Quini’s children recall 1981 ordeal, say he forgave his captors unlike their mother | OneFootball

Enrique Castro ‘Quini’ was abducted in February 1981 in a case that gripped Spain, and his children have now reflected on how he lived through it and what followed.

He was held for 25 days in a makeshift cell in Zaragoza as the country followed each development with anxiety, amid political uncertainty that included the 23-F coup attempt during his captivity.

Police freed him alive on 25 March 1981, finding three men with no links to armed groups who said they acted for economic reasons after losing work. The case has since inspired a television series.

“The day they freed him was the day he was most afraid,” said his daughter, Lorena. “I do think he feared for his life then.” She was speaking on Antena 3’s ‘Y ahora Sonsoles’.

“He told us they did not treat him that badly, they gave him newspapers and food,” Lorena added, while stressing the emotional complexity he carried afterwards.

Quini later renounced the compensation due to him and asked that his captors not be punished too harshly. “He managed to forgive them, something my mother never could,” his children said.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo