The Libertarian Smuggling Apparatus in Euskadi and Navarra in the 1940s

Amid dense woodland and rushing streams, following in the footsteps of the people-smugglers and mugalaris (border-crossers). Today we take a look at the entries via Cantabria.

Greetings, gang members. Here we are again. End of the month again and here we go with another article for the Ni cautivos ni desdarmadas blog. I am writing from the little village of Santorens in the Ribagorza area, where we are erecting stone walls for our friends Martín and Nila. Of course, given the proximity to the high peaks of the Pyrenees, I cannot help but congratulate the mountaineering group that took down the cross on El Aneto. We have always argued that the peaks should be kept clear of trash and an enormous 3.4 metre-high iron construction in the form of a cross strikes me as nothing but trash.

On we go. I was torn this day this way and that and wondering where to direct my fire this month and was unclear as to how to proceed. On the one hand, I should have liked to write an entry on this particular comarca, but, given that I make it a habit to leave things until the last minute and that all I have access to is a laptop, I decided upon a different topic regarding which I have had a few notes on stand-by. 

Not that I am going to turn away from the Pyrenean range that has provided us with so many fine tales and will do so again. For some time I have been adding names, places and items of interest to a dossier that I refer to as The Northwest Passages. So I can guess that you can already hazard a guess as to what my topic is going to be. Indeed, this very day I am going to dip a toe into the people-smuggling and evacuation routes that operated on the soil of Euskadi and Navarra in the south of the range and what used to be the Basses Pyrénées department, just north of there. The support bases, the individuals who acted as guides or couriers, with a particular focus on the 1940s. And, for added spice I am going to toss in a few of the smuggling expeditions mounted by Laureano Cerrada’s organization, plus the odd other tasty morsel. 

Let me add a few remarks about the Ni cautivos ni desarmadas project that make me happy. For one thing, I can tell you that lately I have been content when it comes to giving talks or book presentations. This year alone, capitalizing upon a trip to Italy, my friend Andrea organized a launch for me at the erstwhile Liberata barracks in Bari, a huge and stunning premises, where we talked about Italian anarchism’s links with the libertarian guerrilla war. Recently, at the María Rius anarchist library in Lérida, I gave a presentation on my book Blindspot which has been available for quite a time now. Many thanks go to the folks who made both these events possible. As for the upcoming month, if all goes well, I will be delivering another talk in Grenoble on illegalism in the libertarian community in France and, on the other, I will be off to the CIRA in Lausanne along with members of Les Giménologues, to catalogue and scan the holding of our dear lately departed friend Rolf Dupuy. You can see how my calendar is filling up.

Now, let us get down to brass tacks. 

The Pyrenees have always had a significant connection with anarchism. Many wanted militants sought relatively a safe haven in France, Belgium or elsewhere in Europe, hoping to escape the repression at home. Europe was also the source of arms and ideas and smuggling routes had to be found for everything, as well as guides to follow and places where travellers might rest and replenish their supplies.

For one thing, it needs saying that the MLE (Spanish Libertarian Movement) always prioritized crossings via the eastern Pyrenees and down to Barcelona, a city with a pronounced libertarian presence. But of course there were lots of other places to go, Madrid being one. And then on to the city of choice, to Andalusia and the whole western side of the Peninsula, as it was good to have another network of routes to shorten the journey and diversify the crossing risks, locations and reception points. 

As we shall see, some of the people and trails involved dated back to the World War Two era and the famous escape lines. We shall not be delving into the cross-Pyrenean incursions in October 1944, nor the PCE’s attempt to embed UNE (Spanish National Union) units in Euskadi or Navarra, on account of those not having lasted long – and this despite the involvement of lots of libertarians in them.

