Remembering Santiago Súria aka Surieta, murdered by the OAS in Algiers on 10 April 1962
Born in Valencia (Levate, Spain) in 1900, hunchbacked from birth and standing not much more than one metre in height, Santiago Súria aka Surieta, who was the son of a modest marble worker, joined the libertarian movement at a very early age. He was particularly active in the libertarian ateneos. During the Spanish Revolution (1936-1939) he held a number of positions of responsibility. Come the end of the civil war he managed to escape Spain on board the Lézardieux, bound for North Africa, like so many other Spanish refugees that had put up armed resistance against fascism, only to be interned by the (pre-Vichy) French Republic under its 1938 law on ‘undesirable aliens’. He was placed in the Boghari concentration camp (Camp Morand) where he was a member of the ‘Exilio’ group of young libertarians that produced a newspaper of the same name.
Opened in April 1939, Camp Morand in Boghari (Algiers department) was set aside for Spanish militians who were kept well away from the towns. Its location on the Ouarsenis plateau made it an environment that was hard to bear. Added to the heat of the Algerian desert there were the direst sanitary conditions and a vital shortage of water and food. 48 men were crammed into huts meant to accommodate 24. The camp had no infirmary and was seriously short of medicines. By May 1939, 3,000 militians were being held in Camp Morand and upwards of 2,000 were still there by that November. Two international missions visited the North African camps and a conference focussing on aid for Spanish refugees that was held in Paris in July 1939 insisted that the Boghari camp be closed, but this demand was ignored.
Following the Liberation, Surieta became a member of the Local Federation of the CNT-AIT in Algiers. From 1946 onwards, it held a May 1st demonstration under a banner in Spanish and Arabic announcing ‘From Spanish refugee workers to the Algerian people on the feast of Labour’.
Inside the CNT-AIT he worked as a ‘paquetero’ (dispatcher), responsible for the distribution and sale of pamphlets, books and newspapers for the organization. He had built up a decent library for himself at home and, for a nominal sum, used to lend out his books to those unable to afford to buy them. Working from time to time as a shoe-mender, Le Bossu (Hunchback) as his enemies referred to him, would tramp the streets of Algiers from morning to evening – especially in the working-class Bab-el-Oued district where he lived – distributing the libertarian press. He was also a member of a shoe-making cooperative that had been established by Spanish anarcho-syndicalist militants.
Come the end of the Algerian war, he was threatened by the Secret Army Organization (OAS), the zealots of colonial Algeria. His Muslim neighbours tipped him off and suggested that he stay indoors and let them do his shopping: the Local CNT-AIT Federation urged him to be very careful, but to no avail. Surieta turned a blind eye to the danger and there were libertarian newspapers to be distributed.
On the morning of 10 April 1962, as he was leaving his home in the La Baseta quarter in Bab-el-Oued, with a satchel packed with books and magazines, Santiago Súria was abducted by an OAS commando. He was beaten and searched by his killers who were looking for addresses that they never found, and then he was strangled to death.
His corpse, with all of its joints broken, was dumped the next day in a sack on the Rue de Normandie and with a message that read ‘This is how traitors pay – OAS’. For safety reasons, not one member of the CNT-AIT attended his funeral. But in commemoration of him his CNT-AIT comrades in Algeria (most likely his comrade Ángel Vidal) had an article published in the CNT-AIT’s Toulouse newspaper, Espoir, marking the first anniversary of his murder. Today, picking up that torch, we are reprinting that article on the CNT-AIT website by way of honouring a promise made to those Spanish Revolution veterans to the effect that ‘We will see to it that your exemplary life is an inspiration to upcoming generations’.
Some male and female militants of the CNT-AIT of France and Algeria
Sources: J. Muñoz Congost Por tierras de moros (Ed. Madre Tierra, 1989) – Espoir No 68 (21 April 1963)
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Remember “Le Bossu”
Espoir (newspaper of the French CNT-AIT, No 6 Region, Toulouse) No 28, 21 April 1963
One year ago Santiago Súria was murdered by a commando operating in Algiers at the behest of the OAS, Surieta, as he was known to his closest friends, came originally from Valencia, a region that he dreamt of revisiting once Spain had been freed from the yoke of oppression.
Fate played a cruel trick on him, dooming him to a life of misfortune. The son of a modest marble worker from a well-to-do background and imbued with liberal ideas, he opted to go further than his father and joined the libertarian movement in his earliest youth, becoming a regular visitor to our ateneos. He quickly became a valued collaborator, one renowned for his integrity and honesty.
