[1][2][3][4] The Rolando Cafe was located on 4 Calle del Correo in Madrid, close to the General Directorate of Security, the headquarters of the Spanish Police.

[5] The bombing gave those opposed to further liberalisation of the country, such as Blas Piñar, the opportunity to attack the Prime Minister Carlos Arias Navarro.

[7] Reports that police officers had received a circular advising them not to go to the Rolando Cafe or stand outside the building[1][7] added to the mystery surrounding the incident.

Leftists known to be sympathetic to ETA were arrested, including Eva Forest, wife of the communist playwright Alfonso Sastre, Mari Luz Fernandez and her relatives, Lidia Falcón, the theatre director Vicente Sainz de la Peña, construction worker Antonio Durán, pilot Bernardo Badell and his wife María del Carmen Nadal, the actress María Paz Ballesteros, and the writer Eliseo Bayo.

[7] The government also offered a reward of one million pesetas for information leading to the capture of Juan Manuel Galarraga Mendizabal who they suspected of being a high ranking ETA figure involved in the bombing.