Political Impact
El Mundo has played a key role in uncovering several scandals—among them embezzlement by the commander of the Guardia Civil, and accusations of insider trading and tax fraud by the governor of the Central Bank of Spain. Investigative reporting by the staff of El Mundo also revealed connections between the terrorist Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) and the Socialist administration of Felipe González, revelations that contributed to his defeat in the 1996 elections.
In October 2005, El Mundo revealed that Nazi Aribert Heim (aka "Doctor Death") had been living in Spain for 20 years, probably with help from the ODESSA network, in collaboration with Otto Skorzeny, who had helped set up one of the most important ODESSA bases of operation in Spain, during the rule of the late dictator Francisco Franco.
After the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, the newspapers El Mundo and La Razón, the regional television channel Telemadrid and the COPE radio network alleged that there had been inconsistencies in the explanations given by the Spanish judiciary about the bombings. Other Spanish media, such as El País, ABC and the Cadena SER radio network, accused El Mundo and the other media of manipulation over this issue. The bombings and the subsequent judicial showdown are still hotly debated in Spain today.
Read more about this topic: El Mundo (Spain)
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