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First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups

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First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups
Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre (GRAPO)
Dates of operation1976–2007
AllegianceCommunist Party of Spain (Reconstituted)
MotivesThe creation of a Socialist republic in Spain
Active regionsSpain
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism
Maoism
Anti-revisionism
Socialism
Republicanism
Anti-imperialism
Anti-fascism
Notable attacksMay 1979 Madrid bombing
StatusInactive
Designated as a terrorist group byEuropean Union
GRAPO main logo

The First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups (Spanish: Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre, GRAPO) was a Spanish clandestine Marxist–Leninist group aiming for the formation of a Spanish Republican state.

The group was anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and strongly opposed Spain's membership in NATO.[1]

GRAPO's last attack was in 2006. After having been fairly active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a dwindling number of its militants along with police actions allowed Spanish officials to claim a number of times to have disbanded the GRAPO after the remaining militants were captured.[2] According to the Spanish police, GRAPO was disbanded after six of its militants were arrested in June 2007[3] but formally, the group has not announced its dissolution.[4]

GRAPO is included in the European Union's list of terrorist organisations.[5]

History

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See also: Opposition to Francoism

GRAPO has its origins in the Organisation of Marxist–Leninists of Spain (OMLE), which dissolved itself in its first congress in 1975. At the beginning of 1976, two months after General Francisco Franco's death, during the Spanish transition to democracy from dictatorship, the Communist Party of Spain (Reconstituted) (PCE-r) began a struggle against the political reforms. The PCE(r) restructured itself into different commissions; one of these was a "front against fascism", founded by Juan Carlos Delgado de Codex, which became the GRAPO.[6]

This newly born movement was named after the killing of four Spanish policemen on 1 October 1975, the first violent action of the PCE(r). The "Antifascist Resistance Groups October First" (GRAPO) took this date as a starting point as a terrorist organization. Only five months later, after five workers were killed by the Spanish police during demonstrations in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the PCE(r) told its sympathizers to take up arms and create the nucleus of a future Spanish "Red Army" which would be directed by a central command. A number of explosive devices were detonated in different locations in Spain on 18 July 1976, and GRAPO claimed responsibility for the coordinated explosions in the press, becoming well-known overnight.[7]

After the high-profile kidnapping of wealthy politician Antonio María de Oriol y Urquijo in 1976 and General Villaescusa in 1977 as well as the killing of more Spanish policemen, GRAPO became established as an urban guerrilla group, in a similar manner as Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) had been in Francoist Spain.

GRAPO increased its activity from 1979 onwards, including the bombing of a café in Madrid on 26 May 1979, which killed nine people. However, the group's level of support waned during the 1980s. The transitional democratic regime was not destabilized as the group had promised.[6]

In 1984, the Spanish authorities issued an anti-terrorist law inspired by the Italian model which facilitated police operations against GRAPO, and many arrests followed. GRAPO reacted by simplifying its structure while "waiting for better times". It continued its clandestine activities at a lower level by means of mobile militants, which easily formed and easily split up, becoming difficult to detect.[8]

Police work caused serious blows to GRAPO's structure. Currently the group is inactive yet not formally self-dissolved.[9]

Summary of GRAPO's activity

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Since its inception in 1975 until its last-known activity in 2006, it killed 84 people, including police, military personnel, judges, and civilians via bombings and shootings. A number of its militants were killed during bank robberies committed to raise funds for the organization. The group has also committed a number of kidnappings, initially for political reasons and later on for ransom. Its last attack was in 2006, when GRAPO shot dead Ana Isabel Herrero, the owner of a temporary work agency in Zaragoza.[10]

In 2000, GRAPO's leader Manuel Pérez 'Arenas' was sentenced in a French court for criminal conspiracy with terrorist intent.[citation needed] Spain issued a request for his immediate extradition.[citation needed] To date GRAPO has not named a successor.[citation needed]

Notable members

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Spanish Paralympian Sebastián Rodríguez was a member of GRAPO .[11]

Supporters

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In October 2011, Spanish hip hop artist Pablo Hasel was arrested for condoning terrorism after he saluted one of GRAPO's imprisoned members in a music video. He was soon released from jail, but the charges were not dropped.[12] Ten years later on 16 February 2021, Hasel was arrested and imprisoned again on similar charges by the social democrat PSOE-UP government, leading to anti-fascist groups staging mass demonstrations across the country demanding the release of Hasel and all political prisoners, including members of PCE(r) and GRAPO.[citation needed]

In February 2014, a Twitter user was convicted of glorifying terrorism for tweets praising GRAPO.[13][14]

References

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  1. ^ Alessandro Seregni, El Anti-Americanismo Español
  2. ^ Mundinteractivos. "La Guardia Civil desarticula en Cataluña el último comando operativo de los GRAPO". Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Desarticulado el último 'comando' operativo de los GRAPO con la detención de seis personas en Barcelona". El País. 6 June 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  4. ^ 20Minutos. "¿Pero los Grapo no habían desaparecido?". 20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias. Retrieved 11 February 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Posición Común 2004/309/PESC del Consejo Archived 2006-02-13 at the Wayback Machine, de 2 de abril de 2004, por la que se actualiza la Posición Común 2001/931/PESC sobre la aplicación de medidas específicas de lucha contra el terrorismo y se deroga la Posición Común 2003/906/PESC.- Diario Oficial n° L 099 de 03/04/2004 p. 0061 - 0064.
  6. ^ a b Junta de Castilla y Leon. El FRAP y el GRAPO en España
  7. ^ "Los GRAPO, terroristas germinados en los años 60 - españa - elmundo.es". Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  8. ^ Ediciones El País (21 April 1985). "La ley antiterrorista, un estado de excepción encubierto". EL PAÍS. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  9. ^ "Dudley Knox Library - Naval Postgraduate School". Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  10. ^ "Libertad Digital: El último grupo de los GRAPO tenía previsto volver a atentar". Archived from the original on 26 December 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  11. ^ Gabino, Rosario (8 September 2012). "Spanish swimmer Sebastian Rodriguez triumphs over dark past". BBC Sport.
  12. ^ "Rapper Pablo Hasel arrested for apology of terrorism". Firat News Agency. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  13. ^ "One-year prison sentence for 21-year-old Twitter user who glorified terrorists". El País. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  14. ^ Minder, Raphael (22 February 2014). "In a First for Spain, a Woman Is Convicted of Inciting Terror over Twitter". The New York Times.
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