter is already ready to discover the truth on her own.
Central Bank Robbery: the true story that inspired the TV series
We have told you what the TV series will be about, but in detail what happened on the day of the robbery at the Central Bank of Barcelona? Here is the true story from which the Spanish series “Robbery of the Central Bank” is based: in 1981, while the country was facing the tensions and changes due to the delicate transition towards democracy, some Spanish military commanders attempted (in vain) a coup d’état Congress of Deputies of Madrid known as 23-F, as it occurred on February 23 of that year.
Three months after this event, on May 23, 1981, eleven masked and armed men, headed by the leader José Juan Martínez Gómez, took over two hundred people hostage – some worked in the bank, others were simple passers-by and customers – making an unexpected request to the Spanish government: the lives of these people – the threat was to kill 10 hostages at the entrance and 5 every hour – in exchange for the release of Colonel Tejero and 4 other soldiers guilty of having organized and attempted the coup d’état of the 23rd February. Not only that, because on that occasion they also asked that two planes necessary for the subsequent escape be made available to them – one at Barajas airport and the other at El Prate -, and they did so through a statement written in Spanish and left to the interior of a telephone booth in Plaza de Cataluña. The Spanish government decided not to give in to blackmail and, following the timely formation of a ‘crisis cabinet’, negotiations began for the release of the hostages which ended 37 hours later.
In the end the kidnappers decided to negotiate the surrender, but that same evening – it was Sunday, the day after the start of the assault – after a failed escape attempt, hostage exchanges and firefights between the authorities inside a military tank and the robbers, a sniper hit one of the attackers who were holding him hostage on the roof of the 7-story building. This caused great nervousness, especially given that the man in question was the brother-in-law and brother of two of the attackers. Later, the “police special operations group” (GEO) managed to enter the Central Bank from the roof and the leader of the hooded men, José Juan Martínez Gómez, decided to free the hostages in order to try to escape, together with his team , hiding among the 200 people who were inside the place shortly before. The police, however, made everyone lie on the ground as soon as they exited the main door of the building and, in doing so, the police arrested nine kidnappers.
The robbery caused the death of one man and one injured, while one of the attackers managed to vanish into thin air. The real reason why the latter made such a strong gesture, even blackmailing the government, has never been clarified, but one of the most popular hypotheses was linked to the existence of some compromising documents regarding the 23-F coup.