So, down to brass tacks. Let us start with Carlos Manini Mora who had built up an escape line from a base in the town of Buzy. Made up of a dozen libertarians, most of them attached to GTE [Foreign Labour Gang] No 526 led by Madrid-born Carlos Manini and the Catalan Miquel Riera. Working alongside them were Manini’s partner – Pepita Solé – and the guide Leonardo Glaria. The line started out from Buzy and led to Pamplona where runaways were able to snatch some rest in the home of Juan Romero. From that capital city of Navarra it was then on by public transport to Madrid. That network operated pretty much autonomously, but also was a link in the well-known Pat O’Leary escape line or Ponzán network, should the latter have need to smuggle people over via the western Pyrenees. Come the end of the Second World War, Manini stayed on in Biarritz and joined the MLE’s Coordination Section, the department in charge of handling clandestine ventures. Not only did he make his network’s routes available to the Movement, but fresh ones were established. They tried to select routes not much used by smugglers or frequented by spies and they had access to the odd safe house on both sides of the border. Overland crossings followed this pattern: starting point, Toulouse, then making for Pau and Mauleón, after which they made for Orhy mountain, at which point they crossed the border, pressing on to Ochagavía and Pamplona. From there, it was public transport to whichever destination they had in mind. There were fall-back trails to the left of this one, leading from Pau to Fabreges, El Portalet and Sallent, then via Jaca, arriving in Pamplona. On the right-hand flank of the main route, the trail led from Cambó to Iduzkimendi mountain and on to Elizondo, from where there was a choice to be made between Pamplona or San Sebastián. If need be, there were additional cross-over points in Aintziaga and Dancharia. In addition to back-up bases, there was a haulier that could be drafted in to make deliveries on the Pamplona-to-Madrid route. Plus some comrades who worked in forestry depots adjacent to the route they might be taking.

In Mauleón there was a standing back-up base with a guide permanently on call. Ochagavía also had a guide of its own – Mariano Izal Zoco, who was born there on 1 December 1918. A CNT member, he had served in the fascist army during the civil war. And worked as a guide during the 1940s. He died on 30 August 1999 in Tardets Sorholus, in the Lower Navarre department in France.

As for seaborne deliveries, there was a ship called the Flora that shuttled between St Jean de Luz and the coast of Guipúzcoa. It carried gear as well as people. We have a press clipping from 1949 (1 April to be precise) when customs officers from St Jean de Luz port intercepted a motor-boat with two crew members from Fuenterrabía, with a parcel containing 40,000 counterfeit 5-peseta notes found on board. Not that that was the first time French police had discovered counterfeit pesetas in the area. In January 1947 a number of forged 5-, 100- and 1,000-peseta notes were uncovered in a number of towns in the Basses Pyrénées (Iparralde), the 1,000-peseta bills being of the poorest quality and displaying an issue date of 15 July 1945.

As for papers and forged papers: It required about 10 days to get hold of safe-conduct passes, the first 10 days of each month, as there was a regular change of colour and sometimes even variations in format, which meant that originals had to be come by, so that required another three or four days for the postal service of the day to deliver them, another six days for them to be prepared, meaning that about 20 days in every month went to waste.

For travel to Pamplona, two sorts of safe-conduct passes were required: a special one issued by the Civil Guard or the Army, plus an ordinary one issued my the mayor’s office. Papers were checked and verified in Venta Carrica, Yesa and Venta de Judas. Such passes were essential for travel by bus or private vehicle. Understandably so, as this precaution was required because Pamplona was a high-security area, and there was just the problem of making that initial entry, without undoing any other effort put in.

By September 1945 there were coordination centres in the following locations in Iparralde; Hendaye, Biarritz, St Jean de Luz, Bayonne and Boueau. A month earlier, activists had been asked to assist in the construction of a network harbouring batches of people heading south of the Pyrenees. People ready to lend a hand were required to furnish their names and addresses and to say how many comrades they might be able to accommodate. Cross-overs via Laruns were treated as important, although no money was allocated for their upkeep.  An updating of the details had been carried out by a comrade Sabater, regarding whom we have no further details. 

Now let us turn to some of the back-up points and the people who ran them:

Antonio Ariza, based in St Jean de Luz, which was a jump-off point for border crossings. It was in operation during 1946 at least.

Matilde Pajares de la Fuente, a widowed mother of 7, living in Irún, which was a stopping-off point for traffic in both directions. She was arrested in the winter of 1948, on 25 January to be precise, and tried in July 1949. She received a 10-year prison term.

Marina Jorajuría Eraso, living on the Calle Usandizaga in San Sebastián. Safe house. She was arrested on 17 January 1948 and jailed in the Madrid provincial female prison. She was released on 27 June 1952.

Claudia Ortega Expósito, based in Pamplona, ran a CNT support base catering for border crossings. She was arrested in July 1948, tried in July 1949 and given a 6-year prison sentence. She was held in the Segovia central female prison. And was released on 14 September 1951.

Juan Romero ran support services in Pamplona at the start of the 1940s. In fact, his safe house was somewhere to rest after borders crossings coming over from Buzy or Buciet, the start-points of the escape line set up by Manini and Riera. After that, it was public transport all the way to Madrid.

Among those providing guide services on the MLE’s behalf we find the following: Antonio Cuesta Hernández, Antonio González Pérez, Luciano Torróntegui Menchaca aka Luis Torres, Mariano Izal Zoco, José Sangüesa, Antonio Oyarzabal aka Txiki, Leonardo Glaria Laregui and Manuel Martínez Rodríguez aka Manolín.

Let us focus for a moment on Glaria, since he is not too well-known. Leonardo Glaria was born in the Valle del Roncal in Navarra, in the Burgui district to be precise, on 17 August 1918. He became a member of the CNT in 1934. Come the outbreak of the civil war and with Navarra having fallen under fascist control, he moved away to Barcelona to fight as part of the libertarian militias. He rose to the rank of lieutenant in the republican army.

After the civil war was lost, he left for exile. The French Popular Front government welcomed him by interning him in the Gurs camp which was known as “the Basques’ camp”. The year after that, Leonardo was drafted into Foreign Labour Gang [GTE] No 526 based in Buzy in the Basses Pyrénées department. That GTE was to be the instigation of the fight against the Nazi invaders in the area, a fight that was to continue up until the summer of 1944.

Initially he was to join the group set up by Carlo Manini. Leonardo was the group’s official guide and at that point was busily helping shot down Allied airmen, persecuted Jewish families and resistance members over the border, plus members of the Organization that needed to get over the border.

The Manini group became part of the Ponzán network, serving as its most westerly link. In fact, Ponzán’s guides, as a rule, used routes that led to Andorra or Catalonia when smuggling escapees, with the Buzy group being of use whenever crossings on the Atlantic coast were required. With the arrest of Ponzán and the all but complete dismantling of his network in mid-1943, Leonardo joined the 10th Guerrilla Brigade of the UNE, although he kept up his ties to the smuggling network and was a member of the Unión Nacional’s CNT Agrupación (ACUN). 

Following the liberation of the south of France and by then entirely absorbed into the cross-border smuggling operations controlled by the PCE. Leonard was to start smuggling guerrilla teams through the Navarra area; they mounted diversionary actions against the Francoist army, to prevent the latter from building up their strength in the central Pyrenees ahead of the upcoming attempted incursion via the Aran valley.

In mid-1945, Leonardo made up his mind to quit the PCE’s panel of guides and reverted to his trail-finding, but this time on behalf of his own organization, the CNT. From 1946 onwards, he, together with around fifteen other libertarians, (several of them former members of the ACUN like himself) based himself in the area around Urepel, in the French Basque country and from there mounted several raids into northern Navarra. 

In 1947 and 1948, he could be found making contact with the Aragon regional committee of the CNT, smuggling in action groups or arms shipments. 

If Francoist intelligence sources are to be credited, he was operating as a courier for the CNT. He was tall, slim and dark complexioned. They credited him with “very sharp hearing” that had, on more than one occasion him, spared him from falling into the clutches of the Civil Guards. In the end, his hearing let him down and he was arrested in August 1948, in the wake of the of round-ups carried out in Barcelona and Zaragoza. He was tried in 1949 and received a 12-year prison sentence.

Delfino Robles González was a border delegate. In charge of border crossings in the Euskadi and Navarra areas, it was his job to secure the requisite documents and safe conduct passes as well as liaising with the organization’s guides to get people through Basque territory and across the border. He orchestrated the evacuation of lots of guerrillas from the León area and one favourite ploy of his was to use buses carrying soccer fans, as the Civil Guard was less inclined to stop these, in smuggling people as far Euskadi. He was arrested in late 1947 and given a 12-year prison term.

Which is about as far as we have got with news from the northwest. There is more, of course, but we shall save that for some future entry as it does not relate directly to the smuggling theme. And it still niggles me that after coming up with the names of several of the women involved, we cannot find a photograph for a single one of them. Rest assured, we will carry on looking.

El Salto, 28 April 2026 https://www.elsaltodiario.com/ni-cautivos-ni-desarmados/aparato-pasos-libertario-euskadi-navarra-durante-anos-40 

Image: File of Antonio Cuesta Hernández, from MLE archives, source: Imanol

Translated by: Paul Sharkey.