Born in 1900, he was 62 years old at the time of his death. During the civil war he held down the positions of responsibility assigned to him, insofar as his significant physical handicap would allow, adopting a strict approach when necessary and showing flexibility whenever he thought fit. In exile, he, like thousands of others, endured the harsh ordeals of the African concentration camps. The extreme temperatures of the Great Desert failed to break his spirits: throughout, he retained high hopes of a new beginning, or rather, of a continuity.
At the time when his life was so brutally ended, he was in charge of press and propaganda circulation for the CNT-AIT’s Algiers Local Federation, a task that he performed loyally and painstakingly, unflagging over many years. He was in charge of the distribution and sale of newspapers, supplements and reviews connected with our organization, and of pamphlets and books, etc., handling this impeccably. With his knapsack slung across his shoulder and brimful of propaganda handbills, Le Bossu (as he was known to his adversaries) would tramp the streets of Algiers from morning to night, especially in his home district of Bab-el-Oued, eyes peeled for comrades that he was able to ferret out pretty much everywhere so as to pass the newspapers on to them. And it was not his share of the profits made from sales and distribution of such printed matter that kept him going! It was his love of the ideas of liberation. Even though his efforts afforded him a meagre living, he always declined repeated offers of financial assistance. Entirely unsuited to manual work, he was always resigned to his lot.
Blinded by the spilled blood of defenceless innocents, the Algerian fascist thugs recognized that in Le Bossu they had an enemy and they made up their minds to eliminate him, but not before he had been warned to stop selling and distributing the ‘communist’ press (which just goes to show the political ignorance of these fascists). In spite of the menacing tone behind such warnings, Súria paid them no heed. As tough as steel and with a temperament and spirit forged in the crucible of action, he perished rather than cave in to these threats. His nearest neighbours, all Muslims, were very fond of him and aware of the dangers hanging over him and they begged him to stay at home, assuring him that they would feed and take care of him.
Those of us from the Algiers Local CNT-AIT Federation, knowing of the dangers hovering over our comrade’s head, urged him to act with the greatest caution. But Súria was too self-assured. He reckoned that all men were as kindly as himself – we had often stumbled upon him chatting with children – and his argument was that no harm would come to anyone selling liberal and anarchist newspapers. His manly perseverance and the blinkered pride of the thugs led to his death. On the morning of 10 April, in the working-class district of La Baseta in Bab-el-Oued, just as he was leaving home with a satchel full of books and newspapers, he was grabbed, dragged through a stream, beaten up and taken to his place of execution: one of the many cellars that the murderers used as torture chambers.
The wretch’s body was patted down and his note-books and papers were scoured for the names and addresses of subscribers, but they found nothing. Súria’s cavalier approach to his own safety was in stark contrast with the caution he had employed where others were concerned. All his killers found in his pockets was a crust of bread and a handful of dried figs. Súria was a follower and advocate of the theories of Kunhe and Capo regarding a vegetarian and natural diet.
The following day, the local press – there was only one newspaper back then – carried the headline in blue ink – the colour of ‘nobility’ – and, among an endless list of attacks, the following brief insertion: ‘Sack discovered on the Rue Normandie in Bab-el-Oued, containing a man’s body: that of Santiago Súria, strangled to death.’
And in fact our ‘paquetero’ comrade’s battered corpse was packed into a sack dumped on the street, every joint broken. There was a label attached: ‘This is how traitors pay: OAS’.
At the time, danger was stalking all of us, as the enemy was able to strike with utter impunity. He was roving everywhere and death was hanging over our heads. It would have been reckless feeding the wolf. He was already hunting amid the flock. Out of wariness and as a precaution, Santiago Súria was interred with no one to accompany him.
Once the circumstances allowed and things were looking brighter, several members of the Local Federation ventured into the humble abode where the deceased used to spend his nights. A pile of papers met their eyes. Books, piles of books: newspapers and still more newspapers. They had been his pride and joy and his best friends. Today, one year on from his demise, and now that we can, it would be unforgivable of us not to pay tribute to our beloved comrade like this.
Rest in peace, Surieta, and we will see to it that your exemplary life is an inspiration to upcoming generations.
On behalf of the Local Federation. The Secretariat. Algiers, 10 April 1963.
https://cnt-ait.info/2026.04/10/surieta/
Translated by: Paul Sharkey.