The so-called Operation Arno, against the Nazi organization Combat 18 and which this week resulted in 16 detainees, has uncovered an unknown face of the extreme right in Spain. Those arrested, 13 men and three women between 35 and 45 years old, intercepted in Catalonia (11) and another five between Lugo, Malaga, Madrid and Toledo, are old acquaintances, “some historical”, of the police of the movements and groups far right. “People linked to violent extremism for more than 20 years,” say research sources, “who are already in their forties, with modest jobs, who live with their families and children in working-class neighborhoods, although they keep everything in their homes. kind of white supremacist symbology, from Nazi flags on the headboard of the bed to Hitler figurines in the living room,” they say, in light of the huge number of merchandising that the agents of the General Information Commissariat of the National Police and the Mossos dÉsquadra found in the searches.
The police dismantling of this group, banned in France and which sought to settle in Spanish territory through its connections in Catalonia, has made it clear that the new neo-Nazi groups are no longer young people with shaved heads with sneakers and tight dark clothing who organize themselves. and radicalize on social networks, like Bastión Frontal (now disappeared), but are emerging “from the disenchantment of those historical militants in the heat of social polarization,” analyze the researchers who have perfectly monitored these groups. “They are veterans who have been part of dozens of far-right groups throughout their lives but who have grown tired of none of them prospering or coming to fruition and now they want to do something, they are frustrated and see an opportunity to make sense of it again.” to what has always been his obsession,” explain the same sources.
And, precisely now, when society is more polarized and global balances are more altered by wars; and in the midst of the noise and fleeting nature of social networks, they rescue and collect their old postulates, becoming the guardians of those essences of national socialism and white supremacy. Willing to carry out their own “white jihad”—that’s what they call it—and accelerate a kind of collapse in Western society to provoke a race war.
In this way, armed with their anti-Semitic speeches (“the Jews rule us”), their hatred of foreigners (“they want to end our culture and our traditions”), their apocalyptic and populist language (“they are going to sink the country”), and their conspiracy theories are found in their forums, at rapper concerts, at biker meetings, at conventions, or in camps where they carry out training sessions, and resurrect what is supposedly forgotten or what was lost among the enormous noise of social networks; or simply, it disappeared after the impatient impetus of some young millennials without established ideas and without historical foundation.
And thus movements that were in a very low profile resurface, such as Combat 18, the armed wing of another so-called Blood and Honor (blood and honor), outlawed since 2011. In this case, financed and supported from France, according to investigation sources. And with the clear objective of settling throughout Spain, where they had already found delegates in Madrid, Malaga, Toledo and Lugo with the goal of recruiting new members: “They wanted radical people who can carry out violent actions,” say sources in the case.
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The fact that the hard core was in Catalonia is not a coincidence, it also has to do with the current situation of polarity in which Catalan society lives, where “far-right people have become much more radicalized,” the same sources point out in allusion to the current context of amnesty negotiation.
International connections
International connections serve as cover and validate them. In fact, in this case, according to the researchers, there were several occasions in which they held meetings in France and that the French came to Spain to see “the Spanish brothers,” as they call them. It was precisely these encounters that alerted investigators almost a year ago. Before being arrested, they already functioned in a hierarchical manner, with military inspiration: “They exchanged ideas and projects and thought about how they could adapt to Spain,” the researchers explain. Women had a predominant role in the organization in this case. One of them set the guidelines to follow, decided who had to be recruited, what the objectives were or how money was handled.
From France they were offered financing for weapons, material, telephones, transportation, rental of spaces, talks and logistics in general. “We must keep in mind that the majority of these people, although they live governed by ideology, although that is the most important thing in their lives, above their own families, most of them belong to hard-working and humble backgrounds” , say experts in these violent groups.
The extreme right in Spain, according to experts, nevertheless continues to have a very low profile, very atomized, very divided, with “people who have been in the movement for three days and a lot of last-minute Nazis.”
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