In the midst of the Civil War and with José Antonio de Aguirre at its head, the first autonomous government of what was then known as Euzkadi, with zeta, was formed. Among the organizations that were created included a spy agency, the Basque Information Service (SVI), which during the subsequent period, that of World War II, collaborated with the newly created CIA (whose first acronym was OSS) and the FBI. of the United States, with the British SOE or with the Deuxième Bureau of France. The SVI carried out operations abroad such as stealing from Franco the secret communications code of Spain towards its embassies in America or the Airedale project to hunt Nazis, but documentation compiled by the Historical Archive of Euskadi reveals that on the day of the Three Wise Men 1946 also carried out a propaganda action in the interior, mainly in Bilbao but also in Donostia and Vitoria, where the autonomous government never had real powers as they were areas already conquered by the revolted when the Second Republic authorized the Statute. In a parish in Donostia, the Francoist Police detected this movement and a fight and a chase took place through the streets and rooftops.
SVI reports show that exactly 79 years ago a “distribution of Catholic documentation” was organized in Bilbao, Donostia and Vitoria. The PNV, which ultimately controlled the SVI although the first Basque Government was a coalition, was a very clerical formation and wanted to combat Franco’s discourse that all forces loyal to legality in 1936 were anti-religious. The “documentation” that was distributed was a letter from the bishop of Vitoria at the outbreak of the conflict, Mateo Múgica. Vitoria was the first city conquered by the coup plotters and Múgica appears in images and documents as an affection for that new regime, without nuances. However, over the years he distanced himself from the official line of the Catholic Church and in 1945 he wrote a long letter in which he defended that, singularly, the PNV did not pose a risk to religiosity, one of the arguments that launched to justify the “crusade” against the Second Republic.
“He was forced to renounce his diocese of Vitoria in exchange for the titular of Cinna, and settled in Cambo Les Bains (France). In 1945 he published his famous ‘Imperatives of my conscience’where he outlined a fervent defense of his priests who were ‘unfairly persecuted, harassed, punished, plundered and slandered’, reports the Royal Academy of History about Múgica. The prelate, in short, approached the positions of the PNV while in Iparralde and the political leaders of the SVI in exile took advantage of it. It is not known exactly what pamphlet the members of the SVI distributed in the interior in 1946, but it is mentioned that it was a text by “Mr. Múgica” and its success on January 6 was such that a few days later another 4,000 additional copies were ordered.
A report from the SVI dated January 8, 1946 and sent to Jesús María de Leizaola, then second to Aguirre and, upon his death, second lehendakari in exile, explains that “on January 6, the festival of the Three Wise Men, Mr. Múgica’s pamphlet was distributed at the doors of all the parishes, after the eight in the morning mass.” “Conveniently located [los agentes] and well calculated the maximum time to stay on the site [para no ser detectados por el régimen]the operation was carried out perfectly” in Bilbao and Vitoria. In Donostia too, although there is an incident. “With one exception, no one realized the meaning of the distributed sheet,” the report clarifies.
What happened to that “exception”? “In San Sebastián and in front of the parish of San Vicente, a gudari distributed his corresponding lot. A man approached him asking for a copy and the boy, smelling something strange, replied that it was only for women, to which the other presented a Police card. He invited him to accompany him and the boy agreed. But there were few steps they took together. The gudari – a Basque soldier, a strong guy – forced him into a doorway the hard way and there he gave him a series of slaps, until he left him lying on the ground. His good heart was about to play tricks on him. He felt sorry for him and believed, when he saw him lying there, that he would have had enough and, shaking his hands, he left calmly. But the policeman reacted in time to organize a race after our boy, along with two armed guards, shouting ‘that one, that one’. “New story of floors and roofs and entrances to occupied rooms, but at last he appears again on the street and this time without his annoying companions,” novels the SVI in a letter that he intended to end up in the hands of ‘Euzko Deya’, the newspaper official propaganda in exile and with several editions, both in Europe and America. Other documents clarify that that parish was full of Carlists, one of the families that most decisively supported the first Franco regime.
On January 19, 1946, another message arrived in exile from inside: “Distinguished compatriot. From inside they pass me the following note: They ask me to ask you for 4,000 more numbers of Múgica’s letter. It causes a formidable effect. “It has been sent to all the priests and in each sacristy you don’t hear anything else.” There are no more delivery operations. However, Múgica was authorized to return to Spain in 1947. He died in 1968, almost a centenarian and with vision problems.
The letters of Aguirre, Leizaola or two important shadow officials of the SVI, Antón de Irala and Jesús de Galíndez, show that they were confident that with the defeat in World War II of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco’s allies In 1936, the Spanish regime also fell. But it wasn’t like that. Galíndez, kidnapped in the United States in a story not yet fully documented, and Aguirre himself died without seeing the return of democracy.
#Spies #Kings #Day #propaganda #operation #Basque #CIA #January #Vitoria #Bilbao #Donostia
