The Dramatic True Story Behind Netflix’s ‘Bank Under Siege’

Barcelona, Spain: May 23, 1981. The Central Bank of Barcelona opened its doors as it did any other day, seemingly a day that promised to be as uneventful as any other. That promise is shattered at 9:05 AM, when 11 hooded men with rifles storm the building, taking it under control. Warning shots were fired to silence the panicked crowd of 263 people stuck inside, and one employee of the bank took a bullet to the knee, a move intended to fend off the approaching police. It was a hostage drama that played out over 37 hours, eliciting concern worldwide from people captivated by the unfolding situation. It’s an event brought to life in the new Netflix series Bank Under Siege (Asalto al Banco Central), a Spanish production starring Miguel Herrán, María Pedraza, and Hovik Keuchkerian. Over the course of 5 one-hour episodes, the harrowing 37 hours and their aftermath are explored through the eyes of determined reporter Maider Garmendia, played by Pedraza. But just how accurate are those five episodes?

Placing Netflix’s ‘Bank Under Siege’ in Context

To understand the events of Bank Under Siege, it helps to place them in context, more specifically the events of February 23, 1981. On that day, 200 paramilitary civil guards, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Antonio Tejero, took over the Spanish Cabinet and lower house of parliament, taking 350 deputies hostage in an attempt to overthrow the civilian government. At the time, shortly after 6:00 pm, deputies were registering their votes for Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo in what was essentially a formality before being sworn in as the new Prime Minister.

Gunfire, accompanied by military music playing on the national radio, halted the proceedings. Tejero walked to the speaker’s stand, ordered everyone to fall to the floor, and began shooting at the ceiling. At 1:15 am, King Juan Carlos denounced the coup and ordered action, saying, “The Crown cannot tolerate in any form any act which tries to interfere with the constitution which has been approved by the Spanish people.” The proclamation took the fire out of the coup, and 18 hours later, after being deserted by 31 of his 200 civil guards, the hostages were freed, and Tejero was arrested, along 18 officers.

Three Months Pass Between the February Coup and the Events of Netflix’s ‘Bank Under Siege’

Bank Under Siege picks up three months after the events of the attempted February coup, touched on in the second episode, and, for the most part, the series depicts the events truthfully. That said, there are a few creative liberties, including two primary fictional characters, the aforementioned reporter Maider Garmendia and Francisco Lopez, captain of the robbery division, played by Isak Férriz, representing the broader range of those involved in the press coverage and investigation.

The storming of the bank plays out accurately, as are the demands made by the gunmen: free General Luis Torres Rojas and three lieutenant colonels, Antonio Tejero Molina (aka Colonel Tejero), Jose Ignacio San Martin and Pedro Mas Oliver, terrorists arrested during the February coup. They further demanded that the four be put on a plane in Madrid and flown to Argentina within 72 hours, and also demanded a second plane for themselves in order to escape. In the series, the masked men identify themselves using numbers. This, too, is true, corroborated by hostages that were freed throughout the crisis, adding their movements were “crisp and professional,” which led to speculation they may be guardsmen who participated in the February coup attempt.

Notes left for Barcelona newspapers insisted that if the demands weren’t followed, they would “kill 10 hostages immediately and one hostage every hour after that.” Per The Washington Post, hostages that had been released repeatedly confirmed the gunmen’s persistent use of similar threats. One told reporters that the gunmen had placed explosives throughout the building, threatening to set them off if police tried to force their way in (hostages were also herded in front of the doors, similarly to dissuade attempts at entry). Antonio Abolafio, a bank employee, shared that the “worst moment was when one of them told his colleagues to put their pistols against the temples of five employees and customers and pull the trigger if the police did not retire from the scene.” Another quoted a gunman saying, “Tell your friend [Premier] Calvo-Sotelo that he has 70 hours to decide, and if not, we are going to kill everyone, one by one.”

Netflix’s ‘Bank Under Siege’ Reveals the Real Reason for the Heist

To this point, Bank Under Siege sticks to the truth relatively closely, apart from some additional dramatic scenes of backstories and relationships between certain characters, both real and fictional. The ending of the standoff, per Lifestyle Asia, saw police take nine of the 11 gunmen down, kill another, while one managed to escape, which is also in the series (also true: the gunmen tried to blend in with the freed hostages – it didn’t work). And as you’ll recall, the driving motivator behind the heist was to see Tejero and three others released. But, when contacted by authorities during the crisis (both in real-life and in the series), Tejero denied any involvement with the perpetrators, going so far as to call them out on their actions (per The New York Times): “‘From my prison cell in the La Palma Castle, I call upon those responsible for what is happening in Barcelona, whatever be their ideology or motivation, to free the innocent victims they are holding.”

It turns out that the reason Tejero knew nothing about it was because the bank heist wasn’t about freeing Tejero at all, a turn of events included in the series. After interrogating the nine gunmen that were taken into custody. The police report released to the public indicated that the political demands made were nothing more than a ruse, intended to buy time as they robbed the bank and escaped through a tunnel into the city’s sewers. The leader of the gunmen, José Juan Martínez Gómez (Herrán), explained that the idea was that the police would have their hands full dealing with public demonstrations brought on by the hostage’s release.

Netflix’s ‘Bank Under Siege’ Surrenders to Conspiracy Theories

It’s here where Bank Under Siege splits away from the facts of the story into conspiracy theories with little factual evidence that they occurred. There had been rumors that CESID, Spanish secret intelligence, were involved in the siege or that Antonio Luis, known for his extreme-right ideology, had masterminded the operation. Bank Under Siege, however, runs with the one purported by Gómez, in which Lt. Colonel Alonso Manglano, head of the agency, asked him to get documents from a safe deposit box in the bank, ones that could implicate the King for having been involved in the February coup, and others that detailed Operation Armada, a secret plan made to remove PM Adolfo Suárez from power (per DMT). None of these theories could be substantiated, no proof that linked the civil guards or CESID to the heist, and no proof that Gómez returned to the bank to recover money he had stashed away eight years after the heist.

But Bank Under Siege runs with the safe deposit box theory, closing out the truthful account with a speculative, fictional ending. In the series, both Lopez and Garmendia continue to dig deeper into the story following the heist, despite warnings to stop before they get too close and put their lives in danger, yet they persist. But when Lopez’s car goes up in flames, the pair call off their plans to shine light on the cover-ups and secrets and stop their investigation. Since the two are fictional characters, it goes without saying that anything that happened to them didn’t happen at all.

Despite adding a much more interesting ending, it’s hard not to be disappointed in the series adding a more “Hollywood” ending. Yes, an ending where it’s revealed that there was nothing more to the siege than a bank robbery gone bad is anticlimactic, but it is truthful. Trading a truthful account for The DaVinci Code undermines the foundation laid in the first four episodes. However, in being able to capture the chaos and terror of those hours inside and outside the Central Bank of Barcelona, Bank Under Siege largely succeeds.

Bank Under Siege is available to stream in the U.S. on Netflix.

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