Los Errantes
Exiled from Spain by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso moved to Cuba, where they organised trade unions and participated in strike actions.
After assassinating one of their employers, they fled the country to Mexico, where they were joined by Gregorio Jover and carried out robberies to finance the activities of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT).
During the early 1920s, the rising influence of organised anarcho-syndicalism in Spain, and an internal conflict within the Spanish government over the conduct of the Rif War, had provoked the preparation of a military coup by General Miguel Primo de Rivera.
[1] To resist the coming coup, the anarchist group Los Solidarios planned to rob a branch of the Bank of Spain in Xixón and use the money to purchase weaponry.
As the search continued, the murder of a foreman in Holguín Province was attributed to Los Errantes, which made the police unsure about the location of the culprits and intimidated employers into fortifying their estates.
[26] At Quintero's suggestion, they found residence at a farm in Tecomán, where they linked up with the local anarchist group led by Román Delgado, Nicolás Bernal and Herminia Cortés.
[25] In April 1925, the group robbed the office of a fabric factory and donated the money to the CGT, which used it to sustain its publication and to establish rationalist schools according to the model of Francisco Ferrer.
[28] Having been living in a luxury hotel, registered under the assumed identity of a wealthy Peruvian mine owner named "Mendoza", they packed their bags and left without paying the bill.
[39] In order to avoid aggravating the schism within the Argentine anarchist movement, Los Errantes decided to refrain from carrying out any violent attacks or robberies and instead sought dialogue with both factions.
[40] Although considered part of the "purist" faction, La Protesta had defended the assassins Simón Radowitzky and Kurt Gustav Wilckens, and professed the innocence of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
[41] Rizo had also told them about the militant anarchist Severino di Giovanni, who advocated for propaganda of the deed, and the union activist Miguel Arcángel Roscigna, who was a leading figure in prisoner support.
By May, they were staying at a hotel in Clichy, under the assumed names on their false passports: Durruti was known as Roberto Cotelo, Ascaso as Salvador Arévalo, and Jover as Luis Victorio Rejetto.
[63] The International Press, established by Ascaso and Durruti in 1923, continued to function under the management of Le Libertaire, with Juan Manuel Molina Mateo serving as its Spanish representative.
Several Spanish anarchist group were still active in the French capital, where Valeriano Orobón Fernández published Tiempos Nuevos and Liberto Callejas [es] edited Iberón.
[64] At this time, Los Errantes met with three young Catalan anarchists, Tadeo Peña, Pedro Boadas Rivas and Agustín García Capdevila, who had been implicated in bomb attacks against Spanish Army officers.
[67] As the king's visit drew near, they were unable to find a driver; they had attempted to recruit a comrade from Buenos Aires, as well as Miguel García Vivancos, who had driven them during the Xixón heist, but neither accepted.
Le Libertaire was shut down by police after it ran an editorial deemed insulting to the head of state and its manager was charged with instigating an assassination attempt against the Spanish king.
[80] Due to his knowledge of the French language, Durruti spoke for the group: he stated that they planned to abduct the king and hold him until a revolution broke out in Spain; he also confessed to their possession of weapons and false passports.
Led by the French anarcho-communists Louis Lecoin and Séverin Férandel, the IADC took on the case of Ascaso, Durruti and Jover and established a new committee to support their asylum in France.
[85] As the IADC criticised illegalism, which it considered detrimental to the anarchist movement and discouraged as a method of anti-capitalist action, Lecoin instead sought to proclaim the "innocence" of Sacco, Vanzetti, Ascaso, Durruti and Jover.
[95] On 10 December, Le Libertaire reported on a similar defense campaign taking place in Argentina, where the local anarchist movement threatened action against the Argentine police if the extradition went forward.
[97] Several independent trade unions, alongside La Antorcha, the Social Prisoner Support Committee and Italian and Bulgarian groups, continued to hold impromptu demonstrations in spite of the police.
[98] One planned meeting in Plaza Once was surrounded by mounted police, who dispersed a small group of demonstrators; but then an anarchist chained himself to the railing of a metro entrance and began shouting about the extradition of Los Errantes to passersby.
[99] By this time, the issue of extraditing Los Errantes had escalated to the French Parliament, where several socialist deputies proposed legislation to end the police's control over the proceedings.
[108] La Antorcha quickly reacted the news with denunciations, describing Argentina as an "immensely stupid country, without moral conscience, without even the most basic attribute or sense of justice".
[136] But he also expressed worry about the threat of a fascist coup in the country; two years later, the nationalist forces of José Félix Uriburu seized power and established a military dictatorship which harshly suppressed the labour movement.
Most of the attendees, including Cortés and Ascaso, opposed the proposal, arguing against Carreras' position that Spanish exiles preferred to join the CNT rather than participate in anarchist groups.
[140] Rocker and Erich Mühsam reached out to the Social Democratic politician Paul Kampffmeyer [de], a former anarchist, who had previously used his position in the government to secure aid for Nestor Makhno and Emma Goldman when they fled the Soviets.
The Free State of Prussia, which was run by a Social Democratic-led coalition with the Catholic Centre Party, wanted to avoid a governmental crisis by giving asylum to Ascaso, who had killed Archbishop Juan Soldevila.
Ascaso painted the building's facade, while his brother Domingo sold stationery, Durruti found a job as a mechanic and Liberto Callejas [es] worked in the hotel where Francesc Macià was staying.
