José Ignacio Carnero novelizes 1961 hijacking of Santa María to overthrow Franco and Salazar

José Ignacio Carnero, a writer from Bilbao, has published a novel that revisits the 1961 hijacking of the transatlantic liner Santa María by twenty-four Spanish and Portuguese exiles. The operation, carried out on January 22, 1961, in Caribbean waters, aimed to redirect the ship to Africa and launch a revolution from Angola to overthrow the dictatorships of Francisco Franco and António de Oliveira Salazar. The group belonged to the Directorio Revolucionario Ibérico de Liberación (DRIL). Carnero's novel, following his debut Am, explores the blurred lines between reality and fiction in this quixotic adventure. The event captured international media attention at the time.