Canary Islands Independence Movement

The Canary Islands Independence Movement (CIIM), also known as the Movement for the Independence and Self-determination of the Canaries Archipelago (MPAIAC, from Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

Movimiento por la Autodeterminación e Independencia del Archipiélago Canario), is a defunct independentist organization that had a radio station in Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

and resorted to violence in attempts to force the Spanish government

Spanish Government

Spain is a constitutional monarchy whose government is defined by the Constitution of Spain. This was approved by a general referendum of the people of Spain in 1978...

to create an independent state in the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

.

The Canary Islands Independence Movement was started by Antonio Cubillo

Antonio Cubillo

Antonio Cubillo founded the Canary Islands Independence Movement in 1963. This Algiers-based group began a terrorist campaign against Spanish rule in the late 1970s. In 1978 he was crippled in an assassination attempt linked to the security forces of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior...

in 1964. Based in Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, the MPAIAC was recognized in 1968 by the Organization of African Unity. Its armed struggle was carried out by the group's armed wing, the Fuerzas Armadas Guanches (FAG), which in 1976 bombed a mall in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria commonly known as Las Palmas is the political capital, jointly with Santa Cruz, the most populous city in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the ninth largest city in Spain, with a population of 383,308 in 2010. Nearly half of the people of the island...

. In 1978 Antonio Cubillo was the victim of an attempt against his life in Algiers

Algiers

, organized by the Spanish secret services, as a result of which he became handicapped.

The CIIM's radio programmes called for the Canarian people to "go back to their roots" and tried to popularize the Berber

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...

language. But its efforts were mostly unsuccessful and at its height the CIIM had no more than 100 members. The flag of the movement became very popular, however, and was adopted without the stars for the pre-autonomous government.

The CIIM or MPAIAC ceased activity after the Spanish government created the Autonomous Community of the Canaries Archipelago in 1982. A royal pardon was granted to Antonio Cubillo and he returned to Spain.

The political wing of MPAIAC was known as Canarian Workers Party, Partido de los Trabajadores Canarios (PTC). It did not manage to rule any municipality in the islands before disbanding.

Airport bombings

CIIM bombed the offices of South African Airways

South African Airways

South African Airways is the national flag carrier and largest airline of South Africa, with headquarters in Airways Park on the grounds of OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. The airline flies to 36 destinations worldwide from its hub at OR Tambo International...

in Las Palmas

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

on 3 January 1977, its first attack. CIIM terrorists bombed a florist shop in Las Palmas Airport on 27 March 1977, seriously injuring eight people. Members then threatened to explode a second bomb in the airport, forcing police to shut down air traffic

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

while they searched for the bomb. The sudden re-routing of all flights to the Los Rodeos Airport, in addition to various other factors, was blamed for Los Rodeos disaster, the airplane accident with the highest number of fatalities to date, when two Boeing 747 airliners collided resulting in the death of 583 people.

In 1979 the CIIM (MPAIAC) made a formal declaration renouncing the "armed struggle".

Airport bombings

See also