Falange. The Axis Secret Army in the Americas

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FALANGE The Axis Secret Army in tke Americas By ALLAN

CHASE

G . P. P U T N A M ' S NEW

YORK

SONS

COPYRIGHT,

1943, BY

ALLAN

CHASE

A l l rights reserved. T h i s book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission.

second impression

This complete copyright edition is produced in full compliance with the Government's regulations for conserving paper and other essential materials.

MANUFACTURED

IN

THE UNITED

STATES

OF

AMERICA

TO

MARTHA

WITHOUT

WHOSE

AID

T H I S BOOK COULD N O T HAVE

BEEN

WRITTEN

"Spain is the k e y to t w o continents." — H E R M A N N GOERING, 1 9 3 6

" T h e great unity of the Axis includes Nazis, Fascists, and Spanish Falangistas. T h e r e is no longer any distinction between Fascism, N a z ­ ism, and Falangismo." — B E N I T O M U S S O L I N I , September 3 0 , 1 9 4 2

" M a n y thanks to y o u and the German peoples. M a y y o u r arms triumph in the glorious under­ taking of freeing E u r o p e from the Bolshevik terror," — F R A N C I S C O F R A N C O to A d o l f Hitler, Decem­ ber 7, 1 9 4 2

T h i s book is made possible b y the w o r k of hundreds of brave, selfless, devoted men and women in Latin America, the United States, N o r t h Africa, and Axis Spain. M a n y of them are m y friends. M a n y of them I k n o w only b y their efforts. M a n y of them are anonymous soldiers in the ranks of the republican Spanish People's A r m y , scattered, without uniform, throughout the w o r l d . T h e r e arc times when a writer can gratefully a c k n o w l ­ edge b y name the persons w h o helped him most in the crea­ tion of a book. T h e r e are other times when such a c k n o w l ­ edgments w o u l d be like a kiss of death. Such are the times w e know today: a time w h i c h sees the armies of the A x i s alive and intact. T o reveal the names of many of the brave people w h o helped me—to reveal their names while Hitler sits in Berlin as a ruler rather than as a prisoner in a death cell—would be to betray them to the mercies of A x i s killers everywhere. I am thinking particularly of people like the girl Josefina, whose hair turned g r a y in twelve hours during a N a z i as­ sault on Cartagena in 1 9 3 7 , and w h o today is making the invaders of her native land p a y a fantastic price for their crimes. O r General X , whose loyalty to the republic he served w a v e r e d with neither defeat nor poverty. O r the former scholar, Esteban. Esteban is a proud, fearless Spaniard. W h e n Hitler's le­ gions invaded Spain in 1 9 3 6 , Esteban was a graduate student in philosophy at a Spanish university. His family was among the first to be killed b y the bombs which fell from the black bellies of the A x i s planes. His books were destroyed, his classroom became a snipers' nest, his college became a front­ line trench of W o r l d W a r I I . Esteban gave up his books for the w a r . H e has not picked them up since 1 9 3 6 ; for Esteban, like so many others of his generation, has long since learned that freedom of thought vii

viii is impossible in a Fascist world. W i t h o u t heroics, and after 1 9 3 9 without uniform, Esteban has been a soldier of democ­ r a c y in the w a r against fascism. F r o m dawn to dawn, seven days of each week, Esteban has w a g e d the good fight. W h e t h e r in Spain, in France, in N o r t h Africa, in Latin America—the front remained. H e is merely one of many w h o never surrendered—like the Spanish Republican A r m y which took to the hills in the Asturias in 1 9 3 9 and has been killing Nazis ever since. L i k e the Spanish Republican veterans now in the armies of the United States and England, Esteban goes on fighting the butchers of Guernica, of W a r s a w , of Lidice. F o r the w a r which started in Spain has since spread all over the w o r l d . W c met in a cafe somewhere between K e y L a r g o and Buenos Aires. Josefina, w h o had made the arrangements, had warned me to make a tight fist while shaking hands w i t h Esteban. A s I sat d o w n after so greeting him, there w a s a paper-covered roll of microfilm in m y right fist; negatives of documents taken from a supposedly secret vault the Falange maintained in the Western Hemisphere. It was a v e r y plain cafe, its open front looking out on an ancient cobbled square, a brooding massive cathedral, a stall with a white and pink quarter of beef hanging in the sun. T h e square and the cathedral had been built b y Spaniards w h o died hundreds of years ago. W e might have been sitting in Spain itself, I thought; and, as if to heighten this fancy, an old woman w o u n d the an­ tique gramophone under the yellowing lithograph of a M a ­ drid bull-fight on the far wall and put a scratchy disk under the blunted needle. "Flamenco," Esteban said w e a ­ rily. " G y p s y music." T h e record played through to the end, and then the old w o m a n played a dozen others. T h e y w e r e mainly flamenco records; and listening to them under the steady flow of E s teban's words I thought of what an old friend had said about flamenco songs—-that they are all rituals before death. I remembered these words and thought of Spain's ordeal as Esteban spoke and flamenco followed flamenco.

ix Esteban's long ringers tore the hard crust of a flauto; and, because he had g r o w n used to hunger as a w a y of life, he automatically brushed up the crumbs and flipped them into his soup. "It was perhaps an imperfect republic," he said, "but it was a good one. Man, too, is imperfect; but man is fundamentally g o o d . " H e spoke about the school the R e ­ public had opened in a small Andalusian village in 1 9 3 2 , and of the girl w h o had gone from Madrid to teach the children of illiterate peasants h o w to read. H e spoke of a clinic in Madrid, an agricultural institute in Valencia, a momentous session of the Cortes in 1 9 3 6 , H e spoke of the l a w which put w i n d o w s into the rooms of the slums in Barcelona and of the prize fighter w h o had carried Pablo Casals on his shoul­ ders from the concert hall to the hotel after a great recital. "It w a s a republic of hope," he said. H e spoke of the fascists, too. O f the Falangistas w h o shot the poet Federico Garcia L o r c a . Of the vulgarian Quiepo de L l a n o and his pornographic radio speeches to the w o m e n of the R e p u b l i c . O f the Italian Colonel at Guadalajara, the day it rained and the Republic for once had enough aviones, and the Italians ran like sheep: the Blackshirt Colonel tore off his uniform and picked up a spade, and stood in the field turning the soil and shouting in Spanish, "I'm just a poor peasant," until Esteban's commander personally sent a stream of machine-gun bullets through the coward's eyes. " H e was a small creature," Esteban said of the Colonel. " A small creature without dignity." W e finished our coffee, and Esteban said " n o " to another rum. T h e old w o m a n w a s changing another record w h e n Esteban said it. I don't remember the w o r d s that came first, but I recall them as being quite natural and easy. " I k n o w what I'm doing," Esteban said softly. " I k n o w w h y I'm do­ ing it, and I'm not afraid." T h e words read like bad theater, but he spoke them like a man talking about the weather. T h e y w e r e a casual answer to a question I had framed w i t h ­ out speaking. "Because I am a Spaniard," he concluded, as simply and

X

as softly as he had spoken w h e n telling about that village school. " A n d n o w , " he said, rising to his feet, " I must g o . " W e both stood up, and he embraced me and pounded m y back and laughed. I tried to think of something to tell him, something that w o u l d not sound banal. "Because," I said, "because I am an American . . . " A n d then I stopped, a little self-conscious, and more than a little afraid to make Esteban feel I was mocking him. W e w e r e supposed to meet again that w e e k . But the next day Esteban w a s already on the high seas, bound for Spain and the republican underground on a boat that had once flown the colors of the Spanish Republic. Because I am an America?!, Esteban—this book. ALLAN CHASE

April 1 9 , 1 9 4 3

Contents CHAPTER

ONE:

Der Auslands Falange Is Born CHAPTER

TWO:

Falange Es Espana, or What Really

Happened

in

Manila? CHAPTER THREE:

Cuba: Pattern and Center of Falangist

America

CHAPTER FOUR:

Meet the Gray

Shirts

CHAPTER FIVE:

Cliveden in the

Caribbean

CHAPTER SIX:

Compania

Transatlantica

Espariola: Hitler's

of Spies CHAPTER SEVEN:

Puerto Rico: Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

CHAPTER EIGHT:

Mexico: Falange Concentration

Point

CHAPTER N I N E :

Patagonia to Panama CHAPTER T E N :

The Falange in the United CHAPTER E L E V E N :

Womb of Postwar INDEX:

Fascism

States

Bridge

C H A P T E R

O N E :

Dcr Auslands Ffllange Is Bom E A R L Y I N 1 9 3 4 , Adolf Hitler summoned General Wilhelm von Faupel to the Chancellory in Berlin. T h e i r conference lasted for nearly a full day. W h e n he left, von Faupel's bulg­ ing brief case was thicker b y one sheet of paper, a paper that was to affect the destinies of scores of nations, millions of T h e paper, signed b y Hitler, was Wilhelm von Faupel's appointment as chief of the Ibero-American Institute of Berlin. On the surface, there was nothing sinister in this appoint­ ment. T h e Institute had been formed in 1 9 3 0 b y D r . Otto Boelitz, a G e r m a n scholar. Its assets had included some 1 5 0 , ¬ 0 0 0 volumes collected b y G e r m a n universities, donated b y Latin-American institutions, and willed b y individual G e r ­ man and South American pedants. It had acted as a cultural clearinghouse between intellectuals in G e r m a n y and their colleagues in Latin America, and had added materially to its collection of books since its inception. T h e n , a w e e k or so before v o n Faupel met with Hitler, Boelitz suddenly found himself in disgrace. H e was booted out of his post and disap­ peared from sight. General Wilhelm von Faupel was not a scholar. A slight, graying aristocrat, he peered at the w o r l d from under the archest, bushiest eyebrows in all E u r o p e . His fellow officers of the old Reichswehr generally tried to avoid him; he had a nasty manner of mocking their inner weaknesses with his cobra eyes. Behind his back, they called him "Colonel E y e ­ brows" and "Field Marshal Ears"—the latter in deference to his huge teddy-bear ears. But they never openly treated him with disrespect. T h e r e were many reasons for this cautious politeness; per­ haps the foremost w a s von Faupel's k n o w n standing as an "I- G . general." His fellow officers w e r e no fools. T h e y 3

4

FALANGE

k n e w that the I. G . Farben chemical trust and the heavyindustry c r o w d led by T h y s s e n w e r e the real powers behind Hitler. F o r at least a year prior to von Faupel's appointment the Berlin grapevines had been heavy with rumors about a k e y post being created for the general b y 1. G . Y e t none but a handful of k e y men had even an inkling of what this post w o u l d entail. T h e man had many talents. During the First W o r l d W a r , von Faupel had distinguished himself at the Western Front. H e spoke French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and other languages with fluency. H e was a great military theorist. H e had served as Inspector General of the Peruvian Army. T h e fabulous career of the tight-lipped General offered many k e y s to the mystery of his new assignment. A s a y o u n g Imperial Staff Officer, von Faupel traveled to China in 1 9 0 0 to serve on the Kaiser's military legation. F r o m China, he had moved to a similar job in M o s c o w . In 1 9 0 4 , fresh from his stay in M o s c o w , he was rushed to G e r m a n East Africa, where he served as an officer in the punitive ex­ peditions which came close to touching off the First W o r l d W a r a decade ahead of its time. T h e n , in 1 9 1 1 , Wilhelm von Faupel made the most important move of his career: he ac­ cepted an offer to join the staff of the Argentine W a r C o l ­ lege in Buenos Aires. W i l h e l m von Faupel left Argentina when the w a r broke out in 1 9 1 4 , but in 1 9 1 1 he returned to Buenos Aires as mili­ tary counselor to the Inspector General of the Argentine A r m y . T h e v o n Faupel w h o returned to Argentina, h o w ­ ever, was a completely changed man. N o t a trace remained of the youngish, soft-spoken military specialist w h o had rel­ ished native wines and Viennese waltzes in the g a y years before the war. His soft, almost gentle voice had hardened into a perfect instrument for the tempered steel trap that w a s n o w his mind. G e r m a n y ' s defeat had seared v o n Faupel's soul with its bitterest of acids. T h e new von Faupel started counseling the Argentine military leaders on more than merely army procedure. D a y

Der Auslands Falange

Is Born

5

after day, as he drilled the Republic's troops, von Faupel drilled into the heads of the influential upper-class A r g e n ­ tinians the doctrine of total w a r on the "mob-beast of de­ mocracy." It w a s this "mob-beast"—the common man of G e r m a n y — w h o m Wilhelm von Faupel held primarily re­ sponsible for the victory of the Allies and the collapse of the German home front. F o r five years von Faupel held his important post in A r ­ gentina. H e brought over many of his G e r m a n officer friends, found assignments for them as specialists in the A r m y . H e made many friends among the wealthy landown­ ing Argentinians w h o controlled the political life of the na­ tion. In 1 9 2 6 he left Buenos Aires to accept a high military post in the Brazilian A r m y . Here, again, he assumed the dual role of military expert and anti-democracy agitator. T h e embittered Prussian general's fame as an army builder spread throughout the continent. It became so imposing that the Peruvian Government invited him to assume the job of Inspector General of Peru's armed forces. V o n Faupel took this command in 1 9 2 7 . N o t until he w a s certain that the Nazis w o u l d get control of the Fatherland did von Faupel resign this post. H e left it for an amazing mission in China which ended w h e n Hitler called him to Berlin to take over the Ibero-American Institute. During all of his years of self-imposed exile in South America, Wilhelm v o n Faupel had maintained close ties with German enemies of democracy—men like Fritz T h y s sen, the banker Baron von Schroeder, Franz von Papen, and I. G . Farben's G e o r g von Schnitzler. H e k n e w of their plans to destroy the W e i m a r Republic through the N a z i "revolu­ tion" they were financing and guiding. A n d he k n e w of their plans to create a G e r m a n w o r l d empire once their man Hitler assumed the mantle of G e r m a n y ' s chosen leader. Wilhelm von Faupel lived only for the day w h e n he could play his part in this coming drive for empire. Carefully he worked out a theory of his own, a theory of G e r m a n world conquest. Bit b y bit he put together the jig-sawed pieces of a flawless plan.

6"

FALANGE

" I am prepared to conquer all of Latin A m e r i c a , " he blandly informed von Schnitzler when he returned to G e r ­ many in 1 9 3 4 - His plans were minutely detailed in a fat thesis typed at least a y e a r before the Reichstag Fire. T h e idea of a G e r m a n conquest of Latin A m e r i c a was far from a n e w one in Reichsivehr circles. During the First W o r l d W a r , the Germans had tried to w i n over Mexico and other Latin-American governments. T h a t they failed von Faupel ascribed to the stupidity of the Imperial Staff's ap­ proach to the problem. H i s t w o decades of intimate contact with Latin America had brought him face to face with what he became convinced w a s the k e y to the domination of t w e n t y nations. T h a t k e y was—Spain. In nearly every country south of the United States bor­ ders, von Faupel had made contact with the landed Spanish aristocracy. T h e great bulk of these people, many of them first- or second-generation Spanish b y birth, still recognized no allegiance other than the one they bore to monarchist Spain. Immensely powerful in the economic and political life of the Latin-American countries, these Spanish concen­ trations looked forward to the day when the victories of the armies of Bolivar, San Martin, O'Higgins, Sucre, and the United States—victories which drove Imperial Spain out of the N e w W o r l d and the Philippines—would be w i p e d out. T h e y talked morosely, mystically, but seriously, of the glo­ rious day w h e n the Spanish E m p i r e w o u l d again come into its own. T h e canny von Faupel a l w a y s made a point of agreeing with such sentiments whenever he heard them expressed. A realist to the bitter core, he had nothing but contempt for the uprooted Spanish aristocrats w h o worshiped a monarch­ ist Spain as decadent and as futile as that of Alfonso. H e kept his contempt discreetly hidden, however, and formulated what in the beginning seemed even to him hopeless dreams of an imposing imperialist Spain revived and controlled b y the coming new G e r m a n W o r l d Order. T h e events of A p r i l 1 2 , 1 9 3 1 — w h e n the Spanish mon­ archy w a s bloodlessly overthrown b y the "mob-beast" at

Der Auslands Falange Is Bom

7

the ballot boxes—seemed to write finis to von Faupel's ma­ turing dream. F o r it was clear to the fact-facing Prussian militarist that the great majority of Spaniards in Spain itself entertained none of the mystical notions of empire common among the Spanish aristocrats of the N e w W o r l d . Alfonso X M ' s inglorious abdication and retreat to the Monte Carlo gambling pavilions, the Constitution of the N e w Spanish Republic-—patterned so closely after the Constitution of the United States—were frontal attacks on the v e r y spine of Wilhelm von Faupel's master plan. Without a hope of a Spanish empire, with a n e w Spain committed to travel in the democratic path of the despised "Jew-Protestant C o ­ lossus of Washington," the spiritual ties w h i c h bound the overseas aristocrats with the mother country w e r e doomed to wither and die. T o von Faupel's joy, he discovered that the men w h o were financing Hitler had no intention of letting such tech­ nicalities as the Spanish general elections of 1 9 3 1 stand in the w a y of the German drive toward empire. T o be sure, the Thyssens and the von Schnitzlers had somewhat over­ looked the spiritual ties which bound noble Spaniards abroad to the Bourbon throne. T h e y had not, however, overlooked the tungsten, mercury, iron, olive oil, citrus, copper, tin, lead, and potassium riches of the y o u n g Iberian Republic. N o r had the tacticians and military geographers of the fmancc-Reichsivehr-'mdustry cabal behind Hitler ignored Spain's strategic position as the key to the Mediterranean, the g a t e w a y to the Atlantic, and the flank supreme against France. "Spain," Hermann Goering declared while studying the maps of Europe and South America, "is the k e y to t w o con­ tinents." T h e Berlin gossip mills hummed overtime when Wilhelm von Faupel w a s appointed head of the Ibero-American In­ stitute. W h i l e tongues w a g g e d , the General himself set about quietly changing the course of world history.

8

FALANGE

H i s first move, in 1 9 3 4 , w a s to reorganize the Institute itself. H e broke it up into five main divisions, each directly controlled b y himself. Section I covered Argentina, U r u ­ guay, and Paraguay. Its executive w a s Professor Freiberg, director of the Asuncion (Paraguay) Botanical Gardens. H i s assistant was Frau Simons E r w i n Hoene, a G e r m a n aristocrat. Section I I , which consisted of Brazil only, was headed b y Professor Otto Quelle—editor of the Ibero-Amerikcmhches Arcbiv, published in Berlin. D o c t o r Richert was appointed Quelle's liason with the huge German colony of Brazil. Section III covered Chile and Bolivia. Fritz Berndt, Berlin correspondent for a number of Bolivian newspapers and principal of a Berlin high school, headed this division. H i s liaison in Bolivia was Federico Nielsen-Reyes, one-time secretary of the Bolivian Legation in Berlin. Section I V was responsible for Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. T h i s section w a s placed in charge of one of the most extraordinary w o m e n in G e r m a n y , D r . Edith von Faupel. M a n y years the junior of her husband, "Peter," as she w a s called b y her intimates, not only performed her o w n sectional duties but also roamed the length and breath of Latin A m e r i c a as her husband's inspector general. Section V , Panama, Central America, and Mexico, w a s placed in charge of D r . Hagen and a N a z i spy named B o c k . T h e primary function of these sections was to organize the first- and second-generation G e r m a n populations of Latin America. T h r o u g h this block of some six million ex­ patriates, General von Faupel planned to organize w i d e ­ spread espionage and fighting machines in all of the t w e n t y nations below our borders. T h e s e w e r e to be the T h i r d Reich's shock troops in the coming battle for w o r l d empire. Since they w e r e Germans, these shock troops could not hope to consolidate the p o w e r they might ultimately seize. General von Faupel k n e w that the consolidation of Nazi p o w e r in Latin America depended heavily on the concen­ trations of Spanish aristocrats in each of the countries. T h e s e Spaniards—controlling as they did so much of the economic

Der Auslands Falange

ts

'Born

9

life of Latin A m e r i c a — w e r e earmarked for the role of G e r ­ many's most powerful allies. Themselves tied spiritually and economically to Spain, they w e r e potentially capable of per­ forming great service f o r G e r m a n y if these services w e r e demanded in the name of Spain. But to w i n them over, the Spanish Republic had to be crushed and replaced with a German-controlled Spain which w o u l d appeal to the aristo­ crats. Destruction of democratic Spain called for huge funds and extraordinary powers. T h e men behind the creation of Hitler saw to it that Wilhelm von Faupel lacked nothing in the w a y of money or authority. In fact, I. G . Farben loaned one of its most trusted agents to the Institute to w o r k di­ rectly under von Faupel. T h i s agent, Ebcrhard von Stohrer, spoke Spanish fluently. It was the least of his qualifications for the job. During the First W o r l d W a r , Stohrer had served in the German E m ­ bassy in Madrid as military attache. In this post he had made firm and lasting friendships with the pro-German cliques of the swollen Spanish military hierarchy. H e had also made a few clumsy diplomatic blunders. T h e chief of these w a s the organization of a military ring designed to force Spain into the w a r on the side of G e r m a n y . Allied Intelligence agents exposed this plot so devastatingly that the Spanish G o v e r n ­ ment was forced to expel von Stohrer from the country. A n older and wiser von Stohrer w a s determined to make up for his old mistakes in Spain. W h i l e the furniture was being moved into the n e w l y organized Ibero-American In­ stitute in Berlin, von Stohrer boarded a plane for Lisbon, where he made a beeline for a quiet villa at exclusive Estoril Beach. T h e master of the villa was a chubby little dandy whose talents with w i n e and women had made von Stohrer's years in Madrid more pleasant than they might have been. His name was General Jose Sanjurjo. This time von Stohrer's desires to see his old friend had little to do with past pleasures. Flerr von Stohrer was on a mission, a quite official mission. H e w a s charged with the responsibility of bringing Sanjurjo back to Berlin.

IO

FALANGE

T w o years earlier, on August 1 0 , 1 9 3 2 , Sanjurjo had led a monarchist uprising against the year-old Spanish Republic. T h e putsch had been squelched in less than a day, its leader captured at the Portuguese border while fleeing the coun­ try. In their anger the Republic's officials had sentenced Sanjurjo to death; but within a f e w days, with the charac­ teristic Christian generosity which w a s later to spell their o w n doom, they had commuted Sanjurjo's sentence to life imprisonment. Sanjurjo was jailed in the Santa Catalina fortress in Cadiz. In prison the old monarchist general held court like an Eastern potentate. H e w a s visited daily b y Maria Cabatle, the Madrid music-hall entertainer he subsequently married. Monarchist officers made his cell their Mecca. T h e n , in 1 9 3 4 , the liberal government gave w a y to the C E D A coalition headed b y G i l Robles. One of the first acts of the new government was the declaration of a general am­ nesty freeing all the imprisoned leaders of the 1 9 3 2 uprising. Sanjurjo w a s exiled to Portugal and given a government pension of 1 0 , 0 0 0 escudos a month. G i l Robles k n e w exactly w h a t he was doing w h e n he freed Sanjurjo. F o r Robles, like the men behind him, hated the Republic and wanted it overthrown. H e looked upon Sanjurjo as the strong military leader chosen b y destiny to restore the monarchy. Before long, the old general's Portu­ guese villa had become a regular port of call for enemies of the Republic like J u a n March, the sinister ex-smuggler w h o rose to become one of Spain's wealthiest financiers; the coal and oil magnate Goizueta; and ranking officers of the old Army. A l l this was k n o w n to v o n Faupel when he sent von Stohrer to Lisbon to fetch Sanjurjo. Other agents of the T h i r d R e i c h w e r e already conspiring with officers of the Spanish A r m y in Madrid—particularly with Colonels K i n delan and Gallarza, Major H a y a , and Julio Ruiz de A l d a . T h e exiled Sanjurjo greeted von Stohrer with undisguised j o y , and after a brief conference gaily consented to return to

Der Auslands

Falange Is Born

i1

Berlin with his old G e r m a n monarchist carousing com­ panion. In the N a z i capital, Sanjurjo w a s granted an immediate audience with General von Faupel. T h e old dandy gave von Faupel a prepared list of officers still in the A r m y of the R e ­ public w h o would most certainly be willing to lead a "mon­ archist revolt" against the government they had given their oath to uphold. Before the conference ended, it w a s also arranged to place Sanjurjo o n the N a z i p a y roll. Within a f e w months of this 1 9 3 4 meeting, Sanjurjo made a series of visits between Lisbon and Berlin. In Lisbon, he met secretly with Generals Mola, G o d e d , and Fanjul, all of them then in the service of the Republic. General Francisco Franco, at that time chief of the Spanish General Staff, never attended these meetings in person. Mola w a s his secret representative at these sessions. B y the end of the y e a r von Faupel had formulated a com­ plete set of plans for the Spanish "revolt." H e appointed Sanjurjo "chief" and approved of Sanjurjo's choices of G o d e d and Fanjul as assistant chiefs. Privately, through German agents in Madrid, von Faupel advised Franco that, once the shooting began, G e r m a n y would look with great favor on the p u d g y little traitor's o w n soaring ambitions. Franco, in turn, promised and sent hand-picked y o u n g F a s ­ cist officers to G e r m a n y for training in total warfare. General von Faupel played his cards like a master. H e knew that the language of monarchy was the most potent one within the ranks of the old Spanish generals. (Under Alfonso, there were 8 5 9 generals and 2 7 , 0 0 0 commissioned officers in the standing army of considerably less than a mil­ lion troops.) H e also knew that it would be a domestic p o ­ litical blunder inside N a z i G e r m a n y if it became k n o w n that the N a z i N e w Order Saviors were backing a Royalist rising in Spain. F o r German home consumption, a more congenial ideological tie had to be invented. T h e shaping of this ideological cipher became von Faupel's next problem. A survey of the existing possibilities

12

FALANGE

in Spain turned up little that looked promising. T h e r e w e r e three main anti-Republican groups: the Monarchists, the C E D A (Confederation of Spanish Rightist Parties), and the Falange. T h e Monarchists w e r e out of the question for obvious National Socialist reasons. T h e creators of the Nazi move­ ment had cleverly designed it to play on the anti-monarchist sentiments of the G e r m a n people—who could never forget the horrors of the w a r brought on their heads b y their Kaiser. T h e pseudo-socialism of the Nazi platform w a s meant to w i n over the great anti-monarchist majority of Germans. W e r e the Nazis to back an openly monarchist movement in Spain, they w o u l d have weakened their p s y ­ chological grip on thousands of their followers at home. T h e C E D A , led b y G i l Robles, was the most powerful of the anti-Republican groupings. But G i l Robles was w e l l k n o w n throughout G e r m a n y as the Jesuit political leader of Spain, and the C E D A w a s too openly recognized as the Catholic political arm. T h e danger of backing the C h u r c h in Spain while attacking it at home was too great for a totali­ tarian super-state with an avowed ideology of the future. T h i s left only the Falange, organized and led b y y o u n g Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the late Spanish dic­ tator. Openly Fascist in politics, the Falange w a s ignored politically b y Spain's most powerful Fascists themselves. E v e n von Faupel, b y 1 9 3 5 accustomed to the brawling B r o w n Shirts, threw up his hands in sheer disgust when he discovered the composition of the Spanish Falange. It was nothing but a vast employment agency for the scum of the underworld in Spain's larger cities. T h e rank and file of the Falange consisted of paid mercenaries almost d o w n to the last man—hired sluggers and killers w h o , for a price, per­ formed acts of fatal and nonfatal violence for all of the par­ ties in the anti-Republican opposition. N o idealistic convic­ tions about throne, or empire, or Church kept them in the Falange—unless the creed of cash paid for bloody services rendered can be called a political or moral code. General von Faupel g r e w progressively more anxious

Der Auslands

Falange

Is Born

13

about the ideological end of his Spanish venture as the zero hour neared. F o r what was needed was more than a political package suitable for G e r m a n home consumption. T h e n e w Spanish puppet state had to be endowed with a political facade that would shine in the eyes of the monarchist Span­ iards in Latin America and the Philippines as the streamlined hub of a dynamic empire. In sheer panic, von Faupel deposited his ideological prob­ lem squarely in the arms of the high priest of N a z i philoso­ phy, Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler's court metaphysician retired to his study and emerged in due time after a serious session of A r y a n soul-searching. Rosenberg decided in favor of the Falange. T h e decision was passed on to Hitler, w h o in turn ordered Goebbels to start building up the Falange as a true sister Fascist party. In due time, Berlin gave the Falange a set of appropriate principles. These " T w e n t y - S e v e n Points" have not exactly been kept under a bushel since 1 9 3 6 . T h e y have been pub­ lished b y Falangistas in many parts of the w o r l d and in many languages. T h e English version Issued b y the Falange in San Juan, Puerto R i c o , in 1 9 3 6 , is the one quoted verbatim be­ low. Whether in Spanish or English, the heavy G e r m a n accent of this program is apparent at once. Point b y point, the program of the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista de la J . O. N . S. (Juntas Ofensivas Nacional-Sindicalista) is just about carbon c o p y of the program of the Deutscher Nazional Socialistiche Arbeiter Partei. Here is the full program of the Falange, exactly as it ap­ pears in the official text, original spelling, punctuation and all, published b y Falangist agent de la T o r r e in Puerto R i c o . T h e italics, however, are mine. T h e Falange's o w n English translation is used for reasons of accuracy—and because in this translation it captures the same type of semi literate banality that characterizes the original Spanish. L i k e the writings of the Nazis and the Italians, the official literature of the Falange is an accurate reflection of its cultural level.

14

FALANGE Tradicionalist Spanish Phalanx of the J.O.N.S. N A T I O N A L SYNDICALISM PROGRAM NATION, UNITY, EMPIRE.

1. W e believe in the supreme reality of Spain. T h e urgent task before all Spaniards is to strengthen and rise Spain to her old glory. T o do this, all individuals, groups, classes and commu­ nities pledge themselves above everything else. 2. Spain is a unit of Destiny in the Universe. A n y conspir­ acy against this unit is repulsive. All separatism is an unforgiveable crime. T h e present [democratic] Constitution stimu­ lates separatism, attemps, conspires, against the unit of destiny that is Spain. Which explains w h y we demand the immediate annulment of the Constitution now in force. 3. We have the will of an Empire and assert that the historic legacy of Spain is the Empire. W e demand a place of promi­ nence among the European nations for Spain. W e won't tol­ erate neither the isolation of our country neither foreign inter­ vention. Regarding the Latin American countries we intend to tighten the links of culture, economic interests and of power. Spain claims to be the spiritual axel of the Spanish World as a recog­ nition of her universal enterprises. 4. Our land, air and naval forces shall be as great and powerful and numerous as the complete independence, the preeminence of Spain and the national security demands. W e shall restore to our land, naval and air forces the prestige which it deserves and shall model Spanish life along military lines. 5. Spain will again find her glory of old and her riches in ocean paths. Spain shall be again a great maritime power that it was in trade and war. W e demand equality for our country, on the air, the seas and land. STATE, INDIVIDUAL, LIBERTY. 6. Our state isill be a totalitarian instrument at the service of the country. All Spaniards will have a share in it through do­ mestic municipal or syndieal activities. N o one shall participate through political parties. Party lines shall be ruthlessly wiped,

Der Auslands Falange Is Born

15

no matter what it costs, with their party representation, suf­ frage and the Parliament. 7. Human dignity and the integrity and liberty of man, are eternal and intangible assets. But only he who forms part of a free and powerful nation is a free man. Nobody shall have right to use his liberty against the unity, strength and liberty of his country. A strict discipline shall prevent all atempt to poi­ son the national mind, to desintegrate the Spanish nation or conspire against the destiny of Spain. 8. T h e national syndicalist state shall foster all initiative of a private nature which is compatible with the collective interests and shall help along and protect those initiatives which prove beneficial. 9. From the economic standpoint we figure Spain as a gigantic producers' syndicate. W e shall orgaize corporatively Spanish society by means of a system of syndicates, according to fields of production, syndicates which will be at the service of na­ tional economic integrity. 1 0 . We repudiate the Capitalist system which overlooks the needs of the masses and dehumanizes private property to the extent of reducing workingmen to an amorphous mass with only misery and hunger as their heritage. W e also repudiate Marxism and will guide the energies of the workers, mislead by Marxism, into the right paths and will demand their share of participation in the great task of keeping the national unit. 1 1 . T h e National syndicalist state will not evade the economic struggle between men nor shall have a grandstand seat to look complacently at the struggle between the powerful against the weak. The national syndicalist regime will make class conflict impossible, because all those who contribute to make govern­ ment possible and cooperate in the production constitute part of the national unit. W e shall repudiate and not tolerate abuses from certain par­ ticular interests against others and will avoid anarchy among the working classes. 12. The main purpose of richness—and thus the State will con­ tend is to promote welfare and the standard of living of those who from the nation. It is intolerable that great masses shall live deprived of their most elementary needs while a few enjoy luxuries and leissure lives.

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FALANGE

1 3 . T h e State shall acknowledge private property as licit means to meet personal, domestic and social needs and shall protect private property against the claws of great financial interests and powerfu.il speculators and professional loaners. 14. W e contend that banks be nationalized and so shall be na­ tionalized other public utilities. 15. Every Spanish citizen has a right to work and the State shall see that unemployment it conjured or that public enter­ prise provide bread and butter for those who can't find work. While the main objective of a great national structure is being attained we shall see that workers derive the most benefits from teh social legislation enacted. 1 6 . All Spanish citizens have the duty to work, so the National syndicalist State will have no consideration for those who do not fulfill their duty when they arc able to do so and when they try to live at the expense of others who arc doing their part. THE LAND. 1 7 . W e must, at all costs, raise the standard of living of the rural classes which are the seed of the Spanish nation. Towards attaining that goal we have pledged ourselves to carry on and without excuses the economic and social reform in the rural districts. 1 8 . W e shall enrich the agricultural production through the following means: Insuring a minimum price for all products of the land. Demanding that great part of what the city absorves today in payment for intelectual and commercial services to the peas­ antry, be returned to the country. Organizing a true Agricultural Center, which, when it may lend money to the peasant, with the warranty of it harvests and lands, may deliver him from the clutches of usurers. Teaching the peasants all about modern farm methods. Decreeing the use of lands according to their conditions and the chances of marketting the products. Enacting the tariffary laws protecting the agricultural prod­ ucts an dairy products. Speeding up hydroelectric projects. Suppressing great properties of land as well as very small lots, by means of an equal distribution of fields.

Der Auslands Falange Is Bom

17

1 9 . W e shall socially organize agriculture through the follow­ ing methods. Redistributing tillable land, thus instituing the domestic property and stimulating the syndication of peasants and laborers. Delivering from misery those poor classes who nowadays give the best of their energies to make baren land produce. Transporting these humble and willing workers to more fertile regions. 20. W e shall start a camping por [campaign for] cattle repopulation of the land as well as reforestation and shall deal merci­ lessly with those who hamper this work. Even if the whole of Spanish youth has to be mobilize to attain this objective w e must tackle the job of reconstructing the natural riches of the land. 2 1 . The state shall have right to expropriate without pay­ ment of indemnity all property that has been acquired ilegally or used without right to do so. 2 2 . The State shall pay immediate attention to the reconstruc­ tion of property in city and country. NATIONAL EDUCATION 23. Through a very strict discipline in education, the state to build up the one and only strong national spirit and make fu­ ture generations feel the j o y and pride of the Spanish nation. All men shall have premilitary education which will prepare them for the honor of becoming a soldier or officer of the Na­ tional Army of Spain. 24. Culture shall be so organized that no talent or genius shall be lost because of means of development, for lack or resources. All those who deserves, it, shall have free access even to supe­ rior education. 2 5 . Our movement incarnates a Catholic sense of life—the glorious and predominant tradition in Spain—and shall incor­ porate it to national reconstruction. The Clergy and the State shall work together in harmony without either one invading the other's field in a way that it may bring about discord or be detrimental to the national dignity, and integrity.

i8

FALANGE NATIONAL REVOLUTION.

26. T h e Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx of the J.O.N.S. fights for a new order, summarized in the principles enunciated be­ fore. To establish it against the existent government, it resorts to revolution. Its style shall be direct, passionate and active. Life is struggle and shall be lived with a sense of sacrifice. 2 7 . W e struggle to achieve our aims only with those forces under our control and discipline. W e shall make few negociations. Only in the final push in the conquest of the State shall our command talk terms and only when our terms are the ones to be discussed. L i k e the N a z i and Fascist programs, the Falange's p r o ­ gram promises all things to all men. W ith the exception of the point about the Catholic sense of life—included for o b ­ vious reasons—the entire program of the Falange is patently a crude rehash of the standard Fascist programs of G e r ­ many, Italy, and Portugal. T o peasants, Falingismo promises the breaking up of large estates and the redistribution of lands. T o large landowners, it guarantees the rights of private property. T o radicals, it promises the abolition of the capitalist system. T o capitalists, it promises w a r on Marxism. T h e N i n t h of the T w e n t y - S e v e n Points is a b o w in the direction of the powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement of the Latin countries—a movement which preached the doc­ trine of a state controlled b y workers' syndicates (or un­ ions.) T h e N a z i architects of the Falange neatly combined this theory with the corporate-state fascisms of Italy and Portugal. T o make the Falangist creed more acceptable to anti-Fascists, the Nazis ( w h o for similar reasons called their fascism "national socialism") dubbed Falange fascism "na­ tional syndicalism." In the hands of a master like von Faupel, this program w a s just the k e y G e r m a n y had long needed—the k e y to the hearts of the Spanish aristocrats in the N e w W o r l d and the Philippines. His agents, w o r k i n g out of the m a n y branch offices of the Ibero-American Institute, were able to conT

Der Auslands Falange

Is Born

19

vince the wealthy expatriates that the provisions of the Falange program which called for the redistribution of the land and the repudiation of capitalism were as completely meaningless as the similar provisions of the official programs of Fascist Italy and N a z i G e r m a n y . O v e r fragrant little cups of coffee in the private board rooms of Havana and Buenos Aires, during the afternoon quiet in the great countinghouses of Manila, v o n Faupel's emissaries explained to Spaniards h o w to read the program of the Falange. T h e points about Spain's will to empire, about this n e w empire's tightening her links with Spanish America, about Spain's becoming a totalitarian state—these were couched in a language the wealthy expatriates w e l ­ comed and understood. N o r , w h e n they learned that N a ­ tional Socialist Hitler w a s backing National Syndicalist Sanjurjo, did the Spanish aristocrats in Spain or abroad have any fears about the syndicalism of the N e w Spain. T o the most realistic of the Spanish aristocrats abroad, von Faupel's agents even discreetly boasted of the thousands of trained Reichswehr troops w h o w e r e quietly shipped to Italy and Spanish M o r o c c o as tourists between A p r i l and J u l y 1 9 3 6 . These husky tourists carried German-Spanish dictionaries in their pockets; arms and G e r m a n a r m y uni­ forms in their trunks. T h e y w e r e the advance troops of the Condor Legions, organized b y von Faupel to "rise Spain to her old g l o r y " and to "repudiate the Capitalist system which overlooks the needs of the masses" in Spain. These Condor Legionaires, quartered in hotels in R o m e , Milan, Turin, and other Italian cities as nonpaying guests of the Italian Government, had an official marching song which became quite a hit in Italian army circles. We 'whistle high and hiv, And the world may praise or blame us. We care not what they think Or what they'll one day name us. It w a s the kind of a song bound to appeal to all Fascist officers, expressing as it did their philosophy of arms and

20

FALANGE

men. E v e r y ranking Fascist sang it—that is, every ranking Fascist in Italy except II D u c e . W h a t Mussolini actually had to say about the C o n d o r L e g i o n in 1 9 3 6 is still a deep secret—but no secret is the fact that these c o c k y Nazi -warriors were living evidence of one of Mussolini's latest mistakes. W i t h characteristic judg­ ment—or luck—II D u c e had chosen to back the w r o n g F a s ­ cist party in Spain. A s dictator of a Catholic country, M u s ­ solini had seen fit to support the C E D A of G i l Robles. N o w , in 1 9 3 6 , the Father of Fascism w a s learning that backing the w r o n g Fascist cliques of other countries w a s a luxury he could not afford. Hitler pointed out to Mussolini how to atone for this earlier stupidity—a stupidity that had begun some years before the Nazis took over G e r m a n y . T h e plan was simple: Italy w a s to pour tens of thousands of troops into Spain when the Germans began their big push. In return, Hitler was to throw open some Spanish Lebensraum for good Black-Shirt families w h o balked at emigrating to Ethicfpia. Mussolini agreed to this plan with jackal's alacrity. It prom­ ised him a cheap, swift, and painless military victory, some land, and perhaps even a f e w Spanish mineral resources the Germans might care to throw in after the final victory. Der Tag, for von Faupel, came on J u l y 1 7 , 1 9 3 6 . B y that date, however, Franco and G o d e d w e r e no longer in Spain. T h e G i l Robles government had been replaced b y the P o p u ­ lar Front government, w h i c h "exiled" the t w o generals to army commands in the Canaries and jMajorca, although it had already accumulated enough evidence against both men to warrant shooting them as traitors. General Jose Sanjurjo, wearing a peacock's dream of a uniform—the London-made gift of A d o l f Hitler—boarded a Junkers plane in Lisbon and ordered his pilot, Captain Ansaldo, to take off for a secret landing field in Spain. But on J u l y 17 the old general was actually headed for another landing field his Nazi comrades had chosen without his knowledge.

Der Auslands

Falange Is Born

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A few remarks he had let slip to intimate friends in Estoril earlier that year had, unknown to Sanjurjo, reached certain Berlin ears. O n April 1 3 , 1 9 3 6 , for instance, Sanjurjo had complained, " T h e y want me to start a revolution to serve the bankers and the speculators, but I won't do it." T w o weeks after saying this, he made another trip to Berlin. H e remained in G e r m a n y for only a f e w days, and on his return he went to w o r k in earnest on his plans for the pending revolt. W h a t happened in Berlin while Sanjurjo conferred with von Faupel is of little moment now. His fate had al­ ready been sealed before the visit. V e r y shortly after Sanjurjo's plane took off from Lisbon, a German time bomb planted in the baggage compartment exploded. T h e blazing fragments of the Junkers monoplane became the pyre of the Anointed Chief of the Spanish R e v o ­ lution. Jose Sanjurjo had the dubious honor of being the first of the Nazis' million victims of the Spanish W a r . General G o d e d w a s a bit more fortunate. T h e plane which was assigned to carry him from Majorca to Barcelona got through without incident. H e took command of the up­ rising there within an hour of the time General Fanjul led his end of the putsch in Madrid's Montana Barracks. T h e events of the next f e w days sent chills d o w n the steel spine of Wilhelm von Faupel. A g a i n his hatred of the "mobbeast of democracy" had led him to underestimate this l o w ­ born creature's tenacity. F o r within three days the armed citizens and loyal soldiers of both Spanish cities had put down both the G o d e d and the Fanjul rebellions, and the t w o German-owned generals w e r e in the death cells of the aroused Republic. F r o m Berlin, von Faupel sent w o r d to F r a n c o in the Canary Islands; the round little man was to fly at once to Spanish M o r o c c o . There, supervised b y Nazi staff officers and financed with German money, Francisco F r a n c o y Bahamonde was to organize an army of Moors and Spanish Foreign Legionaircs to be flown to Spain in G e r m a n army transports piloted b y Nazi officers. B y default, Franco was becoming the N u m b e r One man of the puppet general staff.

22

FALANGE

A f e w hours after these orders reached Franco, Hitler dis­ patched von Faupel to the shores of the Mediterranean as the head of a secret military mission. Spain is a unit of Des­ tiny in the Universe. General von Faupel's campaign for Latin America had finally reached the shooting stage. T h e conquest of Spain took a little longer than von Faupel had expected. T h e General planned on a three-months cam­ paign; it w a s three years before the w e a r y soldiers of the Republic finally yielded—as much to sheer exhaustion and treachery as to the p o w e r and weight of G e r m a n and Italian arms. It was the strangest, crudest, dirtiest military campaign in history. In their fury at the embattled Republicans w h o re­ fused to surrender, the Nazis repeatedly drove themselves to militarily useless horrors like the blotting out of peaceful Almeria from the sea and the pulverizing of rural Guernica from the air. T h e Nazis were more successful in London, Paris, and Washington than they were in Spain. F o r in that unhappy land, they w e r e bitterly opposed b y a brave, united people. Outside of Spain, aided to no mean extent b y a favorable w o r l d press which accepted the von Faupel line that the w a r in Spain was a civil conflict between "Nationalists and R e d s , " the Nazis early in the w a r w o n the greatest of all diplomatic battles of the Spanish tragedy. Hitler himself could not have drawn up t w o more favorable pieces of aidt o - G e r m a n y legislation than the Non-intervention A g r e e ­ ment of London and its American corollary, the A r m s E m ­ bargo A c t of 1 9 3 6 . T h e Non-intervention Agreement pledged all nations of Europe not to send arms to either side in Spain. T h e A m e r i ­ can E m b a r g o forbade the shipment of arms to any warring nation. T h e Non-intervention Agreement, to which Italy and G e r m a n y were signatories, w a s observed scrupulously b y England and France in regard to both sides. T h e A x i s countries, of course, limited their observance of the agree­ ment to only one side.

Der Auslands

Falange

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23

E v e n more favorable to the N a z i s was the American E m ­ bargo—since the State Department, while recognizing the legally constituted Republic of Spain as a belligerent, re­ fused to recognize the fact that G e r m a n y and Italy had in­ vaded Spain. Thus, according to the law, the Spanish Republic w a s unable to b u y either the arms or the r a w ma­ terials of self-defense from the United States, w h i l e at the same time German and Italian commissions w e r e openly buying w a r materials in the United States and transferring them to their Spanish front. O n l y t w o countries, Mexico and the Soviet Union, recog­ nized Spain's right as a sovereign nation to buy arms for her o w n defense. W h e n e v e r Soviet freighters got through the sub-infested Mediterranean, the speedy little fighter planes they brought as cargo w o u l d soon be clearing the Spanish skies of A x i s aviation. But all the sea approaches to Spain were patrolled b y Italian and German submarines, w h i c h attacked, without partiality, English-owned food ships, Greek-owned medical ships, and Soviet-owned munitions ships bound for Republican ports. Of course, G e r m a n y and Italy denied that the mysterious "pirate submarines" w e r e from their fleets. In fact, at the suggestion of the British, the Germans and the Italians joined in the international patrol which hunted these "pirates." T o the surprise of nobody, this international patrol never found a single pirate. In vain, day after day, the bleeding Republic appealed to the statesmen of the w o r l d for simple, elementary justice— for the mere right to purchase, for gold, arms with w h i c h to defend itself. T h e Republic chose as its earliest battle c r y : " M a k e Madrid the T o m b of Fascism!" But the statesmen of Europe, at that time, w e r e individuals named Chamber­ lain, Daladier, Blum, Hoare, L a v a l , Halifax. Madrid, which was to have been and could have been the tomb of w o r l d fascism, became instead its w o m b . A new battle c r y rang out in Spain, a c r y first uttered b y Dolores Ibarruri, w h o became k n o w n to the w o r l d as L a Pasionaria.

*4

FALANGE

• T a r better to die righting on y o u r feet than to live on y o u r knees!" cried L a Pasionaria. T h e Spanish Republic, battered and betrayed, died fight­ ing on her feet in A p r i l 1 9 3 9 . B y September 1 9 3 9 the Nazis w e r e ready for the second round of their campaign for the w o r l d . G e r m a n y launched the march on Poland, the L o w ­ lands, France. Neither the sudden loss of G o d e d , Fanjul, and other Spanish military leaders, nor the unexpected toughness of the Republic, which refused to yield, seriously delayed the plans drawn up b y v o n Faupel. T h e creation of the Falange Exterior—the Spanish-speaking division of the Auslands O r ­ ganization of the G e r m a n N a z i P a r t y — w a s not delayed for more than ten minutes b y the master mind of Hitler's c a m ­ paign f o r the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. T h e Falange Exterior got under w a y just in time to make the best use of a sudden gift from the Loyalists—the gift of a commodity e v e r y Fascist movement needs. T h e Spanish R e ­ public, acting through a legal tribunal in Alicante on N o ­ vember 1 8 , 1 9 3 6 , gave the Falange a genuine, full-blown martyr. T h e Republic w a s kind and generous; rather than an obscure procurer like H o r s t Wessel, they g a v e the Falange a m a r t y r of real prominence when they condemned to a traitor's death Jose Antonio Primo de R i v e r a y Saez de Heredia, the founder of the Falange Espafiola. Y o u n g Primo, w h o had been arrested f o r treason in M a y , suffered the personal misfortune of being tried after his countrymen had already learned that the only cure for fascism is a hail of bullets. H e w e n t to his grave unmourned b y the Germans, w h o had begun to suspect him of feeling too big for his breeches. In death, however, they gave him the homage he had long wanted. W i t h M a r t y r de R i v e r a and L e a d e r Franco on its stand­ ards, the Falange Exterior w a s aggressively entered into the export business, concentrating primarily on Latin America and the Philippines. A universally believed rumor—originat-

Der Auslands Falange

Is Born

25

ing in the Continental gossip mills—had the w o r l d believe that Serrano Suner, Franco's brother-in-law, w a s in charge of the export division of the Falange. A legend sprang up to the effect that Suner w a s fervently p r o - N a z i and that Franco, w h o hated the Nazis, had made poor Suner chief of the Falange in order to keep him from doing any real harm. T h i s fantastic story is still believed in many quarters. In Berlin and Madrid, however, people k n e w better. T h e y k n e w that the Nazis w o u l d never place the di­ rection of the Falange Exterior in the hands of a Suner on the grounds of sheer efficiency alone. T h e Falange Exterior was placed in charge of a group of anonymous German-trained Spaniards acting directly under the orders of von Faupel. T h e ruling b o d y of this export division w a s the National Delegation of the Exterior Serv­ ice, of which the Secretary General of the Falange Espanola, Raimundo Fernandez Cuesta, w a s a member. Jose del Castano, a veteran Falange leader, w a s the nominal head of this National Delegation. In G e r m a n hands from the start, the Falange Exterior was at once more successful in many w a y s than the Spanish Falange had ever been. T h e Spanish elite of the N e w W o r l d and the Philippines flocked to its banners at once; money poured into its many foreign coffers; and the members of the various exterior branches w e r e able to strut about in their uniforms without facing the certain mayhem which w o u l d have befallen a Falangista strutting around Spain in the organization's blue shirt before the Germans arrived in force. B y October 1 9 3 8 the Falange Exterior had spread over the w o r l d . It had functioning branches in over t w e n t y for­ eign countries. It boasted of upwards of a million fanatical members outside of Spain—more than t w e n t y times the number of Falangistas in Spain itself in 1 9 3 6 . It did so w e l l that the National Delegation of the Exterior Service pub­ lished a 56-page handbook, filled to the brim with interest­ ing photographs and facts. T h i s book, printed in Santander

26

FALANGE

in 1 9 3 8 , was immediately suppressed b y the flabbergasted Nazis—but not until a f e w copies had already been sent to Latin A m e r i c a via the Portuguese diplomatic pouches. T h i s rare little book, La Falange Exterior, is at once a source of information and an explanation of von Faupel's reluctance to entrust Spanish Falangistas with posts of great responsibility. A c c o r d i n g to the German, they boast too m u c h in the w r o n g places. O n page 2 4 of La Falange Exterior, f o r example, there is a list of official publications of the Falange in various foreign cities. N o t i c e that tiny United States-owned Puerto R i c o is credited with t w o official Falange organs. Notice, too, that Manila is included on this list: ARRIBA ARRIBA ARRIBA ESPANA ARRIBA ESPANA ARRIBA ESPANA ARRIBA ESPANA ARRIBA ESPANA AMANECER AMANECER AVANCE CARA A L SOL ESPANA GUION NUEVA ESPANA UNIDAD YUGO JERARQUIA

Buenos Aires Sullana (Peru) Havana L a Paz Parana (Argentina) Panama San Jose, Costa R i c a Ciudad Trujillo, Domini­ can Republic Guatemala San J u a n , Puerto R i c o Ponce, Puerto R i c o Colon San Salvador Guayaquil Lima Manila Bogota (Columbia)

O n page 2 5 of the book the Nazis did not quite succeed in suppressing, the chiefs of the Falange Exterior boast that between A u g u s t 1, 1 9 3 7 , and October 3 0 , 1 9 3 8 , they dis-

Der Auslands

Falange Is Born

27

tributed to "members, private parties, foreign sympathizers, libraries and universities in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia" some 9 5 4 , 0 0 0 pieces of Falange propa­ ganda. T h i s included some 1 7 , 0 0 0 pieces printed in English and distributed in the United States. Page 33 is captioned, "Decalogue for the Comrades A b r o a d . " T h e Decalogue runs: 1. Fee] the Motherland at all hours. Above time and dis­ tances, above classes and interests. 2 . Defend without compromise the union of all Spaniards all over the world, under the traditional and revolutionary symbol of the yoke and arrows. 3. Obey the Caudillo [Franco], leader of our people in war and peace. 4. Maintain the brotherhood of the Falange and behave always as National-Syndicalists with justice, sacrifice, and discipline. 5. Fight with faith, for the triumph of Hispanidad. 6. Give all acts the decorous morality and austerity expected of Spaniards and Falangistas. 7. Love the country in which y o u live. Respect its laws and flag and contribute a generous effort to its growth, uniting in a communion of joy and sorrow with the peoples with whom you share work and daily bread. 8. Overcome, by the idea of Spain and Falange, any regional, local or personal differences. 9. Feel the eternal presence and the voice of blood of those who fell to make Spain, to maintain her and to raise her across history1 0 . Pay perpetual homage to the memory of Jose Antonio. This decalogue remains synthesized in the permanent and vigorous cry: Arriba Espxna!''' U p w a r d s of a million Spaniards in Latin America take this seriously. If point 7 seems familiar, it should. It is quite similar to the language used in the oath of the G e r m a n American Bund, and is inserted merely as w i n d o w dressing for point 5. Twentieth-century Hispanidad is one of the

28

FALANGE

m a n y brain children of Wilhelm von Faupel: in essence, it is a properly mystic creed devoted to proving that all that w a s once Spanish shall revert to the empire again. T h e basic creed of the Falange Exterior is further ex­ pounded in some curious paragraphs on pages 1 0 , 1 1 , and 1 2 of La Falange Exterior: T h e Nationalist-Syndicalist doctrine cannot accept classifi­ cations into classes among Spaniards, nor can it allow their spiritual separation from the Alotherland. That is w h y it had to create organs of unity and and cohesion for expatriated Span­ iards, called to collaborate in different spheres with the actions of our diplomatic and Consular agents.* . . . These organs were to be the Exterior Falanges, since our movement . . . was bound to reach across the sea and frontiers. F r o m this it must not be inferred, however, that the Falange leaders of the various countries take their orders from the Spanish legations. O n the contrary. General von Faupel arranged for the Territorial Chiefs of the Falange Exterior to have the highest Spanish p o w e r in the countries to which they are assigned. Sometimes old-line Spanish diplomats balked at taking orders from the Berlin- and Hamburg-trained y o u n g Falange chiefs. Sometimes, when diplomats in the N e w W o r l d refused to take orders from Falange leaders, a n g r y letters traveled across the ocean via trusted couriers. A n d generally, after an exchange of these letters, a country found itself going through a change of Spanish ministers. Letters like the ones that passed between Luis R o l d a n Moreno, provincial secretary of the Falange in Colombia, and Antonio V a l v e r d e , its chief, are a case in point. I t is necessary only to cite V a l v e r d e ' s letter of September 1 3 , '939-, T h i s letter, written in San Sebastian on the letterhead of the National Delegation of the Exterior Service of the Falange, said, among other things: • T h e italics are mine.

Der Auslands Falange

Is Born

29

. . . I have learned of the incident which occurred with the Minister. I suppose that the reply that the National Secretary of this Service sent in Official Letter Number 84 of the 5th has already reached you. T o this I want to add . . . and under­ score the following: T h e Provisional Chief, which you are pro tempore in my absence, represents in the political aspect the National Chief of the Movement, who is E l Caudillo [Franco]. Consequently, your office cannot under any circumstances admit interferences alien to its function and in its charge, re­ gardless of what their source is, unless orders to the contrary are received from the only superior authority—which in this case is the National Delegation of the Falange Exterior. T h e ideal thing would be to have the diplomatic representa­ tives realize that Falange is Spain and that it is their duty to support and protect her in the Exterior and to strengthen the activities of the [Falange] authorities in the Exterior, con­ tributing in a discreet form but without vacillations to establish the true unity within the heart of the Falange. But if some diplomat, ignoring the doctrine of the organization of the Falange that is Spain, and unacquainted with its function, tries to boycott or interfere with its responsible authorities . . . in that case the [Falange] Provincial Chief cannot under any cir­ cumstances limp along or much less submit to the arbitrariness or maneuvers of said diplomat. . . . A s there are many complaints received from all parts because of the lamentable actions of certain diplomats, measures are being prepared b y the high authorities directed toward cor­ recting these actions. Falange is Spain! . . . Such quarrels, however, w e r e merely the expressions of the g r o w i n g pains of any monster. T h e diplomats w e r e soon made completely subservient to the Falange or re­ placed b y Falangistas chosen personally b y von Faupel. B y 1 9 4 0 , the Falange E x t e r i o r w a s so well intrenched that Berlin was prepared to give it the acid test of genuine service to the Axis. Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler made a spe­ cial trip to Madrid in the summer of that year for a personal survey of the Falange situation. After Himmler departed, von Faupel created a n e w b o d y in Madrid, the Council of Hispanidad. T h i s was presented

30

FALANGE

to the Falange as a revival of the Council of the Indies, created b y the Spanish T h r o n e during the sixteenth cen­ t u r y as the supreme b o d y charged with directing the des­ tinies of Spain's colonies in the Americas. T h e Council of Hispanidad w a s officially formed b y a decree of the Spanish State on N o v e m b e r 7 , 1 9 4 0 . T h e decree declared: A R T I C L E I: With the aim which it has of helping to fulfill the obligations it has of watching over the well being and inter­ est of our spirit in the Spanish World, an advisory organiza­ tion is created, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will be called the Council of Hispanidad, and will be the direc­ tor of that policy destined to assure the continuation and effi­ ciency of the ideas and works of the Spanish genius. A R T I C L E II: T h e responsibility of all the activities that tend to unification of the culture and economic interests and power related to the Spanish World, shall be the responsibility of this Council. ARTICLE HI: T h e Minister of Foreign Affairs will supervise the Council, make its rules, and name its members. In the course of a month, the Council will elaborate the organic rules that will precede its functioning. ARTICLE I V : T h e Minister of Foreign Affairs is authorized to suppress, fuse, and modify and in general regulate the asso­ ciations, organisms, and other entities of the Spanish public interest that have as a sole and principal aim the fomenting and the cultivation of relations between Spain and the nations of America and the Philippines. If this decree had about it the distinct odor of the somber tracts the Nazis had earlier issued about the blood-ties be­ tween the T h i r d R e i c h and the Germans abroad in places like the Sudeten territory of Czechoslovakia, the coinci­ dence was far from accidental. T h e preamble to the decree establishing the Council of Hispanidad included a f e w sen­ tences which bring to mind Hitler's oft-repeated disclaimers of designs on any territory outside of G e r m a n y . Said the preamble:

Der Auslands

Falange Is Born

3i

Spain is not moved by the desire for lands or riches. She asks nothing nor does she reclaim anything, only wishing to return to Hispanidad the unitarian conscience, being present in Amer­ ica with the Intelligence, the love, the virtues that always preceeded her work of expansion in the world as was ordered by the Catholic Queen in her day. T h e Council of Hispanidad became merely weapon in the arsenal of the Falange Exterior.

another

On the surface, von Faupel had—in the Falange E x ­ terior—delivered to the T h i r d R e i c h a remarkable network, extending from Havana to Buenos Aires, from L i m a to Manila. T h i s network, according to its creator, w a s capable of concerted espionage, political diversion, arms smuggling, and anything that any other Fifth Column in history had accomplished. It remained only for the Wehrmacht to give von Faupel's instrument the tests which w o u l d determine whether the Auslands Falange had been w o r t h all the trouble its organi­ zation had entailed. T h e answer w a s soon provided b y a number of Falangistas—among them one Jose del Castano.

C H A P T E R

T W O :

Falange Es Espana, or What Really Happened in Manila? I N A U G U S T 1 9 3 8 a lead editorial appeared in all seventeen of the Falange Exterior publications, from Yugo in Manila to Arriba in Buenos Aires. It was called "Falange es E s pana," and appeared under the byline of Jose del Castano. T h i s editorial addressed itself in gentle terms to those Spaniards abroad w h o had not yet joined the Falange, and w e n t on to say: T h e Falange Exterior has been constituted precisely to estab­ lish the bond with our compatriots who live away from our frontiers while we in Spain are fighting to win the war against International Marxism and the creation of a new state based on the twenty-seven points that constitute our Doctrine . . , U p to this point the editorial w a s merely explanatory, although it must be remembered that at least three of the points of the doctrine to which del Castano referred had to do w i t h the restoration of Spain's old empire—a resto­ ration that could only be done at the expense of other na­ tions, including the United States. H o w e v e r , after modestly stating that "death for the Falangista is no more than the strict fulfillment of the great­ est and most honorable of his duties," del Castano got to the real point of his editorial. It was a veiled threat to those Spaniards w h o had not yet joined the Falange Exterior. T h e Spaniards who live away from the Motherland [he warned], should not . . . wait to join for the moment when the war has ended . . . because when those happy days arrive we will have the right to refuse to admit those who in the days of uncertainty and sacrifices looked upon us with skepticism and doubted us. 3*

What Really Happened

in Manila

33

T h i s editorial, signed b y the chief of the National D e l e ­ gation of the Falange Exterior, became a weapon in the hands of agents all over the w o r l d . T h e y used it to force employees of Spanish business houses—young clerks, drivers, and secretaries w h o w e r e in many cases anti-Fascist at heart—to join the local branch of the Falange E x t e r i o r without further delay. It was not so much what the article said—it was the name of the man w h o wrote it. T h e name bears repetition. It w a s — J o s e del Castano. In N o v e m b e r 1 9 4 0 Arriba, official organ of the Falange in Madrid, described certain diplomatic appointments in these w o r d s : " T w o good comrades are going to take their places as warriors in lands where our flag flew until re­ cently." T h e Arriba story went on to say that G e n a r o Riestra had been appointed Consul General to Cuba, and that Jose del Castano had been made Consul General to the Philip­ pines. A t that time the official papers in Spain had been engaged in the anti-American campaign w h i c h has been conducted six days a w e e k since A p r i l 1 9 3 9 ; most Spanish papers are not published on M o n d a y s . T h e Madrid newspaper Informaciones, devoting a full page to the subject of "the difficult and glorious hour of our expansion," flatly stated: Let us not forget the Philippines. Japan will impose a new order. Yankee domination can never cast out from the Archi­ pelago what our forefathers sowed to last forever. Manila was a particular target of heavy Falange fire. Scarcely a w e e k went b y but one of the Falange papers in Spain w o u l d print a blast at the " J e w - W a s h i n g t o n - M a s o n i c " administration' of the "Catholic Philippines"—an attack which w o u l d generally be reprinted in most of the m a n y Falange organs abroad. In this manner an article like the Madrid Arriba's " M a ­ nila, Outpost of Hispanidad," found its w a y into the D e -

34

FALANGE

cember 1 5 , 1 9 3 9 , issue of Avance, official organ of the Falange Exterior in San Juan, Puerto R i c o . T h i s article dealt with the visit to Madrid of Father Silvestre Sancho, R e c t o r of the University of Santo T o m a s of Manila. In the Orient [runs the story] is our love the Philippines. . . , Three thousand islands. Enormous riches. T h e North Americans went there as International Brigades, to separate us Spaniards and Filipinos. T h e y have not yet left the islands. T h e y are the ones who rule. . . . But in the Philippines three centuries of Spanish civilization have remained forever . . . in this University of Santo Tomas, nailed as an advanced bulwark in the Orient, a worry to the world today . . . is Father Silvestre Sancho, with the faculty of teachers, giving daily battle in defense of Castillian and Catholicism. Perpetually fighting, without dismay, and with­ out rest for Spain. T h e flowery article then goes on to tell h o w Father Sancho arrived in Madrid "as a recruiter" to find a p r o ­ fessor for "the chair of Hispanidad" at the university, "the first in the w o r l d . " Also, that the rector wanted to set up the machinery for the exchange of students and professors. T h e article w o u n d up w i t h a characteristic mystical quo­ tation b y Falange leader Rafael Sanchez Mazas about times having changed so that n o w Spaniards looked at a n e w horizon. " A n d the horizon," concluded the Arriba author, "is the E m p i r e . " Shortly after Arriba revealed this n e w horizon, R e c t o r Sancho appointed a new honorary rector of Santo T o m a s , the oldest university in the American w o r l d . T h e n e w r e c ­ tor's name w a s Generalissimo Francisco Franco, and in the verbiage that went with the honor Sancho got in a f e w rousing licks about the approaching glorious day w h e n the Generalissimo w o u l d rule over a revived Spanish E m p i r e which would embrace Manila. Franco's appointment as H o n o r a r y R e c t o r of Santo T o m a s failed to stir a ripple in official Washington, where editorials about the Philippines in the Spanish press w e r e

What Really Happened

in Manila

35

dismissed as mere pep talks designed for home consumption. Therefore, the appointment of J o s e del Castano, chief of the National Delegation of the Falange Exterior, to the post of Spain's Consul General to Manila raised no e y e b r o w s among the members of the State Department. Apparently it w a s never even questioned b y Washington. T h e d a y after del Castano w a s appointed to the diplo­ matic post, he was called to a conference in Madrid with General von Faupel and some N a z i officials he had never met before. W h e n the conference ended, v o n Faupel ap­ pointed D e l Castano regional chief of the Falange Exterior for the Philippines. T h i s appointment was duly reported in the Madrid press. B i g things were lurking under the surface in Madrid. T h e reports from v o n Faupel's agents on the reception of the initial propaganda splurges of the Council of Hispanidad had given the General some n e w ideas. T o accelerate the drive on the Philippines and the Americas, von Faupel n o w opened a new institution—La Casa de America—in Madrid, and decided to send the most trustworthy and the ablest Falange leaders abroad to where they could do the A x i s cause the most good. T h e Axis, at this time, was concen­ trating Falangist efforts on Cuba and the Philippines— hence the n e w assignments of such important figures as Riestra and del Castano. J o s e del Castano had long been intimate with the p r o b ­ lems of the Falange Exterior in the Philippines. A s the head of the National Delegation of the Auslands Falange, del Castano had been directly responsible for the Manila F a ­ lange from its v e r y inception. W h i l e Madrid remained in the hands of the Republic, del Castano had made his head­ quarters in Burgos and later in Salamanca. T o these head­ quarters, the Falangist chiefs of the Philippines made their reports. F r o m them, they received their orders. During the Spanish W a r , not all of del Castano's letters reached him. One highly important letter, mailed to him b y Martin Pou, then a leader of the Philippine Falange,

36

FALANGE

on J a n u a r y 20, 1 9 3 8 , fell into the hands of a Republican counter-espionage officer while it w a s en r o u t e to Salamanca. It w a s an amazing letter. A l t h o u g h it is devoted exclu­ sively to an internal quarrel in the Fascist ranks in Manila, it inadvertently described the w h o l e Falange organization of the Philippines in the process of making its point. P o u set out to prove to del Castano that E n r i q u e Zobel and Andres Soriano—his chief enemies—had taken complete control of the Falange and the Fascist movement in the Philippines. Zobel and Soriano w e r e no small-time agitators. T h e y w e r e t w o of the wealthiest Spanish businessmen in Manila. Zobel, w h o held the post of "consul" of the F r a n c o regime, claimed to be Franco's personal representative in Manila. H i s nephew, Soriano, owned Manila's largest b r e w e r y and held the Philippine agency for a giant A m e r i c a n tobacco company. E a r l y in the course of the Spanish W a r , these t w o had taken over the F r a n c o movement in the Philippines. W h e n P o u arrived on the scene and started g i v i n g orders, he ran into difficulties almost at once. Zobel, according to his letter, had then arranged for Pou to be recalled to Spain. P o u objected to this order. I went to his [Zobel's] house [Pou w r o t e ] , and he showed me Mugiro's order asking me to indicate the date of departure, although it was irregular—I would have to get this data from the [Falange] authorities. I told him not to be an imbecile, and as he insisted, I offered to throw him out of the window— a thing which made for a notable difference in his attitude and very frightened of his own skin. H e proposed that I take this to the chief of the Falange in the Headquarters . . . and that on the other hand he would not show anyone the order that I had to leave. . . . He began to give circulars to the consular agents of G e r ­ many, Portugal, Italy and Japan to gain the attention of the Spaniards whom he had seen in m y company and generally treating me more or less like a monster.

What Really Happened

in Manila

37

N o t e this reference to the A x i s diplomats. T h e Falange was and is so subservient to the A x i s authorities that, in order to destroy a Falangista, it w a s considered necessary to denounce him before the German, Italian, and Japanese authorities. P o u continued: I did not do anything more than to cite him before the Mili­ tary Tribunal, following which I notified you so that y o u could check his telegrams from the 2 4 , 2 5 , and 2 6 . In ;he in­ terim the [Spanish] Colony has come to my side and against him. T h e parade of the Spaniards to my home was constant and continuous, offering themselves to me for any job and re­ questing instructions from me. Having sent my telegram, I did not want to do anything more. After many [telegrams] had gone to Salamanca [then seat of the Franco regime], Zobel became scared and began to say that he had not asked for my deportation, that he was not an enemy of the Falange, that he recognized me as a great patriot. . . . T h e official Spanish Chamber of Commerce drafted a peti­ tion for the expulsion of Zobel . . . the petition w o n by a great majority. Thereafter, Zobel began to phone Spaniards telling them that he represented Franco and that to go against him meant going against the Caudillo. . . . After complaining that Soriano, on his trips to Salamanca, acted differently than he did in Manila, Pou suggested that "the new Falangist chief should come from Spain. H e should be a man of arms, and he should reside in the con­ sulate." T h e n , to drive home his point, P o u listed the heads of the Falange and the Franco offices in the Philippines, and next to each name showed the ties between the officers and the t w o Spaniards w h o opposed Pou. A c c o r d i n g to Pou, Garcia Alonzo and a man named Lizarraga were associates of Zobel and Soriano. Pou's o w n description of the Falange Exterior organization in Manila reads: Chief: L a Vara (employee of Garcia Alonzo) Administrator: Fernandez (employee of Lizarraga)

38

FALANGE

Press & Propaganda: Martinez G i l (employee of Soriano) Information: Castelvi (Soriano's secretary) Secretary: Beaumont (employee of Soriano) T h e s e w e r e the official Falange Exterior officers. P o u w e n t on to describe the other F r a n c o officials as: Representative of the Spanish State: Soriano, and in his ab­ sence, Antonio Roxas, his cousin. Consul: Zobel (uncle of Soriano and of Roxas) President of Chamber: Zobel President of School Board: Zobel Secretary of School: Beaumont (employee of Soriano and vice-chancellor of consulate) Secretary of Casino: Castelvi (Soriano's secretary) E v e n though this particular letter never reached del Castano, he already k n e w that, in the Philippines, the F a ­ lange Exterior had made tremendous strides. A s the quarrel between P o u and the Soriano c r o w d continued, del C a s ­ tano solved it b y removing Pou. Neither Wilhelm von F a u ­ pel nor Jose del Castano cared to antagonize the wealthiest Spaniards in Manila. T h e Manila to w h i c h Jose del Castano sailed in the w i n ­ ter of 1 9 4 0 was in many w a y s more fervently Falangist than Madrid itself. In Madrid, as the n e w Consul General w o u l d have been the first to admit, popularity had never been one of the Falange's characteristics prior to the glorious victory of the Nazis, the Italians, and the Caudillo. T o the utter amazement of the n e w Regional Chief, the five branches of the Philippines Falange Exterior put on a show for him that could not have been duplicated for sheer numbers in Madrid in 1 9 3 6 . T h e affair took place in D e ­ cember 1 9 4 0 at a Manila stadium—secured at a nominal rental from the Spanish businessman w h o owned it. First, to start the festivities, the five- and six-year-old youngsters in uniform fined up in military formation and started to march across the field to the music of a brass

What Really Happened

in Manila

39

band. T h e y w o r e uniforms, these little fellows—blue shirts and shorts and Sam B r o w n e belts like the Exploradores ( B o y S c o u t s ) . B u t they w e r e not Exploradores, they w e r e Jovenes Flechas ( Y o u n g A r r o w s ) de Falange. T h e uniforms were, for the time being, somewhat alike. In the beginning, the Jovenes Flechas w e r e taught h o w to march, how to sing Cara al Sol, the Falange hymn, and h o w to give the brazo en alto (upraised arm) salute w h e n they shouted "Franco! Franco! F r a n c o ! " Later, they w o u l d learn h o w to shoot, like the older ones. F o l l o w i n g the little fellows came the Seccion Femenina de la Falange de Manila. T h i s contingent was an utter surprise to del Castano. It embraced everything from fiveyear-old preschool girls to nurses in their teens to matrons built along the lines of assault tanks—all of them in im­ maculate blue uniforms, marching behind the banners of the Falange and Imperial Spain, saluting smartly with the approved stiff arm, carrying themselves like w o m e n fit to grace the beds and the kitchens of the n e w conquistadores. T h e feminine section was followed b y an older group of Flechas—these ran from eight to about fourteen. T h e y also w o r e short pants, but they marched with the precision of soldiers. A f t e r the Flechas retired, a large color guard— youths of fourteen to twenty—paraded smartly with the flags of Spain and the Falange. T h e y w o r e the Blue Shirts (Camisas Azules) of the Movimiento—the glorious Camisa Azul of Jose Antonio, El Apostol, In a long letter he wrote to Madrid that night, del Cas­ tano admitted that the sight of these smart y o u n g men w a y out there in the Orient brought tears to his eyes. So thick w e r e the tears, he wrote, that he could scarcely see the tremendous Falange emblems sewn on the jerseys of the t w o soccer teams that played a rousing game in his honor to bring the ceremonies at the Manila stadium to a magnif­ icent climax. During the first w e e k that del Castano w a s in Manila, he had dinner w i t h a certain Spaniard residing in the Philip­ pines w h o might have been one of the glamorous figures

4

o

FALANGE

of the Spanish State. T h i s individual (his name is k n o w n to the American authorities) had amassed a huge fortune, primarily as agent in the Philippines for American manu­ facturers. H e w a s one of the men on w h o m v o n Faupel's agents had originally tested the program of the Falange— and his reaction had been a bit too positive. "Permit m e " he had said, "to finance the entire movimiejito" W h e n the Nazis invaded Spain without this caballero's backing, he was offended. B u t he w a s soon brought around to the N e w Order, and he became a great patron of the Philippine Falange. T h i s man w a s typical of the wealthy Spaniards w h o formed the core of the F r a n c o c r o w d in the Philippines. Sons of wealthy Spanish planters and colonial traders, they had, as b o y s or youths, emotionally or physically fought to keep the Archipelago within the Spanish E m p i r e during the Spanish-American W a r . Trained from childhood to hate the freedom of peoples, the freedom of religions, and the freedom of education, they had within their o w n lifetime seen all three freedoms develop in the Philippines. T h e peoples of the Philippines, chattels under the Spanish E m ­ pire, had had their lot improved under the Americans. It had been no Paradise, to be sure; but the form of the g e s­ ture had been one of democracy. A n d then, the Spaniards complained, without too great a struggle the Washington Idiots had signed a paper ac­ tually giving the Filipino savages the right t o g o v e r n their o w n destinies. U n d e r the monarchy, the O n e T r u e Faith had made great headway among the savages. N o w , with the separa­ tion of Church and State—for which the Protestant Masonic Bankers of Boston w e r e responsible—paganism w a s again rife. In the days of the E m p i r e , education w a s controlled b y the Church. It w a s a privilege, accorded to those w o r t h y of it. N o w , thanks to the American devils, secular educa­ tion w a s free and universal. A n d it w a s education of Satan's o w n design, with pagan Protestant teachers permitted to

What Really Happened

in Manila

41

expound upon heresies like birth control, the F r e n c h R e v o ­ lution, and the N e w Deal of the J e w Roosevelt. T h e wealthy Spaniards w h o spoke and thought in these terms did what they could to keep their wives, their chil­ dren, and themselves from the contamination of this n e w society. T h e y published their o w n newspapers, ran their o w n private schools for their heirs, subsidized colleges— maintained whatever links they could with the Spanish monarchy. W h e n the monarchy rotted a w a y of historical gangrene in 1 9 3 1 , the caballeros refused to believe that the corpse w a s more than merely sleeping. W h e n the Falange thrust its five arrows over the horizon, the rich Spaniards in the Philippines saw in them the pointers to the t y p e of Spanish E m p i r e their fathers had really k n o w n . In addition to being rich, these Spaniards w e r e also real­ istic men. B y 1 9 4 0 they k n e w that Imperial Spain w a s part of the same A x i s as Imperial Japan. It w a s no secret that Japan had a design or t w o on the Philippines herself, as w e l l as a f e w nationals here and there on the Archipelago. Nothing serious, of course, and nothing to get excited about, but nevertheless a problem that w a s g r o w i n g acute b y the time D o n Jose reached Manila. " D o n J o s e , " they asked del Castano, "is it really true that the little b r o w n Japanese monkeys will restore our Empire?" " O u r Fascist brothers in Japan," the Consul General would answer sternly, "are united with us in the common struggle. W h e n they strike, w e must help them. W h e n w e strike, they will help us." Del Castano must have repeated this answer a hundred times during his first w e e k in Manila, each time using the exact w o r d s he used w h e n he had rehearsed the f e w sen­ tences for General von Faupel and those strange N a z i luminaries back in Madrid. T h e Consul General w a s v e r y careful to say nothing which w o u l d make his set speech on Spain's Fascist brothers in Japan sound in the least bit false. W h e n not discussing the Japanese, del Castano spent much of his time in the first

42

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w e e k s studying the scripts of the radio shows the Spanish groups put on regularly, speaking at dinners, bolstering the spirits of the local Falange chiefs, and, in his spare moments, attending to his diplomatic duties. These radio programs w e r e amazing. A t the time del Castano arrived in Manila, for example, the Ateneo de M a ­ nila, one of the exclusive Spanish private schools, was doing a series o n the ideal corporate state of Portugal's Salazar. T h i s was the familiar clerico-Fascist line of all good A x i s propagandists in Catholic countries. W i t h i n time, del Cas­ tano w a s to hear programs contrasting the American pio­ neers and the Spanish conquistadores so cleverly that the listeners gained the impression that the pioneers w h o ex­ plored with Boone w e r e drunken desperadoes while the soldiers w h o pillaged w i th Pizarro w e r e hymn-singing ab­ stainers. A s regional Falange chief and as Spanish Consul General, del Castano w a s in supreme command of all anti-American Spanish activities, from radio programs to downright es­ pionage. T h e scope of del Castano's w o r k as a propagandist, the seriousness of his results, can be gathered in the open alarm expressed b y t w o officers of the Philippine Military A c a d e m y , Major Jose M . Hernandez and Lieutenant R i cardo C . Galang, w h o , a f e w months before Pearl H a r b o r , prepared an emergency manual on counter-propaganda f o r their government (What Every Filipino Should Know about Propaganda). T w o bitter sections of their slim publication speak v o l ­ umes about what the Falange accomplished on the propa­ ganda front alone in the Philippines: Transfer is a device b y which the propagandist carries over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something that w e respect and revere to something he would have us accept. For instance, in our country, the people have a very high regard for the Church because our people are essentially religious. If some foreign power succeeds in getting the Church to sponsor a movement, it is very likely that our people will be won over. W e should not be surprised if Generalissimo Franco of Spain

What Really Happened

in Manila

43

finds a w a y to influence the Catholic Church to win over some influential Filipinos to a cause that would be inimical to the democratic ideals of our people. Filipinos must remember that even from the pulpit, propaganda, aside from religious, may be sold to our masses. . . . There is another type of subtle propaganda being used in the Philippines. It is the Spanish propaganda. Fellowships have been offered to Filipinos so that they may study in Spanish universi­ ties courses in medicine and social science. Everybody knows that the most outstanding, the most famous, the most scholarly authorities in medicine and social science are not in Spain. W h y are w e being enticed to study medicine there? Because it is earnestly desired that w e see present-day Spain with our own eyes, so that w e might be convinced of the power and strength of the Franco government, a totalitarian government that main­ tains views radically different from a purely democratic ideol­ ogy and inimical to it. Franco has come out in the open in defense of the Berlin-Rome Axis and, therefore, against all democracies, including America and the Philippines. W h y have professors and students of certain educational institutions been persuaded to contribute money to the cause of the Franco government? W h y have publications been issued for the perpetuation of Spanish culture in the Philippines? These are instances of pure and simple propaganda for Spain, by overzealous Spaniards seemingly unappreciative of their privileges to live on the bounty and hospitality of Filipinos. F o r an official government publication, circulated openly, these w e r e strong words—even though they came much too late. T h e story they tell is clear enough. N o t only had R e c t o r Sancho's dream of exchanging students with Spanish universities w o r k e d out since 1 9 3 9 , but, once the plan got under w a y , it w a s put to more than cultural uses b y the N e w Spain. M o r e than one of the Spanish students sent to Manila in exchange for a Filipino scholar turned out to be a little old, a little military, and a little lackadaisical in his studies—but not at all backward in his real duty: espionage. U n d e r del Castano's expert guidance, the conditions the t w o Philippine officers described in their book g r e w in in­ tensity. T h e Falange membership increased, and many of

44

FALANGE

the more influential Spaniards in the local c o l o n y began to drink toasts to the imminent return of the good old days of the Empire. T h e n , on J u n e 1 8 , 1 9 4 1 , the Spanish colony of the Philip­ pines—which had long wondered w h y so important a Falange official as J o s e del Castano had been assigned to a post as far from Madrid as Manila—was suddenly made aware of del Castano's real importance. A brusque official announcement from Washington suddenly explained del Castano's real status. T h e President of the United States had given the governments of G e r m a n y , Italy, and J a p a n until J u l y 1 0 to close their consulates on United States soil and territories—which, on J u l y 1 1 , would make J o s e del Castano the ranking A x i s diplomat on the Archipelago. T h i s announcement was followed, in a day, b y the w o r d that Sefior del Castano w o u l d temporarily take over the consular duties of all three closing consulates in Manila. N o t publicly announced, but nevertheless just as official, was Jose del Castano's appointment after J u l y 1 8 , 1 9 4 1 , to the most important A x i s espionage post in the Philippines. T h e Falange chief w a s made the top liaison agent of all A x i s undercover w o r k in the Islands. H i s consulate-general offices became headquarters, post office, and clearing house for the entire A x is s p y network. H i s real mission—the mis­ sion for w h i c h he had been personally picked b y General von Faupel—had begun. N o w del Castano really got d o w n to w o r k . H e organ­ ized his liaison duties, memorized n e w codes, and tapped some of the most reliable of his Falange imlitantes for serv­ ice as agents in the A x i s intelligence. But del Castano w a s too big a man to be wasted in a simple liaison job. It w a s a matter of days before the new sealed orders, in code, arrived from Madrid. Jose del Castano decoded the message, read it twice, and then s l o w l y burned the small strip of microfilm on w h i c h the message had come and the sheet of paper on which he had translated it. T h e General w a s after major stakes this time, and as del Castano scattered

What Really Happened

in Manila

45

the ashes of the message he began to feel the nearness of the big push von Faupel had hinted at back in Madrid. Y e t the message said nothing about any of the things v o n Faupel had discussed then. It merely said that del Castano w a s to detail e v e r y Falangista to join the ranks of the Philippine Civilian E m e r g e n c y Administration; and that, once there w e r e enough Falangistas in the C . E . A , , del Castano w o u l d receive further orders. Jose del Castano w a s no fool. H e could have given orders to all Falangistas to sign up as air-raid wardens at once. T h e orders would have been obeyed—but with murmurs. So instead of issuing these orders b y virtue of his supreme authority as provincial chief of the Falange Exterior, del Castano started to hold a series of informal conferences with prominent leaders of the Spanish colony. H e told them that the C . E . A . , as it w a s then developing, w a s becoming the nucleus of an anti-Spanish, anti-Catholic civilian force. Del Castano let his confidants suggest to him that the F a ­ lange should counter b y quietly infiltrating the C . E . A . ranks and gaining control. It w a s the type of maneuver which vindicated von Faupel's earlier judgment. W i t h i n a month of the day von Faupel's sealed orders had reached del Castano, practically every Falange mem­ ber in the Philippines w a s enrolled as a w o r k e r in the Civilian E m e r g e n c y Administration. T h e total number of Falange members in the Philippines is k n o w n to v e r y f e w — a trust­ w o r t h y estimate places it at close to 10,000. H a d only half of the estimated ten thousand calculating Falangistas moved in on the civilian defense organization, the A x i s purpose w o u l d have been accomplished. T h e Falan­ gistas w h o w e n t into civilian defense w o r k all received special training from Falange chiefs close to del Castano himself. T h e y were no average citizens, amiably going through routine drills for air raids and emergencies they never quite believed w o u l d come. T h e Falangistas in the Philippine Civilian E m e r g e n c y Administration w e r e a trained A x i s Fifth Column army, ordered to their posts b y the N a z i general w h o sat as Gauleiter of Spain, and directly

4

6

FALANGE

responsible to the chief liaison man f o r all A x i s espionage in the Archipelago. A s the international crisis mounted, the Falangistas in the civilian defence w o r k e d like T r o j a n s at their tasks. T h e y w e r e particularly keen about distributing the posters and cards containing the ten " E m e r g e n c y Pointers for the Citi­ zens" which the C . E . A . had printed. T h e firsr t w o points were: 1. Beware of rumors. Be guided by truth and nothing but the truth. Get your facts straight from C.E.A. officials and organizations. 2. Keep calm. Avoid hysteria and prevent panic. Have faith in your C.E.A. leaders. T h e Regional Chief of the Falange Exterior ordered all Falangistas in civilian defense to become well k n o w n to all their neighbors as C . E . A . workers and officials. T h e Falan­ gistas in the C . E . A . carried out these orders to the letter. T o w a r d the end of November, Jose del Castano made a thorough check-up on the w o r k of the Falange Exterior in the Philippines. H e sent a coded report to Madrid, via courier, in which he expressed himself as satisfied with the preparations taken b y his Falanges. O n December 7, Spain's Japanese A x i s partner bombed H a w a i i and the Philippines. T h e official Madrid newspaper, lnformaciones, editorialized:

bluntly

Japan has reached the limit of her patience. She could no longer tolerate the interference and the opposition of the United States. . . . W e hope Manila will be saved for Chris­ tianity. In Manila, after the shock of the first attack, the people looked to the government, to the A r m y , to the Civilian E m e r g e n c y Administration, for guidance. In most cases, the average Filipino turned to the C . E . A.—under ordinary cir-

What Really Happened

in Manila

47

cumstances the proper thing to do. B u t on December 7, 1 9 4 1 , the C . E . A . w a s so shot through with Falangistas as to be the foundation of the A x i s Fifth Column in the city. F o r three w e e k s the Falangistas in the C . E . A . l a y low. T h e y performed their defense tasks diligently—on orders from their Falange leaders—and concentrated on winning the confidence of citizens in all w a l k s of life i n the great city. O n December 29 the Japanese air forces staged their first great raid over the city of Manila. F o r three hours the J a p planes rained bombs on the forts along the bay, the docks, and the homes of the poorer Filipinos. T h e n the planes flew off. B u t something had happened during the bombardment. T h e civilian defense organiza­ tions seemed to have broken d o w n completely. Wardens w e r e receiving orders to be e v e r y w h e r e except the places w h e r e they w e r e needed most. Stretcher-bearers w e r e dropping like flies with bullets in their backs. Streams of confusing and conflicting orders had most C . E . A . w o r k ­ ers running around in crazy circles. W i l d rumors spread like hurricanes through the c i t y — rumors the character of w h i c h had already become familiar in all lands invaded b y the Nazis in E u r o p e : M a c A r t h u r had fled to Washington. Quezon had g o n e over to the Japs. T h e entire American A i r F o r c e had been destroyed. T h e American A r m y had received orders to shoot all Cath­ olics and imprison all Filipinos. H e n r y Morgenthau had personally requisitioned all the funds in the Philippine N a ­ tional T r e a s u r y . Ad infinitum. T h e r e w a s something official about these rumors, some­ thing had been added that made even level-headed citizens give them credence. F o r these rumors w e r e not being spread b y obscure Japanese spies: they originated directly from Civilian E m e r g e n c y Headquarters, from the lips of the hard-working air-raid wardens w h o had been so diligent about tacking u p the posters bearing the ten emergency pointers f o r the citizen. " G e t y o u r facts straight from C. E . A "

4«

FALANGE

M o d e r n total w a r is the w a r of the organized rear. Civil­ ian defense organizations m a y not be as vital as armies, but they are necessities. Manila taught the w o r l d what a menace a city's civilian defense organization becomes when it falls into the hands of the enemy. A l l the details of w h a t happened in Manila during the next thirty-six hours are today in the army archives in Washington. Some day, perhaps, they will be revealed in full. T h e n it will become painfully clear w h y , thirty-six hours after the first big J a p air raid on December 2 9 , the military authorities in Manila w e r e forced to break off all relations with the civilian defense organizations. T h a n k s to the Falange—and its regional chief, Spanish Consul General Jose del Castano—the rear had been c o m ­ pletely disrupted. T h e civilian defense organizations, c r e ­ ated to bolster civilian morale and to counter the effects of enemy air raids, were accomplishing just the opposite. A t three o'clock on the afternoon of J a n u a r y 2 , 1 9 4 2 , the Japanese marched into Manila, their military tasks having been lightened a thousandfold b y the effective Fifth Column job within the c i t y itself. T h e freedom-loving w o r l d w a s stunned. But in Madrid, Arriba, official organ of the Falange, hailed the Japanese suc­ cesses in these w o r d s : T h e ancient and renowned culture of the magnificent Ori­ ental Empire, and its exceptional human values, are shown in the important victories of the first days—victories that have won for Japan the admiration of the world. In N e w Y o r k , in London, in M o s c o w free men and free women mourned the tragedy that had befallen Manila. But in Granada, Spain, on J a n u a r y 5 , 1 9 4 2 , there was a joyous Falange celebration. Pilar Primo de Rivera, the psychopathic sister of y o u n g Primo and the chief of the feminine section of the Falange, brought the c r o w d screaming to its feet. In the name of the Philippine Section of the Falange Espanola

What Really Happened

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49

Tradicionalista de la J . O. N . S., Pilar Primo de Rivera ac­ cepted a formal decoration from the Japanese Government — a decoration awarded to the Philippine Falange f o r its priceless undercover aid to rhe Imperial Japanese G o v e r n ­ ment in the capture of Manila and for a host of other serv­ ices. A m o n g the latter w e r e the fleets of trucks and busses the Falange had r e a d y and waiting for the Japanese invasion troops at L i n g a y e n , Lamon, and other points. T h e cheers in Granada had hardly died when the A r c h ­ bishop of Manila issued a pastoral letter calling upon all Catholics in the Philippines to stop their anti-Japanese activi­ ties and to co-operate with the Japanese in their noble efforts to pacify the Archipelago. W h a t e v e r doubts the N a z i H i g h Command m a y have entertained about the value of the Falange Exterior to the Axis cause vanished with the fall of Manila. T h e y n o w k n e w that General von Faupel had not been wasting his time. J o s e del Castano is still Spanish Consul General to the Philippines, still regional chief of the Philippines Section of the Falange Exterior. Sometimes, w h e n del Castano rides around Manila in his new American car, he passes the ancient University of Santo T o m a s , founded in 1 6 1 1 b y Spaniards. H i s Caudillo, F r a n ­ cisco Franco, is still honorary rector of Santo T o m a s . P e r ­ haps, when del Castano passes this ancient seat of learning, he thinks that Franco's title should be changed to "honor­ a r y warden." F o r at present Santo T o m a s is not a university. T o d a y Santo T o m a s is the Japanese Government's concentration camp for American nationals w h o w e r e trapped in Manila b y Falange treachery and Japanese arms. Del CastanoV old colleague Andres Soriano is no longer in Manila. T h e wealthy Manila businessman w h o served as representative of the Spanish state and so dominated the Falange and the Franco organizations of the Philippines, no longer gives the brazo en alto salute while standing along­ side Falangist leaders at Manila demonstrations. Soriano,

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FALANGE

w h o felt the f u r y of A x i s terror on Corregidor, is v e r y far from Manila. A n d r e s Soriano is at present in Washington. H e has a n e w job, too. H e is the Secretary of the T r e a s u r y in Manuel Quezon's Philippine government-in-exile. H e has to get around Washington quite a bit. Sometimes he has to pass the Spanish Embassy. W h e n he does, perhaps he pauses to read the sign which went up on the white gates of the Embassy after Pearl H a r b o r . It is a simple sign bearing the words: SPANISH EMBASSY IN C H A R G E OF JAPANESE INTERESTS It w o u l d be interesting to k n o w h o w this sign affects A n d r e s Soriano.

C H A P T E R

T H R E E :

Cuba: Pattern and Center of Falangist America T H E GRAY, pencil-slim edifice of the Spanish Legation on Havana's Oficios Street overlooks the fine harbor. F r o m Its w i n d o w s one can see all the shipping that enters and leaves Havana. A t night, the soft green moon that shines only o v e r H a v a n a and o v e r n o other city in the w o r l d plays thousands of w e i r d shadow-tricks on the stone facade. Cubans say that these nights the H a v a n a moon traces the outlines of Hitler's face in the shadows on the front of the Spanish Legation. T h e y say, too, that the N a z i Fiihrer's face looks pained and troubled. T h i s , of course, m a y be m e r e l y a legend. T h e H a v a n a moon does make m a n y people see many things. B u t there is nothing mythical about the inside apartment of the Span­ ish consulate—the apartment on the second floor. In this apartment, a f e w paces to the left of the stairs, there is a heavy steel door in the wall, a door with a shuttle lock made b y an excellent G e r m a n locksmith. T h i s door opens o n a steel and concrete vault. W h e n one k n o w s h o w to operate this steel door, it opens on a wealth of reports, secret documents, special codes, and exhaustive lists of people in e v e r y Western Hemisphere country from Canada to Argentina, from the United States to Paraguay and Chile. T h e entire contents of this vault are one of General von Faupel's most closely guarded secrets. T h e y are the records of the Falange Fispanola T r a d i c i o ­ nalista in the N e w W o r l d , and they are most complete. It is no accident that these records should be cached in the Spanish Legation in Havana. F r o m the v e r y beginning of the Falange Exterior offensive in the Western W o r l d , Cuba has been the chief advance base of all Falange activi­ ties on the American side of the Atlantic. T h e director of all 5'

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Falangist activities in N o r t h and South America, appointed personally b y General von Faupel, has a l w a y s made his headquarters in Havana, F r o m the Cuban capital, Falangistas in the t w e n t y Latin-American nations have rereceived their orders—relayed from Madrid. Similarly, w h e n Falangist chiefs of other countries need guidance and answers to pressing problems, it is to the ranking Falange chief in Cuba to w h o m they write via secret courier. T h e Falange-versus-the-democracies pattern of Cuba, Falange center of the Americas, is the basic pattern of e v e r y land south of our borders. W i t h o u t an understanding of what this pattern is like, the success of the Falange Exterior looks like a triumph of racial mysticism. Actually, the racial ties which bind the Falanges of Latin America to the Madrid-Berlin core are v e r y much o v e r t o i l e d b y casual in­ vestigators w h o blitz their w a y through the Latin countries. T h e r e w a s nothing racial about the support Spaniards in Latin America gave to the Nazis and the Italians w h o spent the years between J u l y 1 9 3 6 and A p r i l 1 9 3 9 in the slaughter of over a million racially pure Spaniards in Republican Spain. R a r e and talented American diplomats like Spruille B r a den and Claude B o w e r s understand this pattern v e r y well, but they form so small a minority in the councils of our State Department as to be all but voiceless. T h e Falange network of Cuba will be described in detail in these chapters. B u t first—because it will help explain the strength of the Falange in Latin America—it is impor­ tant to examine the soil from w h i c h Falangismo receives its greatest nourishment in the Americas. A s a colony of the Spanish Empire, Cuba had an economy completely dependent on the mother country. It could trade only with Spain, exporting the products of its soil and receiving its imports of manufactured goods only via Span­ ish ships. Absentee owners in Spain shared the ownership of the vast agricultural estates with Spanish colonial planters. A small, compact set of Spanish colonials controlled all the mercantile business of the island.

Pattern and Center

of Falangist America

53

T h e Indians w h o m C o l u m b u s had discovered on the island w e r e enslaved and ultimately killed off b y the n e w Spanish masters. In the sixteenth century slaves from A f r i c a w e r e brought over to replace the native Indians. T h e island raised cattle for Spanish ships plying the Spanish Main, and sent to the mother c o u n t r y the hides, tobacco, sugar, molas­ ses, and other products of the vast haciendas. T h e Seven Years' W a r S p a i n w a g e d with Britain a decade before the American R e v o l u t i o n gave Cuba its real start as a nation. F o r during this w a r Britain seized and held the port c i t y of Havana for o n e full year. It w a s a y e a r of amaz­ ing prosperity for the island, a prosperity directly due to the fact that Britain had made H a v a n a a free port. Ships of all nations w e r e allowed to trade with Cuba on even terms. T h e price structures of the Spanish monopoly w e r e ignored b y the Cubans—who during Havana's y e a r as a free port sold their exports to the highest bidders and bought their imports from the most reasonable traders. Spain recaptured H a v a n a in 1 7 6 2 . B u t n o w the E m p i r e had to compete with British "pirates" f o r the commerce of the Antilles. A n increasing number of colonial planters had become Cuban independistas w h o chose to risk the hazards of free trade in quest of higher returns for their products. U n d e r the Spaniards, imports became the chief mercan­ tile trade of the island. Spaniards and Spanish firms in Cuba, protected b y Spanish sea p o w e r , built great fortunes b y acting as agents for Spanish products. In many cases the colonial traders became s o wealthy that they w e r e able to buy controlling interests in the Spanish firms from w h i c h they bought their wares. T h e importers became the leading mercantile factors in Cuban economic life. Because they a l w a y s had ready cash, they often took control of the banks originally dominated b y the large planters. In time, they began to b u y into the control of the agricultural estates of the colony. In the nineteenth century, w h e n the Cuban independence movements began to g r o w , one of the rallying cries of the independistas w a s a demand for native industries w h i c h w o u l d free Cubans from dependence on Spanish imports.

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F o r this reason the colonial mercantilists were the first to send their sons into the ranks of the "Voluntarios," the dreaded and despised guerrilleros of the Spanish captaingenerals. T h e Voluntarios w e r e the storm troops of the monarchy in Hispanic A m e r i c a whose u g l y terrorism against the leaders of the movements for Cuban Independ­ ence did so much to w i n the independistas the support of the entire civilized w o r l d . T h e Spanish-American W a r of 1898 shook this mercantile class to its v e r y roots. O n l y the most powerful of its mem­ bers survived the d a w n of Cuban independence, even such independence as Cuba enjoyed in its early years as a free nation. These individuals united to form the L o n j a del Comercio, and, if possible, to resume business as usual. Despite the competition from American interests, the L o n j a c r o w d managed to get along pretty well. T h e L o n j a soon became the center of all Spanish business on the island. Its members invested in real estate, shipping bottoms, sugar lands, tobacco lands, wholesale and retail trade. F o r the main part, most of them retained thenSpanish citizenship and continued their centuries-old p r a c ­ tice of siphoning off generous portions of their Cuban profits for Spanish investments. In politics the L o n j a c r o w d backed Cubans w h o could guarantee them the highest possible profits at the lowest possible capital outlay. A t the same time the Spanish busi­ nessmen in Cuba had v e r y good economic reasons f o r keep­ ing their fingers on the political pulse of Madrid. T h e i r financial stake in Spanish reaction w a s often as great as their stake in Cuban tyranny. T o the Spaniards in L a t i n America, the birth of the Spanish Republic in 1 9 3 1 meant only one thing: a higher standard of living for the people of Spain. T h i s higher stand­ ard of living meant living wages, and living wages meant smaller returns on investments in Spanish enterprises. F o r decades, wealthy Spaniards of Latin A m e r i c a had talked in colorful and mystic terms about restoration of the empire of Ferdinand and Isabella. Beneath all of this fine

Pattern and Center of Falangist America

55

racist gibberish lurked a genuine and quite materialistic concern over large-scale business ventures in the H o l y Motherland. ( F e w non-Spaniards realized this better than Wilhelm von Faupel.) T h e chief spokesman for this Spanish business c r o w d has always been the Diario de la Marina, Havana's oldest daily newspaper. Founded in 1 8 3 2 , La Marina w a s always more monarchist than the monarch. Its ties to the Spanish E m ­ pire w e r e of the strongest. T h e y have never been broken. T h e Volnntarios had their heart and life's blood in the columns of La Marina until Cuba w o n her independence from Spain. In these columns Cubans w e r e exhorted to join the Voluntaries, to fight f o r king and colonialism, and t o destroy all attempts to organize groups dedicated to Cuban freedom. T o d a y , in Cuba, there are hundreds of monuments to Jose Marti, the revered leader o f Cuba's great struggle f o r independence. T h e Diario de la Marina pays its employees in paper pesos that bear Marti's picture; the cell in which Marti languished as a prisoner of the K i n g ' s is a national shrine in Havana. B u t during Cuba's three wars f o r inde­ pendence—the w a r s of

1868-78,

1 8 9 0 , and 1 8 9 5 - 9 8 — L a

Marina denounced Jose Marti as a "foolish dreamer." Maximo G o m e z and Antonio Maceo, the military leaders of Marti's forces of liberation, w e r e described simply as "bandits" b y the paper. A n d when, a f e w years before the Spanish shackles were finally torn from Cuba's heart, Jose Marti died on the field of battle, the Diario de la Marina editorialized that now, thank G o d , there w o u l d b e an end to the stupid troubles Marti had caused. Loudest of the Diario de la Marina's loud voices against Cuban independence was the voice of D o n Nicolas Rivero. A s a y o u n g partisan of the Carlists in Spain, R i v e r o had run into the sort of political trouble w h i c h caused Europeans to flee their countries in the ' 7 0 ' s . H e settled in Cuba, w h e r e he w o n his spurs as a journalist, and soon made his peace with the Bourbon dynasty. H e rose t o become editor and part owner of the Diario de la Marina, where his decades of

FALANGE molding Cuban opinion w e r e of such nature that, in 1 9 1 9 , he w a s made a Spanish count b y K i n g Alfonso. A s an editor and a publicist, D o n Nicolas gave no quarter in his savage campaign to keep the Spanish E m p i r e in business. H e penned the most violent of the attacks on Jose Marti and the other tireless leaders of the Cuban independence movement. H e made m a n y speeches, chose to back the anti-democratic w i n g of any dispute that arose in Cuba after 1 8 9 8 , fathered t w o sons, and died in bed after the end of the First W o r l d W a r — a soldier of the Spanish Empire to the end. Count N i c o l a s R i v e r o , eldest of D o n Nicolas's sons, showed little talent for journalism or controversy. H e is n o w Cuba's e n v o y to the Vatican. T h e second son, Jose Ignacio — o r Pepin, as everyone calls him today—showed more talent and ambitions for the calling of the old D o n . H e w a s brought into the paper while still a y o u n g man and soon became director and publisher of the venerable organ of the Spanish During Pepin R i v e r o ' s early days as a journalist, La Marina w e n t through its worst crisis since 1898. In A p r i l 1 9 1 7 the Diario de la Marina ran a ringing editorial entitled, " G o l d ! G o l d ! G o l d ! " T h e editorial explained that the real reasons for America's entry into the w a r against G e r m a n y w e r e commercial—only the Y a n k e e lust for gold w a s behind the w a r declaration. T h e A m e r i c a n Government promptly dispatched a one-man board of economic warfare to Havana, w i t h instructions to tell the paper's management in simple but stiff w o r d s that one more manifestation of such senti­ ments would find the Diario de la Marina suffering from an acute shortage of newsprint sources. T h i s experience taught Pepin the lesson of caution. O n l y the birth of fascism in E u r o p e led Pepin to t h r o w caution to the winds so soon after learning its value. L o n g before Hitler had even aspired to meet men like General v o n Faupel socially, Pepin w a s admiring Benito Mussolini in column after column of the Diario de la Marina. H i s f a v o r ­ ite device in those d a y s w a s to sigh that the w o r l d was run­ ning recklessly t o w a r d revolution and ruin, and that in

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Fascism, at least, good sober folks had the sane and modern antidote to Bolshevism. W h e n Hitler invaded Spain in 1 9 3 6 , P e p i n — w h o re­ flected perfectly the sentiments and interests of the tightlyknit Spanish c r o w d in the L o n j a del Comercio—quickly made the Diario de la Marina the most completely pro-rebel paper in the Caribbean. A l l the Franco forces of Cuba rallied around the paper, and Pepin became one of their most popu­ lar spokesmen both in print and on the public platforms. Shortly after the start of the Spanish W a r , Pepin made a trip to E u r o p e . One of his first stops w a s Berlin. Here, in a rousing speech delivered over the Nazi radio, Pepin wound up with a prayer for the success of A d o l f Hitler, "the great man of humanity. G o d save the Fuhrer," he said. F r o m Berlin, Pepin w e n t to that section of Spain then in the hands of the Nazis. H e donned the uniform of the Requetes and sent pictures of himself in Fascist uniform back to his paper. ( O l d Count R i v e r o w o u l d have been stirred b y these pictures; the Requetes w e r e the uniformed Carlists of 1 9 3 6 . T h e y w e r e incorporated into the Falange as a b o d y in 1 9 3 7 . ) Pepin participated as an honored guest and speaker in official ceremonies, met the important Falange chiefs, and returned to Cuba convinced that Hitler was guaranteeing the Spanish investments of every good L o n j a member in the Spanish set. Pepin w a s v e r y busy as a public figure when he returned in triumph from Spain. Fortunately, he had been able to find just the man he needed actually to run the paper in the person of y o u n g Raoul Maestri. Scion of a wealthy, socialite Havana family, R a o u l Maestri had started his career in the most amazing manner. T h i s was back in the mid-'zo's, while he w a s still a student at H a v a n a University. Although he shudders to think of it today, Maestri made his initial impression on Havana as a firebrand dilettante in radicalism. M a n y a Habanero today remembers vividly the scarlet era w h e n young Maestri de­ livered fulsome lectures on Marxism. Maestri's family snatched him from the arms of K a r l Marx

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and sent him abroad to absorb some Kultwr in G e r m a n uni­ versities. H e studied hard and he studied long, and one of the end results w a s a w e i g h t y book published in Madrid in 1 9 3 2 — a book called German National Socialism. In this book Maestri expounded an interesting thesis: capitalism and communism having failed, only National Socialism re­ mained as the hope of suffering humanity. T h i s and many other writings in a similar vein impressed Pepin, w h o watched Maestri g r o w up to become one of the intellectual leaders of the Fascist-minded circles of Havana. Maestri w a s invited to join the staff of La Marina, and quickly rose to the position of sub-editor, second in c o m ­ mand only to Pepin himself. T h e editors of Diario de la Marina receive much sage advice from the inner council of the paper, a council c o m ­ posed primarily of heavy stockholders. T h i s inner council includes men like Jose Maria Bouza, millionaire and v i o ­ lently pro-Falange official of the powerful G a l l e g o Regional Society. Bouza is the father-in-law of Segundo Casteleiro, also a millionaire. Casteleiro o w n s a cord factory in Matanzas where, in the spring of 1 9 4 2 , the Cuban Secret Police arrested five of his employees w h o happened to be N a z i spies. Until J u l y 1 0 , 1 9 4 1 , a N a z i agent named Clemens Ladmann w a s Casteleiro's partner in this Matanzas venture. B u t L a d m a n n also happened to have been the German consul in Matanzas and w a s expelled from Cuba when Batista followed Roosevelt's lead in closing d o w n the G e r ­ man, Italian, and Japanese consulates. W i t h i n hours of the moment the first N a z i bomb dropped on Spanish soil in 1 9 3 6 , Havana's Spanish aristocracy rushed to form the Comite Nacionalista Espafiol de Cuba. T h i s committee immediately started to raise funds for the pro­ tectors of their Spanish investments. Senator Elicio Arguelles, one of Cuba's most prominent political figures, became president of the committee. T h e L o n j a del Comercio w a s well represented on the board; L o n j a directors Federico Casteleiro, Facundo Graell, and

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Florentino Suarez became leaders of the Comite Nacionalista Espanol, too. T h e Marquesa de Tiedra, immensely wealthy and mem­ ber of a prominent Spanish clan, became head of the family commission of the Comite. N e n a Velasco de Gonzalez G o r ­ don, wife of a wealthy Havana entrepreneur, became the n e w organization's treasurer. In the Comite Nacionalista Espanol, the Spanish set of Cuba w a s putting its best foot forward. N o rough stuff, no spying, no riff-raff and rabble. Its members w e r e all drawn from the best social circles. Pepin R i v e r o w a s honorary president. T h e Comite collected its funds in the names of w i d o w s , orphans, and simple Christian charity. T y p i c a l of the Comite's o w n financial statement is the one issued on J u l y 18, 1 9 3 8 : R E S U M E OF T H E C O N T R I B U T I O N S M A D E T O T H E N E W SPAIN To To To To To To

the Spanish State .$303,541.68 the Rcquetes 5,000.00 the Falange 5,000.00 the Falange's Auxilio Social 1,000.00 Hospitals 3,000.00 Auxiliary of the Nationalist N a v y 22,664.00 T O T A L : $340,205.68

T h e Comite, which from this report was obviously raising funds not for w a r sufferers but for the Spanish Fascists to use as they best s a w fit, also shipped vast quantities of Havana cigars and Cuban m m to Nazi Spain during the three years of the Republic's agony. W i t h the above report, the Comite and Senator Arguelles addressed a letter to all contributors: Under the destinies of the Caudillo Franco, genius of the Movement of Salvation, we look to the future of the new Spain with full confidence and racial pride. Franco, while reconquer­ ing Spain, returns her again to the moral and material grandeur

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of Isabella and Ferdinand and gives her models of maximum humanity and Christianity, helping the fallen and bringing ex­ termination to hatred and class differences. F R A N C O ! FRANCO! FRANCO! Continuously we receive messages from the real Spain, grate­ ful for the moral and material aid that reaches her from Cuba. T o you, co-operators of the new Crusaders, they are addressed and to you we transfer them. VIVA CUBA.' ARRIBA ESPANA/ W h i l e the bluebloods w e r e organizing the Comite N a c i o nalista Espanol, a Cuban manufacturer, Alfonso Serrano Villarino, hastily formed the Falange Espanola Filial de la Republica de Cuba. T h i s Falange was organized into cells. T h e head of cell R - i w a s J o s e Ignacio (Pepin) R i v e r o . Elicio Arguelles headed cell A - i . T h i s w a s in J u l y 1 9 3 6 . But Villarino w a s something of an amateur. H e made the mistake of admitting to the inner councils of his Falange some v e r y ambitious men, among them one Capitan J o r g e de V e r a . T h e hot-blooded Capitan wanted to be the Caudillo; failing in this desire, he split the y o u n g Falange in t w o b y walking out and forming the J . O . N . S. de la Falange Espanola en Cuba. T h i s state of chaos in the Falange movement w e n t on for a w h o l e winter. In the spring of 1 9 3 7 , a courier brought a sealed packet to Cuba from Burgos, then seat of the F r a n c o von Faupel government. T h e packet w a s for J u a n A d r i e n sens, the F r a n c o "consul" in Camaguey. In the packet w e r e some books on Falangismo and a series of directives on the organization of the Falange movement in Cuba. T h e packet w a s followed by a small commission of Burgos agents headed b y Francisco A l v a r e z Garcia. Adriensens brought about a measure of peace in the m o v e ­ ment. J o r g e de V e r a came sheepishly back to the fold, and one great Falange Espafiola Tradicionalista de la J . O . N . S. en Cuba w a s organized—with Francisco A l v a r e z G a r c i a as its Caudillo. But just as things began moving smoothly, someone stepped on J o r g e de V e r a ' s sensitive toes again. T h e

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result w a s a n e w de V e r a rump organization—the Falange de Espafia en Cuba. A t this point, General v o n Faupel, w h o had already de­ cided that Cuba w a s to be his main advance base in the Americas, ceased to be amused. In 1 9 3 8 he appointed A l e ­ jandro Villanueva to the post of Inspector G e n e r a l of the Falange Exterior in all the Americas, and shipped him off to Cuba with orders to get d o w n to serious business. Villanueva, a sharp-faced organizer with a fantastic memory and a vile temper, w a s given extraordinary powers. H e w a s ordered to act as von Faupel's personal representa­ tive in the Falange E x t e r i o r organizations from Montreal to Buenos Aires. H e was to make Cuba the hemispheric center of all Falange activities. H e w a s to consolidate the Spanish control of all commerce. H e w a s to organize all Spanish activities in the N e w W o r l d under the single banner of the Falange. Most important of all, Alejandro V i l l a ­ nueva w a s to place the Falanges in the hemisphere on a complete military footing. In this last task Villanueva w a s to w o r k under the direction of N a z i agents assigned b y Berlin to guide him. T h e A x i s could not have chosen a better man for the job. T h e n e w Inspector General worshiped A d o l f Hitler as a god. H e saw in Hitler the genius of a n e w and lasting era of w o r l d fascism—and therefore based all of his actions on the simple theory that, if Hitlerism conquered the w o r l d , Villanueva w o u l d have nothing to w o r r y about. Villanueva played only on this basis. T h e results are evident in the vault on the second floor of the Spanish legation in Havana: only a man completely convinced that he was on the w i n ­ ning side could have been so open, so reckless, and so thorough in his entire campaign. In the beginning, Villanueva concentrated on helping Francisco Alvarez G a r c i a build the Cuban Falange into a great, disciplined, fanatical army. T h e y soon had it up to a membership of 30,000 fanatics organized into a military structure familiar t o a n y student of the N a z i state in Germany.

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T h e chief of the Cuban Falange, A l v a r e z Garcia, was allpowerful. His second in command—another Burgos export named Sergio Cifuentes—was the second most powerful man in the Falange. A l v a r e z Garcia, of course, took orders only from Villanueva—who, in turn, took his orders o n l y from General von Faupel. T h e members of the Falange w o r e stock Fascist uni­ forms and developed the muscles of their right arms b y fre­ quent use of the raised arm {brazo en alto) Fascist salute. Once a week, the average Falangista of military age joined members of his cell on the country estate of some Falangist aristocrat for military drill—often under the supervision of G e r m a n A r m y instructors. N o t all of the military in­ structors of the Falange in Cuba w e r e Reichsivehr officers, however. T h e r e w e r e a f e w Spaniards and also, on occasions, men like former Czarist N a v a l Officer G o l o w c h e n k o , of w h o m more later. F r o m the v e r y start, Falangistas had been trained to c a r r y out routine espionage duties for the A x i s . E v e n under the leadership of Villarino, the Cuban Falange's original leader, all Falangistas had to fill out a form called Cuestionario Confidential. T h i s w a s a simple questionnaire w h i c h called for answers to, among others, the following: " W h a t lan­ guages do y o u speak? H a v e y o u had military instruction? W h a t rank? D o y o u k n o w h o w to handle firearms? W h a t arms? C a n y o u drive a car? D o y o u have a car? D o y o u k n o w radio telegraphy?" W h e n Inspector General Villanueva appeared on the scene, the military and espionage aspects of Falangismo w e r e given a thorough overhauling. F o r with Villanueva came the Germans. A n d the Germans made such stern demands that more than one simple fellow w h o signed up with the Falange because his boss or his friends or his priest told him it was the thing to do, started to develop cold feet. T h e files of the Ministry of Justice in H a v a n a are crammed with letters from just such simple Spaniards. T h e r e are, for instance such letters as that of Antonio del Valle, dated N o v e m b e r 30, 1 9 4 1 . Sefior del Valle, in his

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letter to the Ministry of Justice, reveals that he had no idea what was in store for him when he joined the Falange. H e charges that most Falangistas are compelled to commit m a n y acts detrimental to Cuba, "such as photographing U . S. N a v a l Bases in C u b a " and turning the photos over to a G e r m a n individual employed b y a commercial aviation company. " A n d this G e r m a n individual reproduces the photos f o r shipment abroad." W h i l e the military effectiveness of the Falange w a s being developed, the propaganda and money-raising activities of the v o n Faupel column w e r e not ignored. Scarcely a w e e k passed but the Falange held some big meeting or dinner in one of Cuba's cities, or celebrated some special Mass in one of Cuba's churches. T h e relations the Falange enjoyed with most of the H i e r a r c h y of the Church in Cuba w e r e similar to those they enjoyed with Spanish businessmen. T h e reasons for this entente cordiale w e r e quite similar. T h e H i e r a r c h y had funds invested in Spain. It was no secret, for instance, that the Church had great holdings in the Barcelona tenements and the Valencia orange groves. U n d e r the monarchy, the Church had also had a monopoly on education. T h e free schools established b y the n e w l y born Spanish Republic in 1 9 3 1 cut deeply into the Church's revenue. T h e social laws passed b y the Republic—laws which called for certain needed but costly housing improvements and higher wages for orange workers—also affected Church revenues. T h e Nazis w e r e able to exploit these conditions most effectively. O n the one hand, they w e r e able to w i n much Church support for their Falange b y promising to repeal all social legislation of the Republic and closing the free public schools. O n the other hand, our old friend Eberhard von Stohrer—who succeeded von Faupel as G e r m a n Ambassa­ dor to Spain in 1937-—promised the fanatical Fascists of G e r m a n y and Spain that the "destiny of the Falange is to eliminate the p o w e r of the Catholic Church in Spain." In Cuba, Villanueva w a s able to keep most of the H i e r ­ archy v e r y much on the Falange side. W h e n Cuba's faithful

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found Nazis and Italian Black Shirts sharing the dais under massed Falange, Swastika, and Italian Fascist banners at most Falange affairs, the majority of them balked at following the H i e r a r c h y politically. T y p i c a l of these public manifestations was the Plato Unico (Single D i s h ) banquet held in honor of and for the financial benefit of the Fascist armies in Spain. T h e din­ ner w a s held in H a v a n a on February 1 9 , 1939. W i t h S w a s ­ tika banners flying overhead, the seven speakers of the eve­ ning took their places at the main table. T h e following w e e k Arriba Espana, official organ of the Falange Exterior in Cuba, carried all seven speeches. T h e speakers w e r e : D r . J o s e Ignacio R i v e r o ; Camarada Alejandro Villanueva, In­ spector Extraordinario; Camarada Miguel Espinos, Franco's ' A m b a s s a d o r " to Cuba; Camarada Miguel G i l Ramirez, (nominal) J e f e Territorial en Cuba; Camarada Salvador R u i z de Luna, J e f e Territorial de Intercambia y Propaganda; and T h e i r Excellencies, the Ministers of Italy and G e r m a n y , Giovanni Persico and H e r m a n n W o e l c k e r s . Pepin began his speech with a g l o w i n g tribute to the diplomats. Sefior Representatives of the glorious nations of Germany and Italy [he began]. Sefior Representatives of the only Spain recognized by all the persons of good will in the world, Com­ rades of the Falange Espanola, and I call you comrades because, although I am not inscribed in that glorious institution, I am with it in spirit . . . A c c o r d i n g to the records of the Falange Exterior and the files of the Cuban Secret Police, Pepin's ties to the F a ­ lange w e r e more than merely those of the spirit. A t the time these seven speeches w e r e broadcast o v e r the Cuban radio, the Falange Exterior was going through its first of three phases. In this phase, the role of the Falange w a s merely one of building an organization, an A x i s ma­ chine. T h e military drills, the bits of espionage, the public

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manifestations were merely preparations for the second phase. Just as the w a r then going on in Spain w a s merely the first round of Hitler's military struggle for w o r l d domi­ nation, so—during the Spanish W a r — w a s the Falange E x ­ terior maintained merely to make this Spanish triumph of G e r m a n might all the more complete. In A p r i l 1939 the Republic of 1 9 3 1 succumbed to G e r ­ man arms. F o r the time being Spain w a s G e r m a n y ' s . A n d between A p r i l and September, while Spain buried its dead, the Falange E x t e r i o r w a s mobilized as part of the w o r l d offensive the Nazis w e r e to launch in Poland. T h e day after the Republic fell, Washington, London, and Paris hastened to recognize Francisco F r a n c o as the head of the Spanish State. Cuba, which, like most of Latin America, follows Washington's lead in diplomatic affairs, also recognized F r a n c o Spain. N o w the Nazis had one of their basic objectives—a "neutral" diplomatic network all over the w o r l d . T h e Spanish legation w a s quickly staffed with trained Fascists. T h e hectic second phase of the Falange Exterior w a s on. T h e main Falange headquarters w e r e established in the Spanish consulate on Oficios Street, and here, with a brashness that made patient Cuban Secret Police officials like General Manuel Benitez and Lieutenant Francisco Padrone shudder, N a z i agents called regularly to supervise the real w o r k of the Falange. T h e r e w e r e six thousand members of the G e r m a n N a z i Party in C u b a at this time. T h e i r chief was Eugenio H o p p e , w h o operated a razor factory in Regla. T h e i r main head­ quarters w e r e at Copinar Beach, near Guanabacoa. H o p p e , a favorite of Havana society, presided over a complete N a z i w o r l d in Cuba. T h e r e was the National Socialist G e r m a n W o r k e r s Party, the W i n t e r Hilfe Fund, the Death Fund, the Hitler J u g e n d , and all the standard N a z i foreign organizations. These w e r e allied with the Falange in all of its A x i s w a r tasks. T h e Italian Fascists and the Japanese w e r e also tied to the Falange. Prince Camillio Ruspoli, Chief of the Black

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Shirts in the Americas, controlled about three thousand Italian Fascists. T h e i r front w a s the Societa Italiana di Assistenza, whose offices were in the Casa D'ltalia on Havana's Prado. Ruspoli, a wealthy aristocrat w h o owned vast orange plantations near Camaguey, acted as president of this society. L i k e the Falangistas, the Italian B l a c k Shirts w e r e a uniformed Fascist group. A t their meetings, the Falange and Swastika banners w e r e displayed as promi­ nently as the Fasces. Although they had only 7 0 0 agents in Cuba, the J a p a ­ nese w e r e in many w a y s the best organized of the A x i s groups on the island. T h e y w e r e the first subjects of totali­ tarian nations to be organized as a complete espionage organization in Cuba. Organized into small circles, under military leadership, the Japanese w e r e there for only one purpose: t o prepare for the eventual Japanese w a r against the United States. A l l of their efforts in Cuba w e r e di­ rected toward this objective. T h e primary task of the Japanese w a s carried on b y T o k i o naval officers. T h i s w a s a continuing study of the G u l f currents—a w o r k in which they w e r e later joined b y the Nazis. T h e importance of the G u l f Stream as a U-boat path is immeasurable. Because of the G u l f Stream and other more obvious factors, Cuba is the naval k e y to the G u l f and the Panama Canal. A i d e d no little b y the fact that smart Cuban society leaders felt naked without Japanese servants, the T o k i o es­ pionage ring in Cuba did yeoman service f o r the A x i s cause. Despite the fantastic, storybook sound of the statement, it is nevertheless true that most of the Japanese servants in Cuban aristocratic homes w e r e trained agents, officers of the Japanese armed forces. T h e Japanese concentrated their efforts f o r years in the north of Cuba and on the Isle of Pines. It is k n o w n that the humble and self-effacing Nipponese forwarded hundreds of reports to T o k i o on the politics, the economics, and the geography of Cuba. T o k i o w a s deeply interested in backing anti-American movements in Cuba, and groups like the

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Falange w e r e made to order for the purposes of the J a p a ­ nese Fligh Command, w h i c h w a s to eventually order the bombing of Pearl Harbor—and Manila. Of all the A x i s concentrations in Cuba, the Falange w a s the greatest. T h e Germans, in A p r i l 1 9 3 9 , w e n t to w o r k at the task of making it the most efficient. T h e formal outbreak of the war, in September 1 9 3 9 , found the Falange at the peak of its efficiencv. It had come through its second phase with flying colors. T h e third phase of the Falange Exterior in Cuba—and throughout Latin A m e r i c a — w a s carefully blueprinted b y General v o n Faupel. T h e N a z i general's plans for the Falange Exterior at this point were clear: as long as the A x i s w a s able to maintain its legations in the N e w W o r l d , the Falange/Was to continue more or less as usual. It was to make propaganda for G e r ­ many, commit acts of sabotage and espionage, and stand b y for the inevitable day w h e n G e r m a n y , Italy, and Japan would be compelled to close up diplomatic shop. A t that point, the Falange Exterior w a s to take over as the diplo­ matic front for all A x i s Fifth Column activities and to supply the cadres for most of these actions. It w a s in line with these plans that Jose del Castano and G e n a r o Riestra w e r e sent abroad b y v o n Faupel in the fall of 1 9 4 0 . Riestra reached Havana in N o v e m b e r 1 9 4 0 . Affairs w e r e not going too smoothly f o r the Falange. F o r one thing, the Cuban Government, the y e a r before, had made the Falange an illegal organization. T h i s w a s no secret to Riestra, for he had been in Havana in 1 9 3 9 w h e n the Cuban Government acted. T w i c e , before being appointed consul general in 1 9 4 0 , Riestra had quietly visited Havana on Falange business. A violent and most undiplomatic y o u n g government official, Riestra had long been a storm center In Latin-American affairs. T h e Mexican Government had seen fit to expel him for abusing its hos­ pitality, and Alejandro Villanueva looked upon him as an

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interloper. F o r his part, Riestra looked upon the Falange Inspector General for the Americas as a serious rival, and on his earlier visits to Cuba he had tried to increase the p o w e r of Francisco Alvarez Garcia, Chief of the Cuban Falange, at the expense of Villanueva. A f t e r the Cuban Government cracked d o w n on the Falange in 1939, Riestra had arranged for A l v a r e z G a r c i a to establish his office in the Spanish consulate in H a v a n a . A t that time, still smarting from his insults, Riestra held a minor post in the consulate. B u t he had played his cards cleverly. H e set an example f o r all Falangist officials b y the w a y he held together the most minute ties of the organization, and w h e n he returned to Spain, early in 1940, he carried in his trunks a complete file of documentary evidence proving that he had successfully circumvented the action of the Cuban Government. A m o n g his exhibits was a letter dated F e b r u a r y 5 , 1940, a letter from the R e c t o r of the Escuelas Pais—a religious school—in Pinar del R i o . T h e letter said: This college feels great gratitude toward the generous ges­ ture of the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista, and towards you particularly, for having thought of us, Spanish scholars, when distributing college scholarships. Y o u cannot imagine the happiness w e felt upon receiving your letter . . . asking about our school pensions. In answer, I give you the rates we will assign to students recommended by the Falange Espanola. T h e letter then w e n t on to quote special tuition rates and to bless Riestra. It was signed b y Antonio Ribernat, the rector. Its significance becomes clear w h e n it is recalled that at the time the letter w a s written the Falange w a s illegal in Cuba. W i l y G e n a r o Riestra w a s able to use this and similar letters as proof that he had been able t o keep the Falange going in Cuba despite the Cuban Government's laws. Riestra's files impressed von Faupel, and he w a s rewarded with the post of Consul General. H e took over his duties at

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the same time that Jose del Castano took command in Manila. T h e new Consul General started out like a house on fire. Blithely ignoring the l a w s and the dignity of the Cuban Government, Riestra began a whirlwind drive to organize all Spanish activities under the banner of the Falange. H e concentrated primarily on the Spanish Regional Societies, the social welfare organizations to which most Spaniards in Cuba had belonged for years. Cayetano G a r c i a L a g o , then head of the Centro G a l l e g o —one of the largest of these societies—was Riestra's chief lieutenant in the drive to make all Spanish societies part of the Falange. F o r a f e w months, the campaign hummed along like a Stuka on a bombing mission over unprotected territory. T h e n , shortly after the n e w y e a r began, Senator Augustin C r u z arose in the senate and made a ringing speech. Brandishing documentary evidences of Riestra's contempt for Cuban law, Senator C r u z demanded that the fiery diplo­ mat be given his w a l k i ng papers. T h e Cuban Government took action. F o r the second time in his hectic career as an A x i s agent Riestra w a s ex­ pelled from a Latin-American nation. N o t content t o stop with the expulsion of Riestra, the Cuban Government began to take action against the entire Falange. A c e Cuban investigators like Benitez, Padrone, and Captain F a g e t started to make raids on the secret head­ quarters of the Falange. T h e s e raids uncovered thousands of sensational documents. In the raid on the headquarters in a macaroni factory in Guanabacoa—a coup pulled b y the Cuban police in the summer of 1941—fantastic evidences of the ties between the N a z i w a r and propaganda machines w e r e seized. ( T h i s raid took place after the German, Italian, and Japanese legations had been closed.) V a s t amounts of N a z i propaganda, in Spanish and in E n g ­ lish, w e r e taken. A whole series of letters from Post Office B o x I P L 2 4 4 , H a m b u r g , G e r m a n y , w e r e transferred from the Falange strongboxes to the files of the Cuban police.

FALANGE T h e s e letters dealt extensively with Falange fueling bases in Latin A m e r i c a for N a z i surface raiders off the coast of Brazil and G e r m a n submarines in and around Cuban ter­ ritorial waters. T h e police found forged passports of Britain and the United States, vast quantities of Cuban G o v e r n m e n t sta­ tioner}' printed in Leipzig, and hundreds of strategic maps and photographs of electrical, industrial, and w a r installa­ tions in the Antilles. But the most amazing document seized in this raid w a s a complete and detailed set of military orders for a secret army evidently in existence on Cuban soil. T h i s a r m y con­ sisted of: A n infantry regiment of 1 2 0 officers and 3 1 0 0 men. A n artillery battalion of 25 officers and 725 men. A cavalry squadron of 1 5 officers and 332 men. A n engineers company of 4 officers and 250 men. A n aviation squadron of 22 officers and 179 men. A sanitary company of 6 officers and 100 men. T h e communication w h i c h described this skeleton secret a r m y w a s in the same file as a letter requesting ( 1 ) artillery, antiaircraft guns, field radio telephones, motorcycles, and other w a r materials and ( 2 ) the arming of three fast mer­ chant ships evidently owned b y the Cuban Falange. T h e Cuban police then raided the homes and business establishments of a large number of k n o w n Falangistas. In raid after raid, they discovered caches of rifles and small arms, bullets, and other materials of real armies. T h i s sudden toughness of the no-longer-tolerant Cuban G o v e r n m e n t gave the Falange and its leaders a fine case of jitters. Alejandro Villanueva simply disappeared. Some Cubans, intimate with the inner workings of the Falange, suspect that he died an unnatural death somewhere in South America. O n l y one definite thing is k n o w n about his movements after fleeing Cuba in 1 9 4 1 : w h e n he arrived in

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Spain, he fell into disgrace and was made a prisoner in Valencia. Sergio Cifuentes, propaganda chief of the Falange, w a s arrested in his sumptuous home in V e d a d o in M a y 1 9 4 1 . His confidential files w e r e taken b y the government and, after a trial, he managed to flee to Spain where he w a s re­ ceived with honors b y Franco and hailed as a conquering hero b y the Falange. Serrano Villarino, founder of the first Falange in Cuba, was also arrested b y the police; and, although he managed to w o r m out of the charges, he lost one of his most treasured possessions in the process. T h i s w a s a glowing letter from Fritz K u h n , Fiihrer of the German-American Bund, a let­ ter which ended with the twin c r y : "Arriba Espana! Heil Hitler!" T h e expulsion of the Nazi consuls made things more diffi­ cult for the Falange. T h e Falange in Matanzas, for instance, was deprived of the educational benefits of its meetings with the N a z i group led b y Clemens Ladmann. W h i l e Ladmann was still German Consul in Matanzas and Administrator of the Jarcia cord factory, he w o u l d meet with selected N a z i and Falange leaders in the Casino Espaiiol. After L a d ­ mann was expelled from the country, Oskar Harves, G e r ­ man vice-consul and office manager of the Jarcia plant, remained in Cuba to c a r r y on. But the meetings at the Casino Espaiiol had come to an end. Although Harves succeeded Ladmann as N u m b e r One Nazi, he had to trans­ mit his orders to the Falange through intermediaries. In Havana, in Matanzas, in Camaguey, and other cities Cubans began to petition their government to break off rela­ tions with Franco Spain and to jail all the Falangistas. T h i s g r o w i n g sentiment frightened the Falange and shook its supporters. Pepin R i v e r o and R a o u l Maestri began to think seriously in terms of newsprint. Roosevelt w a s backing the accursed Russians in their w a r with the Nazis—and newsprint w a s still controlled b y Canada and the United States. S o Pepin,

FALANGE hiding the medals he received from Hitler, Mussolini, and F r a n c o , and Maestri, forgetting his o w n published works, started a flirtation with the A m e r i c a n Ambassador, G e o r g e Messersmith. T h r o u g h the good offices of the American Embassy, Maestri w a s invited to lecture in the United States, at the expense of our government, on Latin-American problems. A n d w h e n an American magazine took a healthy swipe at the Falange, Pepin, and Maestri, the first man to rush to Maestri's defense w a s Ambassador Messersmith, A s if to make this defense stick, Messersmith posed for a picture with Pepin, Maestri, and other Diario de la Marina execu­ tives—a picture the paper displayed prominently in its roto­ gravure section. Then, for reasons w h i c h will some day make interesting reading, Pepin R i v e r o w a s awarded the 1 9 4 1 Maria M o o r s Cabot Prize for outstanding journalism in the cause of N o r t h and South American mutual understanding. H e traveled to N e w Y o r k in triumph, picked up the medal and the cash award from Nicholas M u r r a y Butler at Columbia U n i ­ versity, turned on all of his charm at a N e w Y o r k ban­ quet, and proclaimed himself a life-long admirer of democ­ racy. Shortly after Pepin g o t his medal, Messersmith w a s trans­ ferred from Cuba to Mexico. Cubans express great gratitude to the A m e r i c a n G o v e r n m e n t f o r having appointed Spruille Braden to Messersmith's old post. O n September 24, 1 9 4 1 , Francisco A l v a r e z Garcia, chief of the Falange in Cuba, received a coded cable at the Spanish Consulate. T h e y were his orders to return to Spain at once. Francisco de la V e g a , an important official of the Spanish Consulate in Havana, also received a cable. H e had been appointed the n e w chief of the Falange. Sefior de la V e g a w a s taking over the jobs of both Inspector General Villanueva and the Cuban Territorial Chief. B u t getting out of C u b a w a s not to prove an easy task for A l v a r e z Garcia. Lieutenant Francisco Padrone, of the

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Cuban Secret Police, tipped off that the Falange chief planned to leave on the Spanish steamer Magallanes early in October, felt that the A x is agent o w e d the Cuban G o v e r n ­ ment a long series of explanations. Waiting only until A l v a r e z Garcia had boarded the ship, Padrone and his men seized the Fascist's baggage. A l v a r e z Garcia, aided b y the ship's officers, escaped from the boat and took refuge in the Spanish Consulate. Here, despite the fact that the U r g e n c y Court of Cuba was demanding his ap­ pearance, Alvarez G a r c i a hid for a full month under the diplomatic protection of a "friendly" nation. T h e police surrounded the Consulate for the length of A l v a r e z Garcia's stay there. T h e people of Havana, although angered, were not blind to the humor of the situation. T h e siege of A l v a r e z Garcia became the butt of hundreds of jokes, and even the subject of improvised ditties sung b y the wandering street singers of the Cuban capital. W h i l e the legal authorities maneuvered to force the Spanish Consulate to disgorge Alvarez Garcia, Padrone and the Cuban Police made a detailed study of the Falange leader's baggage. L i k e G e n a r o Riestra, G a r c i a had taken a complete file of pictures and documents along to prove to v o n Faupel that he had done his job well. T h e pockets of the expensive suits in his trunks w e r e filled with letters, military orders, and other official records. In one of the trunks there w a s a complete collection of Arriba Espana, the official organ of the Falange in Cuba. B u t the prize item in the baggage of Francisco A l v a r e z G a r c i a was four thousand feet of 16 mm. motion-picture film, much of it in color. A Cuban w h o was present at one of the many screenings of this film at Police Headquarters describes it as a complete documentary movie on the four years of Falange activities in Cuba. It showed everything from meetings of the Falange to the Auxilio Social of the Falange, military drills, parades, and intimate v i e w s of activities in Falange headquarters. T h e actor w h o "stole" the entire picture was, in the opinion of all w h o saw it,

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Pepin R i v e r o . H e dominated e v e n sequence he was in, and, say the eyewitnesses, he w a s in most of them. Francisco A l v a r e z G a r c i a w a s finally permitted to return to Spain via Spanish steamer in N o v e m b e r . W h i l e he w a s on the high seas, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. T w o days after Pearl Harbor, Cuba declared w a r on the A x i s powers. A s in Manila, the Spanish legation in Havana took over the diplomatic representation of German, Italian, and J a p a ­ nese interests w h e n the w a r brought on the complete break. W h i l e scores of Nazis, Italians, and Japanese w e r e rounded up and sent to the Cuban internment camp for enemy aliens on the Isle of Pines, the less prominent A x i s agents w e n t into hiding. Somewhere in the interior of Cuba, shortly before Pearl Harbor, a Japanese secret agent met with certain Falangistas and turned over to them a large sum of money, ear­ marked for the common cause of all the A x is nations. T h e funds of the G e r m a n organizations, from the N a z i P a r t y to the W i n t e r Hilfe, seemed to have vanished into thin air. But in the files of the Cuban Secret Police there is a complete record of the number of visits W a l t e r L a d e mann, treasurer of the N a z i organizations, paid to the Spanish legation before Pearl H a r b o r . Lademann is n o w imprisoned on the Isle of Pines. M a n y of the other N a z i agents w h o regularly visited the Spanish Consulate before Pearl H a r b o r became prisoners on the Isle of Pines with Cuba's declaration of w a r . T h e Spanish Consulate became their legal adviser. F o r a long time the Spanish Consulate was able to arrange for the Nazis to receive visitors in the internment camp. Manuel A l v a r e z R e y m u n d e , commercial attache in the consulate, made fre­ quent arrangements for former Cuban Minister of State Cortina to visit Nazis on the Isle of Pines. T h i s precipitated so great a scandal that, in A u g u s t 1 9 4 2 , the government clamped down on all visitors' permits to the camp. T h e temper of the government and the people has put the

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Falange and the Spanish diplomatic corps on its guard. B u t the 30,000 Falange members, after seven years of train­ ing, are far from inactive. N o r are they carrying on with empty hands. T h e present leadership of the Falange is held b y Francisco de la V e g a , w h o operates out of the Spanish Consulate in Havana. H i g h in the ranks of the current Falange leadership are: L o p e z Santo, Santa Clara 164, Havana Aureliana y Faustino Tarnos, Campostela 707, Havana J o s e Martinez Gorriaru, Muralla 209, Havana Esteban Uriarte, Merced y Picota, Havana Jesus Humara, Havana. Instructions and propaganda still reach the Falange via Spanish ships, which p l y the seas with complete freedom. T h e Spanish diplomatic pouches are kept fairly free of in­ criminating correspondence, since trusted and secret N a z i couriers on board Spanish ships can carry messages and funds in total obscurity. T h e most recent line of Falange propaganda as sent to C u b a from Madrid has an eerie ring. Booklets printed in Madrid and Santander preach Hispanidad as usual, attack President Batista for his "liberal" policies and his "inferior racial origins," hail Charles A . Lindbergh as the "great caballero of the continent," and—hopefully—assert that this w a r will finally prove the inherent inferiority of the democracies and the strength of the Axis. M a n y Cuban citi­ zens w h o receive these booklets in the mails promptly turn them over to the police. Currently, the Falange is t r y i n g to organize a LatinAmerican Y o u t h Congress in Madrid in 1943. Literature of the Falange says that the delegates from Latin A m e r i c a will be taken on a tour of the N e w Spain, and that the first step on this tour will be the tomb of El Apostol—Jose An­ tonio Primo de Rivera. T h e powerful Spanish set w h i c h openly and covertly

7

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FALANGE

supported the Falange since 1 9 3 6 is, today, far from quies­ cent. T h e Spanish c r o w d in the Lonja del Comercio, under the inspiration of the Falange, is engaged in open warfare against the w a r policies of the Batista government. E a r l y in the course of the w a r , Batista pushed through a set of price-fixing laws and created an official agency, the O R P A (Office of Price Regulation) to enforce these laws. T h e y w e r e designed to prevent inflation. M a n y of the Lonja members w h o backed the Falange have persistently broken the O R P A laws, particularly those relating to food prices. A s a result, prices in Cuba are in some cases nearly 50 per cent higher than they w e r e at the start of the w a r . Certain k n o w n Falangist businessmen in H a v a n a are hoarding alcohol for greater profits. T h i s not only creates great fire hazards, but it also keeps much-needed alcohol from reaching the w a r industries of the United States. In politics, the wealthy Falangistas and their friends pour vast sums into the political campaign funds of enemies of the Batista coalition. T h e Diario de la Marina, still the spokesman for the Spanish set, plays a careful but dangerous game. On the sur­ face, the paper is all for the democracies. But the Diario de la Marina is still violently pro-Franco. It raises issues like the hazards of a Russian victory in this war, and attacks win-the-war Cuban policies like price control, fair labor legislation, and the diversified agricultural program designed to g r o w less sugar and more food. A t t a c k s on price-control legislation are far more serious in Cuba than in most other countries. F o r the great majority of Cubans are employed in the sugar fields—where there is w o r k for only t w o months of the year. T h e slightest rise in prices spells catastrophe to almost the entire population; a catastrophe which benefits only the A x i s powers. L i k e the price-control measures, Batista's labor and agricultural di­ versification programs are designed t o keep Cuba from fall­ ing d o w n in her w a r tasks. Should these programs be

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wrecked, Cuba will become, not an asset, but a liability to the United Nations. E a r l y in 1 9 4 2 , the Cuban Government put an unofficial but nevertheless effective embargo on the trans-shipment via Cuba of w a r supplies from South America to Spain in the ships of the Compafiia Transatlantica Espafiola, the shipping line owned b y the Spanish State. T h e Nazis had been receiv­ ing Chilean nitrates and other vital w a r materials over this route. T h e Diario de la Marina fought vigorously and suc­ cessfully for the lifting of this embargo. W i t h the outbreak of the w a r , the Cuban Government issued restrictions against publishing certain types of ship­ ping information, on the logical grounds that such informa­ tion w o u l d be valuable to the commanders of the N a z i submarines in the Caribbean and the South Atlantic. T h e Diario de la Marina violated these restrictions so flagrantly in A p r i l 1 9 4 2 that the government was forced to seize one issue of the paper and take legal steps to prevent further violations. O f the 500,000 Spaniards in Cuba, only 30,000 joined the Falange. T h e overwhelming majority of the Spaniards in Latin America, like their brothers in Spain, are sworn ene­ mies of the Falange and the Fascist A x i s of which it is a satellite. Cuban Spaniards, those of long residence and those w h ofledto Cuba as refugees from Nazi Spain, are the firm­ est allies the Cuban Government has in its unrelenting w a r against the Falange. T h e Casa de la Cultura, largest of the refugee Republican organizations, has over 30,000 active members. M a n y of them have risked their lives to get evi­ dence against the A x i s Fifth Column in Cuba. M o r e than one cell of the Falange in Cuba and Latin America has within its ranks Spanish Republicans w h o joined the Falange only to act as unpaid, unsung, and unknown agents of the governments w h i c h shelter them. T h e average Cuban, far from having any inner desires once again to be part of the Spanish E m p i r e , is aggressively anti-Axis, fervently pro-United Nations. A n indication of

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h o w the Cubans feel about the Spanish Empire and the w a r can be found at any Cuban baseball stadium. Baseball is as popular in Cuba as it is in B r o o k l y n ; and the Cuban fans, like the D o d g e r rooters, look upon all umpires as their natural enemies. F o r forty years, w h e n Cuban fans really wanted to tell an umpire what they thought of his larceny, they flung but one choice epithet at his head: "Guerrillero/" The Guerrilleros w e r e the storm troopers of the Spanish mon­ archy in Cuba. T o d a y the Cuban fans have another epithet. T h e call the umpire a quintet columnista, a Fifth Columnist. A l t h o u g h the Diario de la Marina is considered b y some Americans to be Cuba's leading paper, it falls behind antiA x i s papers like El Pais and El Mundo in circulation. T h e Cuban labor movement, an important factor in the nation's political life, is all-out in its support of the w a r and the Batista government. T h e daily newspaper of the Cuban Confederation of W o r k e r s , Hoy, started from scratch four years ago and now has a larger circulation than the Diario de la Marina. F o r four years its pages have sailed into the Falange tooth and nail, and its ace reporters like D i e g o Gonzalez Martin and Fernando Carr have put more than one Falangista on the road back to Madrid—or in jail. Fulgencio Batista, more perhaps than any other statesman of the Western Hemisphere, understands the role of the Falange in this war. Cubans in and close to the government make no secret of the fact that Batista wants to break off diplomatic relations with Hitler's Spain. T h e only thing, they say, that keeps him back is fear of treading on W a s h ­ ington's toes. M a n y democratic Cubans, encouraged b y the language and the actions of Spruille Braden, our present Ambassador, feel that Cuba will have the full support of Washington if the Antillean republic breaks with Spain. Perhaps they are not being overoptimistic. But as long as A x i s Spain retains its legations in the N e w W o r l d , the Falange will remain an undercover Fifth Column that does not lack for direction, leadership, and funds.

C H A P T E R

FOUR:

Meet tlte Gray Shirts T H E A F T E R N O O N OF F R I D A Y , O c t o b e r 6, 1 9 3 7 , began nor­ m a l l y enough in H a v a n a . T h e n , like locusts, cards began to descend u p o n the c i t y . T h e y w e r e four inches l o n g and f i v e inches w i d e , and t h e y w e r e i n m a n y colors. B u t w h a t e v e r their c o l o r , t h e y a l l bore the s a m e printed message, a message that m a d e m a n y Cubans pinch themselves t o see if t h e y w e r e really i n H a v a n a . T h e f u l l text r e a d : CUBAN: A t t e n d the first m e e t i n g o f the L E G I O N O F N A T I O N A L R E V O L U T I O N A R Y S Y N D I C A L I S T S at t h e C e n t r a l P a r k , S a t u r d a y , O c t o b e r 7, at 8 P . M . EXALTED NATIONALISM ABSOLUTE CUBANIDAD F r o m the legionaire p l a t f o r m all the defects will b e explained to y o u , who are i n v o l v e d . A n d all the evils caused b y C o m ­ m u n i s m , J u d a i s m , p o l i t i c i a n s ' chatter, and t h e false r e v o l u t i o n ­ aries; and h o w the L E G I O N O F N A T I O N A L R E V O L U ­ T I O N A R Y S Y N D I C A L I S T S t h r o u g h its C R E D O w i l l finish off s u c h p e r f i d y . Speakers: F . Fernandez, Bias Hernandez, Elicio Garcia, A r turo E . de Carricarte, A b e l a r d o G o n z a l e z V i l a and Jesus M . Marinas. N o m o r e politicians' talk. N o m o r e h u n g e r . N o m o r e b e ­ trayal. N o more J e w s . N o more Racism between Cubans. B r e a d a n d shelter f o r all C u b a n s . . . F o r a free C u b a , independent a n d s o v e r e i g n . CUBA ARISE! C o m m i s s i o n o f Press a n d P r o p a g a n d a . The

next

evening, in H a v a n a ' s

pretty

Central

Park,

against the background of t h e classic Capitolio designed a l o n g the lines of the Capitol in Washington, J e s u s Marinas m a d e his debut as t h e leader o f a Fascist movement. H e w o r e a g r a y shirt, as d i d his s m a l l corps o f Legionaires, 79

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and an armband bearing the insignia of a dagger and an open book. H i s small mustache w a s a cross between the brush under A d o l f Hitler's nose and the classic Spanish moustachio. H e affected at one and the same time the stern seren­ ity of the official portrait of y o u n g Primo de R i v e r a and the frenetic hysteria of the N a z i Fuhrer. It w a s a truly amazing performance. T o a curious audi­ ence of Cubans—probably the least anti-Semitic people in the Western Hemisphere—Marinas ranted and shrieked about the Jewish menace in Cuba. F r o m the J e w s , Marinas shifted his attention to "Imperialism." T h i s monster w a s re­ sponsible f o r Cuba's hunger. But as he w e n t on, Marinas made clear that he w a s not speaking about German, or J a p a ­ nese, o r Spanish imperialism. W h a t he meant w a s " Y a n k e e Imperialism," and he meant it in no uncertain terms. W i t h the J e w s and Imperialism, Marinas linked Communism as the third of the great problems weighing on the Cuban people. T h e r e w a s something only too familiar about this credo. Jesus Marinas had but recently changed his Falange Blue Shirt for the Legion g r a y shirt, and had changed it on orders from his chief, Francisco Alvarez Garcia. T h e L e g i o n of National Revolutionary Syndicalists was merely a subsidi­ a r y of the Falange. It w a s the Cuban prototype of A d o l f Hitler's LatinAmerican trump card. Although it never became k n o w n outside of Cuba, the G r a y - S h i r t movement represented the menace of the Falange in its most acute form—the Falange disguised as a native organization without foreign ties of any sort. T h i s t y p e of false-front Falange organization epitomizes the careful planning of men like Wilhelm von Faupel. O r ­ ganized while the Falange was still legal, it w a s created for the primary purpose of providing a base of operations f o r the Nazis if and w h e n A x i s Spain w a s finally forced to openly g o to w a r against the democracies.

Meet the Gray

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A n intimate knowledge of the machinations and the se­ crets of the G r a y Shirts in Cuba provides the k e y to the operation of Falange-front organizations all over Latin America—including the Sinarquistas of Mexico, whose 500,¬ 000 members form a dangerous anti-American bloc on our borders. W h e n and if A x i s Spain makes its belligerency offi­ cial and the Spanish diplomatic network which nourishes and guides the Falange is dissolved, scores of organizations like the G r a y Shirts—many of them already in existence— will arise to carry on the tasks of the Falange E x t e r i o r in the Americas. j u s t as the Falange inherited the Latin-American funds of the Germans, Italians, and Japanese after w a r w a s declared, so, too, will fronts like the G r a y Shirts inherit the resources of their parent organization if Spain goes to w a r . T h e story of the G r a y Shirts which follows, then, should be v i e w e d in the light of a pattern for much of the Fascist activities that will develop in Latin A m e r i c a as the w a r progresses. In political parlance, the G r a y Shirts w e r e originally es­ tablished as a "stink-bomb" movement. B y beclouding as many issues as they possibly could, b y stirring up all sorts of national troubles, the G r a y Shirts would theoretically keep many anti-Fascist Cubans from w o r r y i n g too much about the Falange. In time, as the G r a y Shirts g r e w in num­ bers, their whole membership w o u l d make excellent w h i p ­ ping b o y s to absorb blows aimed at the Falange. T h e Japanese had a slight hand in the G r a y - S h i r t m o v e ­ ment, too. H a v i n g studied the Cuban domestic situation for over a decade, they w e r e aware that the island's large N e g r o population suffered from many instances of racial discrimi­ nation. ( T h e y also k n e w that the men responsible for this discrimination w e r e the men behind the Falange.) T o k i o has for years spread propaganda among N e g r o e s to the ef­ fect that the Japanese A r m y is fighting the battle of all the dark races. W h i l e the G r a y Shirts w e r e being formed, the Japanese sent in a Cuban w h o became one of its leaders. T h i s

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Japanese agent—his name is k n o w n to the Cuban police— inserted the plank about "no racism between Cubans" in the L e g i o n platform. Marinas started to d r a w his membership largely from the ranks of the petty middle class. Unlike the Falange, which in Cuba at least attracted the cream of high society, the L e ­ gion was largely a sans culottes outfit. Marinas organized a feminine section and a Student Legion, w o r e himself hoarse speaking to small c r o w d s in half-filled auditoriums, and waited patiently for orders. In the beginning, the Legion's magazine, Action Legionaria, was expensively printed. One of its early issues ran a tear-jerking tribute to y o u n g Primo de R i v e r a ; all of them found something w o r t h y of praise in Italy, G e r m a n y , Japan, and F r a n c o Spain. B u t propaganda was n o t the primary mission of the G r a y Shirts. T h e Legion w a s created to stir dissension in Cuba, and w h e n its membership reached the three thousand mark Marinas, on orders, launched the National W o r k e r s C o m ­ mittee, an affiliate of the Legion. T h i s committee w a s de­ signed to raid the existing labor unions for membership. Legion officials launched the National W o r k e r s Commit­ tee in a unique manner. T h e y offered the strong-arm squad of the G r a y Shirts to certain firms on the H a v a n a wharves as union busters. T h e offer w a s accepted—but o n l y once. It led to something Marinas had not bargained for. T h e union he chose to break remained unbroken, which was more than could be said for the heads of some of Marinas's L e g i o n aires. T h e L e g i o n of N a t i o n a l Revolutionary Syndicalists re­ mained a stepchild of t h e Falange until the w a r in Spain came to an end. T h e y d i d not really figure in the v o n Faupel plans for Cuba until t h e second phase of the Falange in the Americas was under w a y . But as the invasion of Poland neared, the Falange b e g a n to pay closer attention to the G r a y Shirts. Francisco Alvarez G a r c i a , Chief of the Cuban Falange,

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had a trusted Falange official make a private s u r v e y of the G r a y Shirts. B y J u l y 1 9 3 9 they still stood at the threethousand mark, with possibly another thousand in their Stu­ dent L e g i o n . T h e i r strongholds w e r e Havana, Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Caibarien, and Matanzas. U n d e r Marinas's lead­ ership, the G r a y Shirts had developed into the proper nu­ cleus of a Fascist terror c o r p s . M a n y of the students, like the adult G r a y Shirts, w e r e in the habit of c a r r y i n g guns and knives. A t their public meetings, the G r a y Shirts mauled opponents w h o showed t h e slightest disrespect for the speakers. T h e G r a y Shirts had also established close relations with the Nazis. T h e r e w a s quite a quarrel between the Falange chief and his G r a y Shirt underling w h e n a Falange in­ spector, snooping in Marinas's files, found a letter sent b y Luis M i n e s Diaz to the L e g i o n chief on J u l y 1 8 , 1939. Diaz, the Legion's chief of press and propaganda, w r o t e a long letter to Marinas about L e g i o n affairs. T o w a r d the end of the letter w e r e these sentences: Antonio Rodriguez has just told me that the sportsman, Bubi Rugchi, is in Havana, and I have agreed to go with him to visit the Legion on Sunday. So y o u , or the Chief of the Militia, re­ ceive him so that he is introduced. He belongs to the Nazi Youth of Germany. Alvarez Garcia, w h o suspected that Marinas w a s trying to get at N a z i funds w i t h o u t his knowledge, threatened to remove him as the L e g i o n leader. Marinas, w h o felt that he had not been treated p r o p e r l y b y the Falange, defended himself vigorously. T h e q u a r r e l ended with the Falange leader promising Marinas m o r e funds and m o r e jobs for L e g i o n members. Marinas, in turn, had to promise to create more discipline in his ranks. Discipline came to the G r a y Shirts in the person of A . P . G o l o w c h e n k o , a round, short, rasp-voiced martinet w h o claimed to have been a captain in the Czarist Russian N a v y .

8

4

FALANGE

G o l o w c h e n k o , w h o spoke Spanish with a heavy accent, arrived in Havana in 1940 to assume the leadership of Cuba's Ukrainian Nazis. T h e r e w e r e only t w o hundred Ukrainian Nazis in Havana but, as Michael Sayers and Albert K a h n revealed in their book, Sabotage, the Ukrainian Fascist movement has for many years been used b y the G e r m a n s and the Japanese as a reservoir of terrorists all over the w o r l d . Havana's t w o hundred Ukrainian Nazis w e r e all hard-bitten, veteran terrorists—ready to commit a n y act, including murder, at the command of their leaders. A l l of the A x i s groups in Cuba g r e w to k n o w G o l o w ­ chenko well. H e had close relations with the Japanese and the Italians, but his particular job seems to have been as drill-master for the G r a y Shirts and the Falange. H e w a s a hard taskmaster on the drill fields, training his men in the methods approved b y the Czar's a r m y in 1 9 1 4 as well as in tricks he had learned from the Japanese. N o t only G o l o w c h e n k o , but also some of his Ukrainian N a z i followers, devoted most of their w a k i n g hours to the Legion. T h e y participated in public and private meetings of the G r a y Shirts, adding a weird international flavor to the fiercely nationalistic L e g i o n . T h e Nationalism of the L e g i o n became as tainted as the nationalism of Franco's "nationalists." In their files w a s N a z i propaganda, printed in G e r m a n y , in the strangest languages. One of the choice exhibits w a s the assortment of propaganda printed in Hungarian, b y G e r m a n Nazis, for distribution abroad. It became one of the odd jobs of the G r a y Shirts to hunt up stray Hungarians in Cuba and press this G e r m a n propaganda upon them. Other pieces were printed in E n g ­ lish and German. T h e Russian-Finnish W a r also served to dilute the nation­ alism of the G r a y Shirts. N o sooner had it started than the L e g i o n organized, within its ranks, a Committee for A i d to Finland. T h e Finnish Consul, Guillermo E v e r t , was much touched b y this action, and on M a r c h 6, 1940, he wrote a formal letter of thanks to Marinas on the stationary of the consulate. It had an interesting salutation: " I join y o u in the

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c r y of L o n g L i v e Finland and Independent C u b a ! " T h e G r a y - S h i r r slogan the Finnish Consul quoted, "Cuba Independientes!", had a particular meaning. It referred to a Cuba independent of " Y a n k e e Imperialism," as everyone in H a ­ vana knew. B y this time, the Falange had started to treat the G r a y Shirts as a useful factor. In preparation for their coming role, the G r a y Shirts w e r e ordered to gain a modicum of respectability and to seek some sound advice. In February 1940 Jesus Marinas started to see Pepin Rivero. Between visits, they exchanged a most cordial—and revealing—correspondence. T h e r e was, for instance, the letter Pepin sent Marinas on M a r c h 1 8 , 1 9 4 0 . T h i s letter said, among other things: I have received yours of the fifth, in which you remind me of your pleasant visit in company of the members of the Su­ preme Council of-the brave League of National Revolutionary Syndicalists. T h e enormous accumulation of responsibilities that weigh over me in these times has forced me to cancel the interviews for one month. T h a t is why I send y o u this letter begging you to have an interview with the secretary of my editorial staff, Dr. Oscar Cicero, who has my orders already to take care of you as you deserve and to place the pages of the Diario at the service of the good Cuban legionnaires. I hope to notify you soon, granting you an interview which will be for me a sincere pleasure. Affectionate greeting, brazo en alto, Your affectionate friend, etc., J O S E I. RIVERO

T h i s letter makes clear the fact that R i v e r o ' s meeting with Marinas and the Supreme Council of the G r a y Shirts w a s one of a series of interviews. T h e brazo en alto salute—the Hitler salute—is not a typographical error. T h e date of this letter makes it particularly interesting to American readers. W h e n Pepin arrived in N e w Y o r k to accept the presentation of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for

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Journalism on N o v e m b e r 10, 1 9 4 1 , there was something of a public scandal. N e w s p a p e r s like P M called D r . Butler's at­ tention to the fact that the man due to receive the medal at Columbia University w a s a Fascist of long standing. T h e y cited the fact that Pepin had received the Order of the G e r ­ man E a g l e from Hitler, an order awarded to persons w h o had performed services valued most highly b y the Nazis State, and they called attention to his record as a Falangista. Pepin was forced to make a statement. H e denied all. O f course, he said, he had aided the Franco's forces in Spain, but that was only to save Spain from communism. T h e Spanish w a r ended in A p r i l 1 9 3 9 . B y M a r c h 1940, Spain had already been saved from what Pepin chose to call communism. A n d it w a s in M a r c h 1940 that Pepin was offering Marinas ad­ vice, publicity, and the brazo en alto salute. Marinas received many letters from the Diario de la Marina. One that must be mentioned w a s on the Diario letterhead of the "Private Secretary of the Director." T h i s letter, dated October 5, 1940, notified Marinas that an ap­ pointment had been made for the G r a y - S h i r t Caudillo and his aides to meet with Raoul Maestri. The letter w a s signed b y Miguel Baguer. Miguel Baguer's name also was on the masthead of Arriba Espana, official organ of the Falange E x ­ terior. Baguer was the Director of this Falange organ. T h e G r a y Shirts also sought spiritual advice in 1940. T h i s letter, written M a r c h 1 3 , 1940, on the letterhead of the Archbishop of Havana, was signed b y the Vice-Chancellor. S R . J E S U S MARINAS C H I E F NATIONAL LECIONAIRE DISTINGUISHED AND ESTEEMED S I R : —

B y order of the Most Illustrious Capitulary Vicar, S.V. rServant of the V i r g i n ] , I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your courteous letter of the 1 ith, and at the same time to inform you that His Illustrious Serenity will have great pleasure in receiving you next Friday at 10.00 A . M . to deter­ mine who is to be named Counselor of the Legion of National Revolutionary Syndicalists . . .

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Marinas had already had one interview at the Archbish­ op's palace on February 27, w h e n he first asked for a spirit­ ual adviser. It w a s never revealed w h o finally w a s appointed when Marinas returned to the Palace in March, but shortly after this a whole detachment of uniformed G r a y Shirts, carrying their banners, marched to the Cathedral of Havana, where they w e r e blessed after praying for the victory of their cause. T h i s n e w respectability g a v e Marinas a feeling of added p o w e r . W h e n he w a s ordered t o hold drill sessions more fre­ quently, he made it k n o w n that G r a y Shirts w h o missed a single military drill w o u l d be subjected to severe punish­ ment. Action Legionaria, the n o w mimeographed publication of the G r a y Shirts, g r e w bolder, too. In 1940 it w a s coming out w i t h issues so patently N a z i that even the Falangist high command began to w o n d e r if perhaps Marinas w a s not g o ­ ing too far. T h e issue of December 1 5 , 1940, is a case in point. T h e cover featured a Der Stunner caricature of a J e w and the slogan: " F U E R A J U D I O S " [Out with the J e w s ] . Inside, illustrated with more N u r e m b u r g art, was a long article on the subject. T h e r e w a s also a page b y "Comrade A r m a n d o Valdes Zorrilla," w h i c h contained these choice nuggets: SUGAR TO SWEETEN T H E ENGLISH There is a movement to get Cuba to remit tons of sugar for 'poor and unfortunate' England. T h e authors of this project must have souls of honey, must be melting with tenderness, to conceive that Cuba sweeten English life with Sugar. . . . After all, it is logical that if the English are the owners of sugar in conspiracy with the Americans, that the intended ship­ ment does not arouse notice. This is a proof that hunger only visits England and not Germany. And that for the English babies it comes in handy to get a little bit of sugar water. T h e Legionaires will send the needed bottles and nipples to wean the English babies.

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T H E AMERICAN PRESIDENT A N D T H E CUBANS Recently a message was sent to the President-Dictator of the United States in the name of the Cuban people. This message called him the champion of America and the idol of the peo­ ples of America. It is sad that we have to clarify the fact that Cubans are not in accord with the message in question, since we feel deeply the . . . oppression of the Philippines, the slavery of the small peoples of the Continent, and all the other provocations of the President-Dictator to the peoples who are friends of Europe. When one speaks of the people one has to be very careful, sefiors parrots of the fostered American democracy and of the hypocritical manifestations of the I N H A B I T A N T O F T H E W H I T E HOUSE. T h e G r a y Shirts w e r e greatly concerned about w h o the inhabitant of the W h i t e H o u s e should be. T h e y had their o w n candidate f o r this job. O n the public platforms, in their publications, and in handbills they shouted his name for all t o hear. T h e name w a s Charles Augustus Lindbergh. A s they g r e w more outspokenly fascist, the G r a y Shirts became strong-arm men for the Falange at m a n y meetings— precisely the role the Falange itself had played for the C E D A and the Monarchists in the prewar Spain. Marinas tried desperately to gain a greater following b y strutting and screaming on platforms everywhere. H e made little headway among the average Cubans, running particularly afoul of their magnificent sense of humor. T h e quip that hurt most was the commonly repeated one, "poor Marinas— he tries so hard to be like Primo Rivera and A d o l f Hitler, and all the time, the harder he tries, he succeeds in becoming daily more like Jesus Marinas." Y e t the G r a y Shirts presented a real problem, since they had attracted to their ranks just those elements of Cuban life w h i c h form the storm-trooper armies of fascism every­ where. A n d just as the B r o w n Shirts in pre-Hitler G e r m a n y gave the early storm troopers jobs and uniforms to keep

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them going, so, too, did the Falange take care of enough G r a y Shirts to keep them happy. One of the places where G r a y Shirts found employment was in the chain of dining rooms maintained b y the Auxilio Social of the Falange. But even here Marinas found the g o ­ ing difficult, since the average Falangista looked d o w n upon the G r a y Shirts as the scum of the earth. M o r e than once, Marinas w a s forced to take time off from more important duties to intercede for a G r a y Shirt w h o wanted a job as a waiter in an Auxilio Social dining room. It w a s one of these attempts to gain employment for his followers that gave the Cuban police one of their most im­ portant documentary proofs of the connection between the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista and the L e g i o n of N a ­ tional Revolutionary Syndicalists. On September 2 3 , 1940, Marinas wrote a long letter to Falange Chief Francisco A l ­ varez Garcia about a G r a y Shirt w h o had been fired from an Auxilio Social job. T h e other things the letter revealed are worth quoting. Marinas, addressing his letter to A l v a r e z G a r c i a as "Distin­ guished Comrade," went on to say: Ties of real and sincere comradeship link me to you, and you know perfectly my demotion and affection for the glorious FALANGE. I, as Chief of the L E G I O N , am honored in coming from the Blue ranks ( F A L A N G E ) and preserve very deeply in my soul the days of sadness and joy alike that the Movement of Libera­ tion made us all feel. . . . Could there be people who would like to intrigue between the Falange and the Legion? . . . Braze en alto, I am yours for a Syndicalist Spain and Cuba. Marinas showed his terroristic hand even against his o w n membership. T h e Cuban Secret Police twice had to step in to protect G r a y Shirts w h o tried to resign peacefully from the organization. Fernando Sanchez G o m e z joined the Student's L e g i o n in N o v e m b e r 1938. Before long he found himself a full-fledged

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trusted henchmen w e r e arrested b y the Cuban police, tried, and sentenced to long terms on the Isle of Pines within a w e e k of the attack on Pearl H a r b o r . F o r the moment, the history of the G r a y - S h i r t movement has reached a dark, blank page. B u t the complete member­ ship lists of the G r a y Shirts are in the Spanish Consulate in H a v a n a ; and if this c o p y should be lost, there are other copies in the files of General v o n Faupel in Madrid and in the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin. Cubans w h o have had much to do with combating Fifth Column activities in their country are still v e r y much con­ cerned about the apparently dissolved L e g i o n of National Revolutionary Syndicalists. T h e y k n o w that the under­ ground G r a y - S h i r t movement will not be leaderless as long as the Falange remains an entity in Cuba. T h e y feel that the Falange is holding the G r a y Shirts in reserve until C u b a be­ gins to feel the inevitable pinch of a long w a r . A n d that then the G r a y Shirts, backed with plenty of funds, will re­ turn to add blood to the Axis-muddied waters.

C H A P T E R

F I V E :

Cliveden in the Caribbean I N T H E L A T E SPRING of 1 9 4 1 , Cuba's Secret Police, c o m ­ manded b y General Manuel Benitez, received some secret information through the good offices of the Spanish R e p u b ­ lican leaders in Havana. It w a s the tip that the Falange in Madrid w a s sending a y o u n g assassin to Cuba to commit certain unspecified acts. Benitez ordered a vigilant watch on e v e r y incoming Span­ ish liner, since this w a s the most possible means of entry f o r a n y Falange agent. T h e airports in H a v a n a and other Cuban cities w e r e placed under a special detail. Still other police agents began to patrol the Cuban shores in small fishing boats. Sometimes small boats w e r e lowered over the side of a ship and agents landed in them. E a r l y in J u n e , a y o u n g Spaniard, arriving in Havana on board a Spanish ship, attracted the notice of t w o of Benitez's operatives. T h e y searched him and his baggage carefully. H i d d e n in a secret compartment of his small trunk were t w o documents. T h e first, w h i c h bore a photo of the suspicious passenger, w a s membership book number 244921 of the Falange Espafiola Tradicionalista. It had been issued to Jose del R i o Cumbreras in Cadiz on the fourteenth of February, 1939, w h e n its o w n e r was a student of eighteen. T h e second document w a s a tattered letter, signed b y Diego Dominguez Diaz, chief of the Cadiz Falange, testifying to his complete reliability as a tried and tested Falangista. W h i l e the Secret Police agents studied these documents, y o u n g Cumbreras tried to bolt. One of the agents brought the nervous y o u n g Fascist to his knees. " W h y did y o u come to C u b a ? " he was asked. Cumbreras answered b y attempting to fight his w a y out of the arms that n o w held him securely. A g a i n the question w a s put to him, and w h e n he still refused to answer, he was taken to Secret Police headquarters. H e r e the authorities 93

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decided quietly to place Cumbreras in solitary and, for the time being, to hold him incommunicado until further devel­ opments. Utmost secrecy w a s preserved. O n l y a handful of Cuban officials ever k n e w that Cumbreras had been arrested, and where he w a s being held. D a i l y the Cuban authorities tried t o make the y o u n g Falangista talk. D a i l y he g r e w more stubborn. Clearly Falange Chief Diaz had not been mistaken w h e n he put his signature to the document which attested to the fact that Cumbreras had shown "perfect and total dis­ cipline during the entire length of his service in our strug­ gle and conducted himself to the complete satisfaction of his chiefs." T h e Cuban police studied Cumbreras's luggage carefully. T h e r e w e r e n o clues t o his real function. H i s letter of r e c ­ ommendation from Diaz had been written on J a n u a r y 26, 1940—over a y e a r before his arrest in Havana—and had been used so much that it had all but disintegrated from wear. T h e y o u n g agent had evidently used it often, but whether he had carried it in Latin America or Spain w a s a question he refused to answer. T h e picture on the inside of Cumbreras's Falange membership carnet w a s the photo of a d e w y - e y e d y o u n g schoolboy in a uniform and a beret w h o bore only a faint resemblance to the sullen, pouting, w i r y y o u n g Fascist in the H a v a n a jail. U n d e r ordinary circumstances, Cumbreras w o u l d have been put on board the next Spanish ship to leave H a v a n a and warned to stay a w a y from Cuba f o r the next hundred years. B u t Cumbreras had arrived in Cuba after the police received their information about a y o u n g assassin, and until they could be sure that he w a s not the man they w e r e looking for, they w e r e determined to hold him. T h e y felt that were Cumbreras actually an important, if unpleasant, cog in the Falange machine, the Spanish legation w o u l d in time make some move for the y o u n g militante's release. So, pending this t y p e of a break in the case, they held Cumbreras secretly in solitary confinement, questioning him

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with due regularity e v e r y day. A n d learning nothing. But the Cuban police k n o w h o w to be patient. T h e break in the Cumbreras case came sooner than it had been expected, and from an unexpected quarter. On J u n e 1 9 , 1 9 4 1 , the Cuban authorities released Jose del R i o Cumbreras, at the request of the Panamanian G o v e r n ­ ment. Y o u n g Cumbreras had ostensibly, on the 18th, signed a labor contract of the Panamanian Government, drawn up and countersigned b y D r . Antonio Iraizoz, Consul General of Panama in Havana. T h e contract, which bore a more re­ cent photo of Cumbreras than the one on his Spanish creden­ tials, w a s legal in e v e r y sense. T h i s contract called for Cumbreras to sail for Panama C i t y within ten days after being validated. T h e Panamanian Government w a s to provide his transportation and to guar­ antee his food and lodging for a period of a full year. N o t h ­ ing was said in the contract about the t y p e of services C u m ­ breras w a s to perform f o r the Panamanian Government, but after the contract w a s presented to the Cuban authorities and Cumbreras w a s released, someone penned the legend "# 40: M A S O N B R I C K L A Y E R " on the top of the original document. It w a s a neat fait accompli. T h e Cuban authorities could not risk any international complications b y refusing to hand Cumbreras over to the Panamanian Government. In order to refuse t o release Cumbreras they w o u l d have been forced to state w h y the y o u n g Fascist w a s being held—and "sus­ picion" might not have been accepted as a sufficient reason b y the violently and flagrantly pro-Axis Panamanian G o v ­ ernment of A r n u l f o A r i a s . Consul General Iraizoz w o n out and, much as they wanted to, the Cuban police for diplomatic reasons n o w had to refrain from asking Iraizoz a series of pointed questions. These questions, although never put to Iraizoz, made Cuban governmental circles hum for weeks. H o w had Iraizoz learned that Cumbreras w a s in Cuba? H o w had the

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Panamanian Consul General learned where Cumbreras w a s being held? W h y had the Panamanian Government drawn up a contract with Cumbreras? W a s the y o u n g Falangista really a mason bricklayer, or did Arias of Panama have other duties in mind for him in the Canal Zone? T h e most puzzling, and the most obstinate, of the ques­ tions remained unanswered. H o w had the Panamanian C o n ­ sul General learned that Cumbreras w a s being held incom­ municado in solitary confinement b y the Cuban police? Some authorities felt that somewhere there w a s a leak in the Cuban Secret Police organization itself. Others asserted that the Spanish Consulate, informed of Cumbreras's arrest b y members of the ship's c r e w , had deduced his w h e r e ­ abouts. B u t the most persistent explanation was voiced in but t w o words: "Cliveden Set." Before the y e a r ended, a series of events in the Caribbean countries w a s to bring the role of Cuba's Cliveden Set to the fore and make the Cumbreras m y s t e r y one of the secret scandals of Latin A m e r i c a . T h e background f o r the most important of these events w e n t b a c k to 1 9 3 1 , w h e n a y o u n g Harvard-educated Pana­ manian doctor led a successful coup d'etat in Panam?. H i s name w a s Arnulfo Arias. A r i a s played a bewildering brand of politics in L a t i n A m e r i c a . Instead of assuming the presidency, he g a v e the post to his brother Harmodio. H e himself concentrated on building a political machine and strengthening the regime he had created. In 1 9 3 4 Arias had himself appointed Ambassador to Italy. H e r e , lavishly supplied w i t h funds, he became a dashing figure in the R o m e diplomatic set. H e spoke the language of fascism openly and fervently, became friendly with Benito Mussolini, and met A d o l f Hitler. Progressives in Panama, never friendly toward A r n u l f o Arias, began to accuse him of being in the p a y of the Fascist p o w e r s of Europe. T h e y pointed to the role of the Panama

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Canal in the defenses of A m e r i c a and wondered, aloud, h o w Washington felt about having the political p o w e r of Panama in the hands of a man like Arias. T h e Arias canvas w a s further confused in 1936, w h e n he took on a new diplomatic job. T h i s time he became A m b a s ­ sador to France, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries. T h e n e w post gave him n e w fields to conquer—but for w h o m he w a s conquering them became even more of a puz­ zle to sober Panamanians w h o loved their country. T h e y k n e w Arias too well to believe that he w a s simply burying himself in E u r o p e as a diplomat, but they could only specu­ late as to his real reasons for preferring a diplomatic cloak to the white horse of a native dictator. T h e n , on December 23, 1939, A r n u l f o Arias returned to Panama. T h e w a r had started in Europe, and Arias evidently w a s about to show his hand. H e started b y openly praising the "progress" of the N a z i armies throughout E u r o p e . T h e n he resigned his diplomatic portfolios and settled d o w n to Panamanian politics. T h e r e w a s no mistaking the t y p e of politics that w a s in the mind of A r n u l f o Arias as the y e a r 1940 began. H e formed a small, openly Fascist junta composed almost ex­ clusively of non-Panamanians. One of the most important members of this junta was the C o u n t de Bailen, Spain's min­ ister to the R e p u b l i c of Panama. Arnulfo Arias and his Fascist advisers went to w o r k on a plan for a Fascist Panama w h i c h w o u l d be a thorn in the side of the United States. T h e A x i s had its eyes on the Panama Canal, and in Arias they had just the sort of adven­ turer w h o w o u l d make the most useful ruler of Panama in the event that the United States w e n t to w a r against the Fascist powers. T h e Falange had a formidable organization in Panama, headed b y Count de Bailen. U n d e r his leadership, the Pana­ manian Falange became the storm troops of the coup Arias was preparing. A t meeting after meeting, Count de Bailen called upon the Falangistas in the Canal Zone to hold them-

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selves in readiness f o r any eventualities. W h i l e waiting for these "eventualities," the Falangistas w e r e ordered to make propaganda for A r n u l f o Arias. A t first, this propaganda w a s merely built about the per­ sonality of Arias as the man w h o had returned to his home­ land to save all Spaniards from incarceration at the hands of the "Protestant-Jew-Imperialist" bandits of Washington. Falangistas, w o r k i n g closely w i t h Japanese and N a z i agents, warned all Spanish-speaking persons that only the rise of A r n u l f o Arias stood between them and pending doom. R u m o r s designed to prevent Panamanians from keeping United Nations ships sailing w e r e also spread over the coun­ t r y b y the Falange. F r o m propaganda, the Falange expanded its activities to include espionage. T h i s espionage w a s political, at first. E v e r y w e e k fervent Falangistas had to turn in to their cell leaders n e w lists of Panamanians opposed to the person and the policies of A r n u l f o Arias. T h e s e lists found their w a y to Count de Bailen, w h o turned them over to Arias. T h e ambi­ tions doctor filed them a w a y for future use. T h e n , in J u n e 1940, A r n u l f o Arias felt ready to move. H e moved straight into the Presidencia. T h e d a y after he as­ sumed this office, he appeared on the balcony—like his idols Hitler and Mussolini—and greeted a cheering mob with the straight-arm salute of fascism. T h e Falange, mobilized in full for this demonstration, dominated the c r o w d w h i c h w a s photographed cheering and g i v i n g the n e w President the brazo en alto salute. Once in office, Arias whipped out the long lists the Falangistas had helped prepare—the lists of his political ene­ mies. Overnight, the jails of the militarily strategic little country became packed with anti-Fascist Panamanians w h o had made the mistake of voicing their political sentiments in the presence of Falange Exterior members. T h e old Constitution of Panama, modeled roughly on the Constitution of the United States, w a s replaced b y a newer, more modern, completely Fascist constitution written b y

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Arnulfo Arias. One of the provisions in this new constitu­ tion increased the President's four-year term to six years. T h e completeness of the Fascist pattern of the n e w Arias government was further revealed in October 1940, w h e n the n e w President held a plebescite to vote on his new order. H e announced that the standard Fascist choice of simple " Y e s " and " N o " ballots w o u l d be made available to all quali­ fied Panamanian voters. But Arias, on the d a y of the plebescite, w e n t a bit further than A d o l f Hitler. V o t e r s w h o demanded " N o " ballots on plebescite day w e r e promptly clapped into jail. Other v o t ­ ers, w h o heard about this, boldly w r o t e " N o " across the face of the " Y e s " ballots handed them at the polls. F o r their "treason," they w e r e not only jailed but also, in most cases, given severe beatings. A f t e r the plebescite was over, Arias started to flood the Canal Z o n e w i t h "refugees from war-torn E u r o p e . " T h e y w e r e the most amazing set of refugees ever seen in the W e s t ­ ern Hemisphere. W h a t e v e r the ostensible nationalities listed on their passports, these refugees all spoke flawless Spanish. T h e y w e r e also the most fortunate b o d y of "refugees" the w o r l d had ever k n o w n . Most of them, before leaving E u ­ rope, had signed labor contracts with Panamanian consuls— contracts exactly like the printed contract Consul General Iraizoz had awarded to J o s e del R i o Cumbreras in Havana. I n Panama the privileged refugees w e r e given w o r k as laborers near the canal locks, on the n e w defense works, as waiters in hotels and bars patronized heavily b y United States military personnel, as engineers and technicians in k e y public works, and as office employees of Panamanian government bureaus. T h e role of A r n u l f o Arias in the w a r plans of the A x i s w a s becoming v e r y plain. It became so plain that, in October 1 9 4 1 , his regime w a s brought to an abrupt end b y a coup supported b y all anti-Fascist elements in Panamanian life. T h e United States G o v e r n m e n t did not look with disfavor on the n e w government established b y R . A . de la Guardia, a former member of the Arias Cabinet.

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T h e immediate cause of the coup which finished Arias w a s the crisis w h i c h followed in the w a k e of his vetoing a bill permitting ships under Panamanian registry to arm themselves against A x i s raiders, which w e r e sinking them regularly. A f t e r this flagrant pro-Axis action, Alias's hours as President of Panama were numbered. O n the tenth of October, 1 9 4 1 , carrying a passport bear­ ing his mother's name, Arnulfo Arias fled to Havana—to see his "oculist," he said. H e had often made this trip before; the "oculist" in question w a s a charming lady whose name is of little bearing at this writing. T h e Cuban G o v e r n m e n t pulled the w e l c o m e mat from under the ex-President's feet and, torn from the arms of his mistress, he left in a f e w days to seek refuge in Nicaragua. In Cuba the end of the Arias regime had one immediate result. D r . Antonio Iraizoz, w h o m Arias had appointed C o n ­ sul G e n e r a l in Havana, found himself without a j o b . Iraizoz w a s a veteran Cuban newspaperman w h o had long w o r k e d for the Diario de la Marina. T h e collapse of the Machado dictatorship in C u b a had some years before sent Iraizoz flee­ ing into exile for a grim period. N o w , with the collapse of the A r i a s dictatorship and his diplomatic portfolio, Iraizoz decided to return to his old profession of journalism. F e w Cubans w e r e therefore surprised when Iraizoz became a writer for Pepin R i v e r o ' s Diario. Iraizoz's w a s not the only life in Havana to be affected b y the end of the Fascist regime in Panama. T h e r e w a s also the Count de Bailen. In October, when A r i a s fled Panama, the C o u n t de Bailen remained in the country in his twin posts of Spanish Minister and Regional Chief of the Falange Exterior of Panama. F o r some reason, he retained his persona grata status w i t h the de la G u a r d i a regime. Panama observed its Independence D a y on N o v e m b e r 1 1 , 1 9 4 1 , with many celebrations. But during the day one sour note w a s heard above all the others. T h e Falange held a meeting, too, and at this meeting the indiscreet Count de Bailen chose to deliver a heavily sarcastic address weighed d o w n to the breaking point with attacks on democracy, the

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United Nations, and the government of the United States. T h e effect of the speech w a s more than mildly electric. T o save the Count's life as well as to protect its o w n dignity, the government of Panama w a s forced to expel him from the country. W h i l e the Count w a s packing his bags, he received a coded message from Madrid ordering him to g o to Havana. T h e Count de Bailen obeyed his orders. H e arrived in Cuba a w e e k later, flat broke, and carrying in his trunk the dress uniform of the former G e r m a n Consul General to Panama. H e leased Apartment 8 5 , on the eighth floor of the L o p e z Serano Building in exclusive V e d a d o , Havana's finest suburb. Gonzalez G o r d o n , the H a v a n a busi­ ness leader, gave him some substantial funds, and within a f e w hours the Count de Bailen w a s r e a d y to assume his duties as one of the guiding spirits of Cuba's Cliveden Set. T h e Cuban police arrested the Count de Bailen during his first w e e k in Havana, but the combined pressure of the Spanish Consulate and the Cuban Cliveden Set w a s sufficient to win the Falange leader's release. Cuba's Cliveden Set existed f o r many years before it re­ ceived its name from a Fascist-hating H a v a n a newspaper­ man. L i k e the British Cliveden Set, it is presided o v e r b y a number of titled ladies. ( T h e titles, incidentally, are of the old Spanish monarchy.) Prominent in the affairs of Cuba's Cliveden Set are the Marquesa de T i e d r a (nee Leticia de A r r i b a , ) sister-in-law of a powerful Cuban official and immensely wealthy in her o w n right. T h e Marquesa w a s head of the Family Commis­ sion of the Comite Nacionalista Espafiola, which raised funds for F r a n c o during the Spanish W a r . N e n a V e l a s c o de Gonzalez G o r d o n , w i f e of the financier w h o loaned Count de Bailen money, and treasurer of the Comite Nacionalista Espafiola, is another prominent leader of Cuba's Cliveden Set. T h e Falangist Countess de Revilla Camargo, Gonzalez G o r d o n himself, Senator J . M . Casa­ nova, a powerful Cuban industrialist and plantation owner,

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and some members of the Cuban Senate and lower house at­ tend most of the Cliveden Set's fabulous functions. T h e Cuban Cliveden Set, which holds endless series of dinners, banquets, and luxurious social events, is far from lacking in foreign members. A t all of its functions, there is a strong representation from m a n y foreign legations—par­ ticularly the Spanish legation. T h e diplomats of V i c h y France were among the earliest members of the Cliveden Set. T h e most interesting foreign member of the C u b a n Cliveden Set is not a Spaniard, however. T h i s person is a woman, the wife of a diplomat accredited to Cuba. Despite the name she bears, she is an Austrian, mother of t w o sons in the G e r m a n A r m y , and believed to be one of the most important back-stage plotters against the unity of the A m e r ­ icas in the entire hemisphere. E v e n the Cuban Secret Police, w h o k n o w both of her names well, avoid mentioning her original name. " F r a u K . , " they call her, and F r a u K . she will remain f o r the present. W h e n Count de Bailen w a s released from the custody of the Cuban police, the Cliveden Set held a big private dinner for him. It w a s attended b y the cream of "Spanish" society in Havana. T h e Count sat next to the Marquesa de Tiedra, w i t h w h o m he maintained v e r y close relations. A t this din­ ner the foreign diplomats of the Cliveden Set rubbed shoul­ ders with Cuban politicians, a r m y and n a v y officers. T h e Cuban Cliveden Set is unalterably opposed to all of the w a r policies of the Batista government. T h e y use thenweight and their influence to back all anti-Batista moves, and more than once attempts to save Falangist agents from the rewards of Cuban justice have been traced right back to members of the Set acting either singly or in pressure groups of their own. Actually, the Cuban Cliveden Set is the social front of the old "Spanish c r o w d " in Cuban economic and political life. It is but another facet of expression for this c r o w d , as real and as effective as the Falange and the "Spanish b l o c " in the Lonja del Comercio.

Cliveden

in the

Caribbean

O n e of the intellectual favorites at the Cuban Cliveden Set's functions is D r . Raoul Maestri, sub-editor of the Diario de la Marina. Unlike m a n y of its members, Maestri today professes to be a great friend and admirer of the United States. T h e Cuban Cliveden Set w e r e among the first to k n o w , on J a n u a r y 28, 1942, that A r n u l f o Arias had flown to H a ­ vana from Yucatan on that day. Arias, w h o w a s accompanied b y a Mexican priest named Martin, escaped from both the newspapermen and the police at the airport. H e went to an unknown address. N o n e of the people w h o looked for him could locate his Cuban retreat. H a d they gone to the house at the corner of 19th and 8th, V e d a d o , they w o u l d have flushed their elusive quarry. T h e y w o u l d have found him to be busily at w o r k , too. W h a t Arias was w o r k i n g on in Havana at this time w a s hard to say. On F e b r u a r y 3, late in the afternoon, A r n u l f o Arias sent t w o cables. T h e first was to Ernesto Bellini, in Mexico City. T h e second was to Deputy Sabayera of the Panama Republic. One of the f e w Cubans w h o saw A r n u l f o Arias at this time w a s A v a de la V e g a Martinez. T h i s Martinez w a s far from a stranger to the Cuban police. In their drive against the Falange Exterior and other Axis satellite groups in Cuba, the police had four months previously arrested Martinez. In the Martinez home on 24th Street, Miramar, the Cuban police had run across many pictures of great interest to their investigations. In m a n y of these pictures they found A r n u l f o Arias embracing Senator Elicio Arguelles, President of the Comite Nacionalista Espafiola. T h e Martinez files also yielded scores of documents and cables of particular value to the Cuban Secret Police. W h a t Arias and Martinez talked about in H a v a n a early in 1942 is something at least three government Intelligence Services w o u l d like to k n o w . After one of his meetings with Martinez, A r i a s and Count de Bailen held a long, private conversation in V e d a d o .

FALANGE O n F e b r u a r y 6, 1942, A r n u l f o Arias w a s driven to num­ ber 4 2 0 Oficos Street, Havana, the address of the Spanish Consulate. H e remained inside the Consulate for over four hours. A f t e r leaving the Spanish Consulate, A r n u l f o Arias re­ turned to V e d a d o , where he dashed off a cable addressed to Ricardo Welhead, Palmito Moron, Venezuela. T h e text of the cable read: I am coming by plane. Will be there on the 8th. Wait for me. H e left H a v a n a at dawn the following day, but he did not g o straight to Venezuela. H e stopped at Santo D o m i n g o and Puerto R i c o before joining Welhead in Venezuela. A study of the itinerary A r n u l f o Arias followed on his trip from Y u c a t a n to Venezuela and back, as w e l l as of his cables, raises some interesting questions. Perhaps it was merely a coincidence that Arias's odyssey covered the main bastions of the Caribbean just at the time that the N a z i U-boat activities broke out furiously in these waters. Perhaps, too, the name and nationality of the man w h o re­ ceived the Arias cable in Venezuela is a story in itself. These are little points that the Cuban Cliveden Set, which showed such an interest in Arias during his visit, might be able to explain. But wait—the Cuban Clivedeners, like their British cousins, deny that they ever existed as a set. In fact, they deny all. Some of them, after August 1942, even denied ever having w i n e d and dined the dashing and slightly bankrupt diplomat and Falange Exterior leader, the Count de Bailen. F o r in A u g u s t the Cuban Government, its patience at an end, finally expelled the Count de Bailen for being an active leader of the underground and illegal Falange in Cuba.

C H A P T E R

SIX :

Campania Transatlantica Espanola: Hitler's Bridge of Spies L A T E I N A N A F T E R N O O N of September, 1 9 4 1 , the

Spanish

liner N , bound from Spain to the United States via Havana, approached the Florida shores. O n the bridge the captain ordered the engineer to reduce the speed. H e r en­ gines all but idling, the liner crawled parallel to the A m e r i ­ can coastline while the setting sun bathed the red and gold flag of A x i s Spain. A s the sun started to sink into the sea on this September afternoon, a small boat w a s lowered over the side of the N . It was an ordinary little fishing boat, powered with a good marine engine, and not at all different than a n y of the fishing boats that dot the southern Florida waters. In the boat w e r e t w o men, dressed like American vaca­ tioners. T h e y spoke perfect vernacular American English, and they carried fishing tackle made and sold in A m e r i c a . T h e i r clothes came from American stores, and the small for­ tune they carried w a s in A m e r i c a n currency. Nevertheless, the t w o men w h o w e r e in the small boat lowered from the Spanish N off the Florida coast in September, 1 9 4 1 , w e r e not Americans. T h e y w e r e G e r ­ mans. N a z i Germans. Officers of the Gestapo. W h e n the small boat rested on the water, one of the G e ­ stapo agents undid the lines that bound it to the N . His companion started the engine, pointed the b o w toward Florida, and w a v e d a cheery adios to the Spanish officers lined up on the deck of the steamship. O n board the N the captain watched the small motorboat disappear across the darkening horizon. T h e n he nodded to the radio operator. " A l l right," he said. " Y o u may send it now." T h e radio operator entered his shack. H e turned to a IOJ

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small auxiliary short-wave radio and started to send a code signal. W h e n he reached the station he was seeking, he sent the coded message: " A l l goes w e l l . " Some 1 5 0 miles east of Havana, in the small, secret short­ w a v e radio station to which the N radio man ad­ dressed his message, a Falangista sat with earphones clamped to his head. H e tapped out the reply: "Message received, thank y o u , " and then broke the contact. A f e w minutes later, ranking A x i s officials in H a v a n a k n e w that the t w o N a z i agents on board the N had been transferred to the fishing boat. In less than an hour, the intelligence w a s flashed to Berlin via Venezuela. T w o more A x i s agents had been landed in the United States via the Spanish network. T h e ships of the Compafiia Transatlantica Espafiola, o w n e d b y the Falangist Spanish State, had after September 1939 become Hitler's chief avenue for spies and saboteurs bound for the Western Hemisphere. O n September 30, 1 9 4 1 , the C . T . E . liner Ciudad de Madrid arrived in H a v a n a from Spain, T h a t afternoon, t w o of the passengers from the Ciudad de Madrid w e r e taken to the Hotel Lincoln, on the corner of Galleano and Virtudes streets in Havana. Brought to the hotel b y a friend w h o had met them at the pier, the t w o visitors signed the hotel register casually and w e n t up to their rooms. T h e first of the t w o to sign the register w a s D r . H o g u e t H o r n u n g . Although he gave his address simply as "Switzerland," he bore a Peruvian pass­ port. T h e number on his passport w a s 178, 1 9 3 8 . T h e second man signed the register as Enrique A u g u s t L u n i . H e carried Passport N u m b e r 38 issued b y the R e p u b ­ lic of Honduras, declared that he came from Barcelona. H e w a s a slight, dark, gentle traveler, thirty-one years old, and spoke excellent Cuban Spanish. L u n i was given room 408. H i s friend D o c t o r H o r n u n g took room 4 1 0 . F o r four days L u n i and H o r n u n g lived the lives of aver-

Hitler's

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age tourists. A good friend of theirs, no stranger to Havana, plied them with food, drink, and excursions to the city's varied pleasure places. T h e n , after four days, the t w o pas­ sengers from the Ciudad de Madrid checked out of the H o t e l L i n c o l n and moved to the Hotel Siboney, on the Prado. T h e r e w a s nothing strange about this move. T h e rates at the Siboney were somewhat lower than the prices charged at the more modern Lincoln. J e w i s h refugees from Hitleroccupied E u r o p e had been flooding into the Siboney since 1 9 3 3 . N o one thought it odd that L u n i and H o r n u n g should join the refugees at the Siboney. T h e friend w h o had met them at the boat, and w h o had done so much to keep them amused during their first four days in Havana, remained on as a guest at the Lincoln, H e had been living at the L i n c o l n since M a r ch 20, 1 9 4 1 . H i s name w a s R i c a r d o Dotres. R i c a r d o Dotres, like his friends L u n i and Hornung, had also reached H a v a n a via a C . T . E . steamer. A typical Cata­ lan, he registered as a native of Barcelona. H e had a Spanish passport, number 1 0 - E . Short, thin, in his late thirties, Dotres carried himself with military erectness, moved and spoke with much poise— w h e n dealing with men. In the presence of w o m e n — p r a c ­ tically any women—Dotres w o u l d change. H i s black eyes, under their heavy eyebrows, would flash. H i s white teeth w o u l d gleam. T h e v e r y cleft in his chin w o u l d seem to quiver as Dotres prepared to give chase. In a city which had seen skirt-chasers from all over the world, Dotres soon became part of its immortal comic legend. H i s zeal k n e w no bounds. H e courted w o m e n in five languages, being equally at home in Spanish, French, G e r ­ man, and English, as well as in his native Catalan. H e pur­ sued them with flowers, bonbons, night-club invitations, and an endless stream of chatter. W h e n rebuffed, as he generally was, b y the female guests and the employees of the hotel,

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Dotres remained undaunted. H e w o u l d hail one of the dozen cabs usually parked outside of the hotel and drive to a n y one of the hundred brothels where his sallies w e r e greeted with laughter and his pesos accepted with gracious thanks. H e w a s a garrulous, social fellow with a lust for life and m a n y friends on both sides of the ocean. H a r d l y a w e e k w e n t b y but R i c a r d o Dotres received a cable from Barce­ lona or Basle or Madrid announcing the marriage of a friend, or the birth of a comrade's child, or the wedding anniver­ sary of a boon companion. During the course of a month, Dotres w o u l d a l w a y s send a handful of cables to friends in these cities. T h e y w e r e ebullient, joyous cables of congratu­ lations and good wishes. Dotres also sent many business cables, in code, to Basle and Barcelona. T h e y w e r e addressed to the O m L a b o r a ­ tories, a Swiss chemical concern with branches in m a n y countries. O m Laboratories had a branch in Havana, too. It was on Cuba Street, opposite the Police Headquarters. Dotres, w h o had w o r k e d for the O m firm abroad, drove to the Cuban offices of O m e v e r y morning in one of the cabs parked near the Lincoln. T h e O m Laboratories, evidently, w e r e a legitimate c o n ­ cern. T h e y were not then and are not n o w on the A m e r i c a n black fist of A x i s firms in Latin America. T h i s w a s a bit puzzling to the Spanish Republicans in H a ­ vana. F o r Dotres was not a stranger to some of them. T h e y k n e w that he had been in Barcelona during the three years of the Spanish W a r , and that the Spanish R e d Cross uniform resting in the trunk in Dotres's room on the fourth floor of the Hotel Lincoln w a s not the only uniform he rated. Sefior Dotres had, during the entire course of the Spanish W a r , been an officer of the Fascist A r m y . H e was, in fact, one of the k e y men of the Fifth Column in Catalonia, O f course, there was no proof that Dotres w a s still an officer of the F r a n c o A r m y . Perhaps all that was behind him. Perhaps he was merely a simple chemist, w o r k i n g hard for an honest living at the O m Laboratories and indulging in a little relaxation from his labors seven nights a w e e k . T h e

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Hitler s Bridge

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o n l y w a y to find out was to keep a careful e y e on him, and keep an e y e on him they did. T h i s study of Dotres's moves soon revealed a set pattern of existence. Ordinarily, Dotres divided his time between his office and his continuing chase after women. O n l y w h e n a Spanish steamer arrived in H a v a n a w o u l d the routine of the life of R i c a r d o Dotres change. W i t h the docking of a C . T . E . ship, Dotres w o u l d be­ come a new man. H i s poise, his easy-going w a y s , his careful husbanding of his energies for the myriad w o m e n in his ken all went b y the board. Instead, he would become v e r y busy with various arriving passengers. L i k e an excited mother hen, Dotres w o u l d descend upon his charges as they walked d o w n the gangplank, whisk them into a waiting cab, and take them to one of Havana's better hotels. F o r days he w o u l d hover at their sides, attending to their e v e r y whim, showing them the sights, and guarantee­ ing their comforts. During these periods he w o u l d leave his o w n hotel early in the morning and return v e r y late at night, so tired that he had hardly enough energy even to ogle any woman he might encounter in the l o b b y or, heaven help her, in the elevators. But always, much to the relief of the madames of H a ­ vana's bordellos, these periods ended as abruptly as they began. Within a w e e k of the arrival of a Spanish steamer, Dotres w o u l d slide effortlessly back into his accustomed w a y s — a n d the fathers and husbands of attractive w o m e n at the Hotel L i n c o l n w o u l d resume their practice of carrying weighted canes and little pearl-handled revolvers. W h e n summer came Dotres began to spend his Sundays at one of Havana's better beach clubs. Here, clad in crimson shorts, Dotres exposed to the sun and to the w o m e n one of the hairiest bodies that ever bared itself to the Caribbean. Covered with black, curly hair that clung in veritable mats to his chest, his back, his arms, his legs, and even his hands, he chased up and d o w n the beach, begging females of all ages to give him the honor of teaching them to s w i m b y a method he had developed at Biarritz.

I

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FALANGE

O n these excursions to the beach, as w e l l as on w e e k ends spent in the country, Dotres shot scores of pictures with his excellent G e r m a n camera. T h e s e pictures w e r e generally of Dotres and his new-found friends, often posed against ex­ otic backgrounds like wharves, electric turbines, airports, reservoir sluices, and Cuban army field artillery. Dotres led a charmed, if often hectic, life. H e made friends in all circles, including Cuban army circles, and his conquests mounted like Hitler's. Nothing ever occurred to upset this routine. N o t even the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. B u t a f e w days after Pearl H a r b o r was bombed, Dotres suddenly showed up in the l o b b y of the Lincoln one W e d n e s d a y morning with a slightly long face. It was just a mite longer than the face left b y the hangover of a night's debauchery. " I am worried," Dotres announced, "about m y p o o r old father," Until that tense morning—for b y then Cuba was in the w a r — n o one had ever heard of Dotres the Elder. " A n d what," asked the desk clerk, "is the matter with y o u r father, Seiior D o t r e s ? " T h e fabulous chemist heaved a mighty sigh. " M y old father," he said, "is in Manila. T h e cablegram pad, please." A n d R i c a r d o Dotres sent the first of his many cables to Manila. N o t until after Jose del Castano and the Falange handed Manila over to the Sons of N i p p o n did R i c a r d o Dotres receive a cable from Manila. Between that day and the morning Dotres left Havana, he received other reassur­ ing cables from Japanese-held Manila. O n A p r i l n , 1 9 4 2 , R i c a r d o Dotres approached an em­ ployee of the Hotel Lincoln. T h i s employee w a s k n o w n to him as an ardent Spanish Republican. Dotres smiled his most ingratiating smile. "Amigo" he said, "tomorrow I g o back to Spain. If y o u have any R e ­ publican friends or relatives in Spain, I'd be glad to bring them some gifts or a confidential message. I a l w a y s s y m ­ pathized with the Republicans myself, y o u k n o w . " T h i s employee smiled politely, "Seiior Dotres," he an-

Hitler's Bridge

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m

swered, " I have a more reliable w a y of reaching m y R e ­ publican relatives and friends in Spain. A n d please do not call me amigo." W i t h the crack of d a w n the next morning, R i c a r d o Dotres sped to the R a n c h o B o y e r o s Airport. H e r e he boarded a Pan-American Airlines ship f o r the first leg of a flight to Caracas, Venezuela. H e traveled light, carrying only a small valise. H i s trunk w a s left behind in the store­ room of the hotel. T h r e e days later, thirty postcards, mailed b y Dotres from Caracas, w e r e delivered to the Hotel Lincoln. Evaristo F e r ­ nandez, the owner, received one. T h e waiters, the elevator operators, the bartenders, the kitchen help, the prettier female guests—everyone but the one Spanish Republican employee received cards. O n the heels of these postcards came a cable from Dotres to Fernandez. L i k e the cards, the cable had also been sent from Caracas. Dotres asked the hotel manager to please open his trunk, take out the five chemical books he w o u l d find there, w r a p them well, and airmail them to: " R . Dotres, c / o Pan American A i r w a y s , Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, B.W.I." Fernandez, w h o had contributed m o n e y to the F r a n c o forces during the Spanish W a r , sent the five chemical books to Port-of-Spain at a personal expense of twelve dollars. T w o months later, the five chemical books w e r e returned to Havana, marked "Unclaimed." Fernandez shelled out another twelve dollars and put the books back in the trunk, where they rested next to a picture of Dotres and some Cuban officers. T h e y remained in the trunk until October 1 9 4 2 , w h e n a visiting American investigator learned of their existence and realized that the volumes contained more than chemical formulae. Dotres simply disappeared. H e never sent for his trunk, and he never sent another postcard to the Hotel Lincoln. W h e t h e r he went the w a y of Villanueva, or whether he became the contact man for A x is spies in another Latin-

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American capital is still not known. Some Spanish R e p u b ­ licans at one time had reason to believe that Dotres had quietly returned to C u b a . But to date, Dotres has still not been found. L i k e Dotres, D r . H o g u e t Hornung, one of the t w o Cmdad de Madrid passengers w h o m the contact man had brought to the Hotel Lincoln, simply vanished from Havana. Enrique August Luni, the handsome y o u n g e r passenger, remained in H a v a n a for exactly thirteen months. T h e beginning of his stay was marked b y days of idle loafing. H e frequented m a n y bars, took m a n y sight-seeing tours, and saw the insides of most H a v a n a night clubs. W a i t ­ ers g r e w to like him for his liberal tips and for his unassum­ ing friendliness. O n e waiter, let us call him Pancho Vivaldi, which is not his real name, became a great friend of Luni's. T h i s waiter, a man of Luni's o w n years, g r e w to look f o r w a r d to the idler's daily visits to the cantineria at Virtudes and the Prado. Before long, L u n i w a s confiding to Pancho that he had but recently inherited a tidy fortune in Honduras. A day later L u n i told Pancho that he w a s tired of doing noth­ ing, and was looking for a business in which he could invest some of his money. " B u t I can't w o r k too hard," L u n i explained. " Y o u see, Pancho, I have a bad touch of rheumatism." Pancho had a wife, Maria, w h o w o r k e d at home as a dressmaker. Maria was as skilled with a needle as are f e w w o m e n on this earth, thought Pancho. W i t h a little capital, Maria could no doubt become one of the great fashionable dressmakers for the "high-life" set of the city. Besides, if Maria did all of the w o r k , Sefior L u n i w o u l d not have to strain his rheumatism too much. Y o u n g Sefior L u n i listened gravely to Pancho's musings. Modestly, he admitted to always having had a secret yearn­ ing to o w n as gentle a business as a fashionable custom dress salon. A f t e r glancing at some samples of Maria's labors,

Hitler's

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Enrique August L u n i k n e w that his dreams had come true. H e dipped into his apparently ample coffers to open a fac­ tory on busy Industria Street. Maria, Pancho, and L u n i became equal partners in the n e w firm. W h i l e the happy seamstress and her simple hus­ band fixed up the workrooms, L u n i moved a large dia­ thermy machine into a corner of the atelier. "It's for m y rheumatism," he explained. " T h e y object to m y using it at the hotel." But once the factory started production, L u n i felt selfconscious about taking diathermy treatments in the plant. H e took a room next to Maria and Pancho on Teniente R e y Street, and moved the machine there. To his room L u n i also brought a cage with four canaries. A l l his life, he explained, he had wanted canaries. H e spent little time in the business establishment he w a s financing, but he w a s far from aloof toward his n e w friends. W h e n he w e n t on a shopping spree for tubes, coils, condensers, and other radio parts, he took Pancho along with him. O n one of these trips, he bought a pair of "Junior G - M a n " telegraph keys for a quarter each in W o o l w o r t h ' s . " F o r m y nephews in Barcelona," he said. T h e n , after buying all the p a n s "to build a radio myself," Luni passed a shop w i n d o w in the gleaming, streamlined America Building on Galleano Street. There, at a bargain price, stood a powerful A m e r i c a n console radio. L u n i bought it for cash, and had it delivered to his n e w room. In the house at Teniente R e y Street, the American radio began to boom until all the w i n d o w s shook. Some of Luni's new neighbors protested. T h e y suggested that, w h e n L u n i felt like listening to his super-radio, he should at the v e r y least close the transom over his door if he could not play it with less p o w e r . T h i s L u n i refused to do, until one day, while he w a s listening to the radio, he decided to let his canaries have the freedom of his room. Before he could say "Don Quixote de la Mancha," t w o of the four canaries were through the transom and out of the house. A f t e r that, whenever L u n i liberated his canaries, he al-

I I

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w a y s did so w i t h the transom tightly closed and the door locked. Since he always had the radio on while the canaries w e r e out of their cage, his neighbors began to be increas­ ingly thankful that canaries w e r e made with w i n g s . L u n i spent v e r y little time in Maria's dressmaking shop. Instead, he chose to while a w a y many hours at places like the Porto Chico bar, on the water front, a stone's-throw from the Spanish Consulate. These, however, w e r e not hours idly spent. F o r here E n ­ rique A u g u s t L u n i really w e n t to w o r k . H e r e he met w i t h officers of Spanish ships and plied them with endless ques­ tions. Here, too, he used to set up drinks for Cuban customs officers and pier officials. T h e sidewalk tables of the Porto Chico, like the front w i n d o w s of the Spanish Consulate, commanded a pano­ ramic v i e w of the Havana wharves. Nothing could miss the scrutiny of a trained pair of eyes at a Porto Chico table —all ships entering and leaving the harbor, all loading oper­ ations, everything. W h e n L u n i wanted a closer v i e w of a ship in the harbor, he merely borrowed a small boat and r o w e d out to look the ship over. Between visits to the w a t e r front, L u n i would repair to his room on Teniente R e y Street, close the transom, lock the door, and turn on his radio to the maximum of its power. T h e n , while boleros and congas rattled the plaster of the room, Enrique August L u n i w o u l d open the locked steel door of his diathermy machine. F r o m one of the drawers of his dresser he w o u l d take out a coil of w i r e and a set of earphones. F r o m another drawer he would get one of the W o o l w o r t h t o y telegraph tickers. A f e w deft maneuvers with pliers and screw driver were then enough to convert the diathermy machine into an ultra high-frequency short­ w a v e radio station. T h e radio drowning out the clicking of his nursery-room telegraph key, Enrique A u g u s t L u n i w o u l d tap out brief,

Hitler's

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of Spies

" 5

but vital, messages to the commanders of N a z i submarines lurking in the South Atlantic and the Caribbean. Sometimes the messages went to other Lunis, seated at similar clandes­ tine t w o - w a y radios, in Santo Domingo, Argentina, V e n e ­ zuela, Guatemala, and Chile. T h e Chilean L u n i w a s a man named Robinson. Often, they themselves reached Enrique August L u n i in H a v a n a through their radios. O n the high seas, A x i s submarine commanders, guided constantly b y these radios, started to sink United Nations ships in great numbers. G u i d e d b y such excellent intelli­ gence, they had things all their o w n w a y . In addition to his radio messages, L u n i also sent daily letters to certain business firms in Barcelona and Lisbon. E a c h letter w a s signed b y a different name. A n s w e r s to these letters, also sent to different names each time, w e r e re­ routed to L u n i b y their recipients in Havana. W h e n L u n i moved from the Siboney to the room on Teniente R e y Street, he neglected to notify his correspond­ ents abroad of this change of address. W i t h i n t w o days, he had an a n g r y letter from Barcelona, rebuking him for this oversight. T h e Barcelona letter was signed, "Manuel A l o n s o . " L u n i broke into a cold sweat w h e n he saw the signature. F o r at that address in Barcelona there w a s no Manuel Alonso. T h i s was the name used on all letters addressed to Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Gestapo. A n d L u n i k n e w a thing or t w o about the Gestapo. Sefior Enrique August Luni, resident of Barcelona and Havana, citizen of Honduras, w a s a fiction; a figment of Manuel Alonso's imagination. In 1 9 1 0 , in the city of Hamburg, G e r m a n y , the Italian wife of a German importer named Luning bore him a son. T h e b o y w a s christened H e i n z A u g u s t L u n i n g . T h i r t y - o n e years later, this b o y stepped off the gangplank of the Ciudad de Madrid in H a v a n a as Enrique A u g u s t L u n i . Y o u n g Heinz L u n i n g had g r o w n up looking like the

FALANGE image of his Latin mother. W h i l e in his early 20's, he had been gripped b y the wanderlust. It had led him to far a w a y places he had read about in his schoolbooks. Puerto R i c o , Santo Domingo, Venezuela—the Caribbean had early colored his fancies. W h e n he was twenty-five, H e i n z A u ­ gust Luning returned to Hamburg, where his father and his uncle still ran an importing business. Hitler n o w ruled G e r m a n y , and Luning joined the N a z i Party. A s the w a r clouds began to g r o w darker over Hamburg, Luning started to look f o r something safer than a spot in the front-line trenches. His search led him inevitably to the Gestapo, where he figured that his n e w l y acquired k n o w l ­ edge of Spanish and his most Latin appearance w o u l d stand him in good stead. T h e Gestapo enrolled Luning early in 1940, and sent him off to a special school for foreign agents in Bremen. H e r e , under expert instructors, Heinz August L u n i n g w a s trained in the manufacture and use of secret inks, radio, telegraphy, and kindred skills. F r o m the Bremen school L u n i n g w a s sent to Madrid, where he w a s given special courses in Central and South Atlantic geography and vernacular Cuban Spanish. Once this training was completed, L u n i n g proceeded on to B a r ­ celona. H e r e he w a s trained to memorize codes and k e y addresses, given his Honduran passport, and put on board the Ciudad de Madrid. Heinz August L u n i n g did not lack for company on board the C . T . E . ship. A m o n g his fellow passengers w e r e m a n y fellow graduates of the Gestapo school in Bremen. T h e y w e r e bound for points as divergent as Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Baltimore, L o s Angeles, and Port-of-Spain. T h e Gestapo agents had the run of the ship during the entire v o y a g e . T h e y ate with the captain, lolled in the sun, and practiced taking and developing pictures with their n e w miniature cameras. Luning was later to say that this v o y a g e was one of the most pleasant in his whole life—but this w a s much later.

Hitler's

Bridge

of Spies

Luning's letters to Barcelona and Lisbon from H a v a n a w e r e all sent via air mail. A l l of them had to clear through the offices of British censorship in Bermuda. Some time after he started sending them, the letters began to attract the attention of alert British agents in the Bermuda station. T h e British made photostatic copies of each letter, put the originals back in the envelopes, and allowed them to p r o ­ ceed. But w h e n the British had collected enough photostats of Luning's letters, they realized that, although each was signed b y another name, they w e r e all the product of one individ­ ual. Similarly, they w e r e able to spot the answers to the L u n i n g letters, as well as the additional directives w h i c h w e r e mailed to the Gestapo agent from Spain. W h e n they were sufficiently certain of these basic f^cts, the British communicated with the American Federal B u ­ reau of Investigation, which maintains an office in Havana. T h e F . B . I , immediately checked with the Cuban Secret Police. F o r months the Cuban censorship watched for letters to and from Barcelona and Lisbon. E a c h letter w a s carefully studied b y American and Cuban secret agents, photostated, and then filed a w a y . T h e different H a v a n a recipients of the letters from Barcelona and Lisbon which the United Nations intelligence officers suspected were for the u n k n o w n s p y they sought, w e r e watched like hawks. Finally, on August 1 5 , 1942—after operating his radio station for nearly eleven costly months—Luning was r e ­ vealed to the Cuban and American investigators as the man they w e r e after. Captain Faget, of the Cuban Secret Police, and F . B . I . A g e n t Sweet, acting together, nabbed L u n i n g just as he was getting ready to send the information which would lead to the sinking of another American ship. O n l y the G e r m a n H i g h Command actually k n o w s h o w much United Nations shipping, h o w many men perished in the deep seas because of Heinz August L u n i n g alone. A l l estimates are frankly a guess, but persons close to the

n 8

FALANGE

L u n i n g case feel that the actual figures are staggeringly large. S o complete w a s the intelligence job done on L u n i n g that the s p y had no choice but to confess to his true role almost immediately. H e w a s quickly sentenced to death b y the Cuban military court which tried him. B u t as the door of his death cell clanged shut, Heinz August L u n i n g was not without powerful friends in Cuban life. Tremendous pressure w a s brought to bear on President Batista and other members of the government to commute Luning's sentence to a "reasonable" term of imprisonment. ( T h i s despite the fact that a Cuban ship had been sunk b y a N a z i raider shortly before L u n i n g w a s caught.) P r o Falange newspapers in H a v a n a began to run long sob stories about the gentle and patriotically misguided character of the y o u n g N a z i spy. One paper even went as far as printing a ballot asking its readers to select their o w n punishment for L u n i n g . A group of powerful men in Cuba forced the L u n i n g case to the Supreme Court, in a legal test of the military tribunal's right to t r y a civilian spy. T h r o u g h o u t the nation, simple people began to curse the slowness of their government. T h e y were afraid that the "high-life" Spaniards w o u l d succeed in saving L u n i n g ' s neck. T h e case dragged on. T h e Supreme Court w a s still c o n ­ sidering the case on October 1 0 , 1 9 4 2 — C u b a ' s National Independence D a y . A n d on this day Luning's doom w a s sealed. It w a s not the Supreme Court that acted on October 1 0 ; it was the Cuban people. A l l the anti-Axis organizations of the nation united with the government that day to stage the official celebration of National Independence at the National Theater. T h e square outside of the theater w a s blocked off and filled with seats. Loud-speakers carried the speeches of the day to the square, to the c r o w d s in Central Park. E v e r y radio station in the country had a microphone on the platform inside.

Hitler's

Bridge

of Spies

119

O n the platform, Prime Minister Z a y d i n stepped up to the microphone to deliver the main oration of the day. H e talked about Cuba's long struggle for independence, about the United Nations, about the meaning of the w a r to every Cuban. Then, bringing the speech closer to home, he men­ tioned the Luning case as an example of United Nations vigilance. T h e audiences—those in the theater, in the square out­ side, before thousands of radios all over the island—stirred restlessly. Suddenly Zaydin shouted: "Luning must, Luning will die before a firing squad!" T h e c r o w d inside sprang to its feet even as e v e r y man and w o m a n in it started to shout. T h e cheer that welled up from their lungs w o u l d have given Wilhelm von Faupel an apoplectic stroke could he have heard it. It contained the anger, the honest hatred, the determination of a simple people enraged to the breaking point. N o t since the shouts of relief which rang through Havana on the day C u b a de­ clared w a r on the A x i s had such a roar been heard in the land. L o n g after silence was restored within the hall, the cheers continued rolling in from the square outside. T h e people had passed sentence on Heinz A u g u s t Luning, and the Supreme Court w a s quick to ratify their decision. Luning faced the well-oiled rifles of a Cuban firing squad in the courtyard of the H a v a n a fortress on the morning of N o v e m b e r 8, 1 9 4 2 . H e faced them with an a n g r y sneer on his lips. T h e soft charm he had so carefully cultivated—the charm which had so captivated Pancho, and Maria, and the feature writers of so many Havana papers—was no longer useful. It was discarded. Bareheaded, his chest strangely shrunken, Heinz A u g u s t L u n i n g chose to stand revealed as a Gestapo agent, a Nazi s p y contemptuous to the v e r y end of the democracies which had trapped him. T h e Nazi died secure in the knowledge that, even as the Cuban bullets whipped through his eyes, other Spanish ships carrying scores of other Lunings w e r e on the high seas— bound for North, Central, and South American ports.

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T h e C . T . E . ships are still delivering A x i s agents to our side of the ocean. It w a s the day after Z a y d i n proclaimed that " L u n i n g must, L u n i n g will die," that 1 heard the first-hand account of the v o y a g e of the Magallanes, sister ship of the Ciudad de Madrid. T o m a s told it to me. H e is a Spanish Republican w h o has never stopped fighting Hitler. " T h e Magallanes," he said, "left Spain on the seventh of September, 1 9 4 1 . Passengers w e r e shocked at the great number of Germans on board, Germans bound for the Americas. " T h e ship reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 1 7 t h . T h e r e w a s a United Nations c o n v o y of over 100 ships in the harbor at the time. T h e British authorities checked on all the passengers w h e n the ship cast anchor. " T w o of the passengers assumed new identities. O n e became a sailor. T h e other a ship's machinist. T h e British, w h o separated the c r e w from the passengers, examined the papers of the passengers only. " T h e man w h o posed as a sailor w a s Leopoldo Sanchez Carbojal. H e is a Spaniard trained b y the Gestapo in G e r ­ many. H e was not the only Gestapo-trained Spaniard on board ship. H e and the fake machinist took pictures of the c o n v o y and the defenses of Trinidad with telefoto-lens G e r m a n cameras. " T h e r e w a s a third person on board; a third k e y person the British passed over. H e w a s the chief radio operator, and the Falange chief of the ship. H e had t w o radios. One w a s for regular wireless uses. T h e other transmitted details of the c o n v o y . T h i s man was the famous Camarada Martinez w h o t w i c e escaped from the Cuban police. H i s full name is Miguel Barcelo Martinez. " W h e n the ship arrived in Cuba on September 26, many Cuban officers were waiting on the dock. T h e y boarded ship as the social guests of the Company. T h e y had dinner on

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121

board, and after dinner were shown Fascist films in the ship's theater. " T h e officers of the ship w e r e Falangistas. T h e y brought over instructions and propaganda materials for the Cuban Falange." T o m a s is a man of f e w w o r d s . H e neglected to say that his life w a s in danger during the entire crossing.

C H A P T E R

S E V E N :

Puerto Rico: Gibraltar or Pearl Harlor? TINY,

TRAGIC,

OVERCROWDED P U E R T O

RICO—the

island's

population of nearly t w o million makes it the fourth most densely peopled country in the world—is v e r y much in the news. T h e island, less than two-thirds the size of C o n ­ necticut, means m a n y things to m a n y people. T o Puerto R i c o ' s nationalists, it is America's India. T o Puerto R i c o ' s Spaniards, it is the L o s t C o l o n y of the H o l y Motherland. T o serious-minded L a t i n - A m e r i c a n thinkers, it is the touch­ stone of our relations with all of Latin America. T o the naval and military H i g h Commands in Washington, Puerto R i c o is today primarily the Gibraltar of the Caribbean. A glance at the map is enough to tell w h y Puerto R i c o bulks so large in our defenses. A m e r i c a n - o w n e d anchor in the Antilles chain of islands, it guards the approaches to the Panama Canal and sits squarely in the path of A x i s sea raiders of the South Atlantic. Puerto R i c o is today a bristling garrison. A n important A m e r i c a n garrison. T h e civilian defense organizations of Puerto R i c o — l i k e the civilian defense organizations of Manila on Pearl H a r ­ bor D a y — a r e packed w i t h Falangistas. Perhaps it is because of the Falangistas and their friends in the Puerto Rican civilian defense bodies that m a n y w o r ­ ried Puerto R i c a n s talk the w a y they do. Freedom-loving, decent Puerto Ricans w h o look to a United Nations v i c t o r y as the k e y to the ultimate solution of Puerto R i c o ' s gravest problems a l w a y s include one idea in their discussions of the Falange menace on the island. "Puerto R i c o , " t h e y say, "is called the Gibraltar of the Caribbean. P r a y G o d it does not become the Pearl H a r b o r or the Manila instead." F o r it w a s in Puerto R i c o , during the Spanish phase of W o r l d W a r I I , that the Falange Exterior built one of the most effective of its branches in the Americas. A n d today, 7

112

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

although the Falange of Puerto R i c o has been officially dis­ solved since J a n u a r y 1 0 , 1 9 4 1 , the leaders and militantes of the Puerto R i c a n Falange are still v e r y much among the present on the island. Puerto R i c o became a colony of the United States after the Spanish-American W a r of 1898. U n d e r the Spanish rule of the old Bourbon Empire, life had always been harsh for the people w h o tilled the soil and cooked the meals, and w h o made up all but a minor percentage of the population. U n d e r the administration of the United States, the island's population nearly doubled, but the conditions of life for the average Puerto R i c a n were far from improved. T h e small set of Spanish colonial planters and business­ men w h o dominated the economic life of the island under the Empire g r e w somewhat smaller with the American o c ­ cupation, but they survived as a body. Most of them re­ tained their Spanish citizenship. T h e y sold most of their good soil to large American sugar corporations and retained for themselves the control of the mercantile commerce of the colony. Sugar became the one industry of Puerto R i c o . T h e island, which never g r e w enough food f o r its o w n needs, g r e w less than ever after the land w a s given over almost entirely to sugar. D u r i n g its entire history as a Spanish colony, the island's people had never been permitted to de­ velop native manufacturing industries. U n d e r American domination, this taboo w a s maintained—if only in an e c o ­ nomic form. ( A bitter example of h o w this w o r k s and one which came home to roost after Pearl Harbor, is the ex­ perience of a group of Puerto R i c a n capitalists w ho at­ tempted to establish a native pineapple canning industry. W h i l e the cannery w a s being established, a large Hawaiian g r o w e r dumped enough canned pineapple in the island to ruin the native industry.) T

T h e wealthy Spaniards on the island took control of the shipping industry, the importing business—now greater than ever, and most wholesale and retail trade. L i k e their

i2

4

FALANGE

fellow Spanish businessmen in Latin America, they invested sizable portions of their Puerto Rican profits in various en­ terprises of the mother country across the seas. T h e advent of the Spanish Republic grated on their sensitive pocketbook nerves as violently as it grated on those of their brothers in Spain. Socially, the wealthy Spaniards of Puerto R i c o were a set apart from the Puerto Ricans and the Americans on the island. T h e y looked d o w n upon the Puerto Ricans as an inferior, mongrel assortment of peasants and servants. T h e Americans, w h o m they also considered their inferiors, w e r e accepted b y the powerful Spaniards as a necessary evil. T h e aspirations of the various native movements for national independence w e r e never shared b y the Spaniards—who w e r e content to p a y lip sen-ice to the n e w American mas­ ters while they dreamed of the island's ultimate return to the Spanish Empire. T h e cleavage between the Spanish set and the other c u l ­ tures of Puerto R i c o is physically evident in the three great cultural centers of the island. In San Juan, the Spaniards flocked to the Casa de Espafia, while the Puerto Ricans cen­ tered their cultural and social life around the Ateneo Puertriquefio. T h e buildings stand within a stone's throw of each other. In R i o Piedras the University of Puerto R i c o stands as a bastion of the third culture in the colony—the A m e r i ­ can culture. A y e a r after the Spanish Republic w a s established, the Spanish business c r o w d in Puerto R i c o found itself faced w i t h a n e w potential menace. T h i s was the N e w Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. T h e outbreak of the Spanish W a r found the Spanish colony of Puerto R i c o torn between the real menace of the Spanish Republic and the social legislation of Washington. W h e n Hitler and Mussolini openly sent their troops against the Spanish Republic, many of the wealthier Spaniards in Puerto R i c o correctly interpreted the w a r as being the first stage of the w a r against the United States as w e l l as against Spain. W h e t h e r they saw the Spanish W a r as purely a Span-

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

ish affair or not, the wealthy Spaniards of Puerto R i c o united as one behind the banners of Francisco Franco in the w a r for the etxermination of democracy in Spain. T h e Franco-Hitler-Mussolini partisans of Puerto R i c o lost little time in organizing for action w h e n the fighting began in Spain. In San Juan's largest daily paper, El Mundo, they had a spokesman made to order for their cause. T h e w e e k l y Puerto Rico lllustrado, published b y the El Mundo owners, was similarly impartial—on the Fascist side. N o t until J a n u a r y 1937, with the appearance of the first issue of Avance, did the Falange bring out their official organ. Dionisio T r i g o , the president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce of Puerto R i c o , assumed the leadership of the Franco forces. Burgos—then the seat of the A x i s p o w e r in Spain—appointed T r i g o the official representative of the Franco government in Puerto R i c o . T r i g o was the brother-in-law of the insular Chief of Police, Colonel Enrique de Orbeta, and an individual of much p o w e r in the Spanish community. A l w a y s a spokes­ man for the most reactionary elements in insular life, he was a natural leader for the A x i s cause. His close associates in the Franco movement w e r e millionaire Spaniards like Gonzalez Padin, Leopoldo Ochoa, Secundino Lozana, and Jose Maria del Valle. T r i g o and his intimates w e r e men to w h o m money talked louder than all creeds. T h e i r primary idea of h o w to best aid the armies protecting their interests in Spain w a s simple: money. L i k e Elicio Arguelles in Havana, T r i g o concen­ trated on the raising of funds for the Fascist forces in Spain. T h i s campaign was phenomenally successful. N o less an authority than Elicio Arguelles, w h o was not exactly raising a pittance for the Fascists himself, recognized T r i g o ' s ef­ forts as a major contribution to the Falangist w a r effort. In a letter sent from Havana on October 26, 1 9 3 7 , Arguelles told T r i g o : Here we fight with great firmness but not with the success

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FALANGE

y o u have had. . . . Without any argument, Puerto Rico and y o u have shown the best and most positive examples that w e owe to the new Spanish Crusaders. For the high spirit of adher­ ence to the cause, the patriotism which prevails and the suc­ cesses obtained in your subscriptions, it is necessary to place Puerto Rico in the place of distinction and honor. We, less fortunate, fight with faith and will continue to prosecute our task until we are able to sec the O N L Y S P A I N , Great and Free. . . . A c t i n g informally, without an official organization, the Puerto Rican supporters of the Fascist armies in Spain raised close to a million dollars in less than a year. T h i s the men of Burgos appreciated, but money was not the prime need of von Faupel. W h a t was needed w a s a functioning section of the Falange Exterior. F o r Puerto R i c o figured v e r y much in the plans of the architect of the invasion of Spain. T h e initial edition of Avance, dated J a n u a r y 1 9 3 7 , w a s the first formal move of the Falange in Puerto R i c o . T h e cover of this issue, which featured y o u n g Primo de Rivera's portrait, bore t w o emblems on its masthead—those of Puerto R i c o and of the Falange Espafiola. T h e inside mast­ head listed Alfonso Miranda Esteve, a lawyer, as director, and t w o sons of Dionisio T r i g o as members of the staff. T h r e e interesting features appeared in the third issue of the then biweekly Falange organ. T h e first was the official program of the Falange Espafiola Tradicionalista de la J . O . N . S . — t h e famous twenty-seven ( n o w twenty-eight) points quoted in full in Chapter I . T h e second w a s a little notice headed: "Falange Espafiola." It announced that the Puerto R i c a n Falange w o u l d soon be formed. T h e third w a s a long, lyrical pro-Franco article signed J . Fidalgo Diaz—a name which will come up later in this chapter. T h e y o u n g Fascist organ was crammed with large adver­ tisements from the v e r y first issue on. Firms like Bull In­ sular Lines, headed b y H o n o r a r y Japanese Consul Miguel Such, Mendez & Company, large shipping agents, the F a jardo Sugar Company, bought space immediately. Other

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

firms, a bit more discreet, paid for full-page complimentary but anonymous advertisements. In F e b r u a r y 1 9 3 7 , Avance published an interesting schedule of short-wave broadcasts in Spanish. Heading the list was station D J Q of Berlin. Although the list included t w o A m e r i c a n stations as a matter of form, it included one other Berlin station, t w o in R o m e , and five in the then Fascist-conquered parts of Spain, the Canaries, and Spanish Morocco. Notices appeared in both M a r c h issues about the impend­ ing formation of the Puerto R i c a n Falange. In A p r i l the F r a n c o slogan—"Una Patria, U?i Estado, Un Caudillo"— appeared in Avance for the first time. T h i s slogan, w h i c h appeared constantly in the magazine after that, w a s handed to the Falange b y the N a z i experts called in b y General von Faupel to mold the Falange as an A x i s instrument. It is a translation of the N a z i w a r c r y , first heard in Austria and Czechoslovakia—"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fiihrer." One People—Spaniards; One State—Fascist Spain; O n e Leader—Franco. Despite its publication of the anti-American T w e n t y Seven Points and of this slogan, Avance w a s never stopped b y the United States postal authorities. T h e J u l y 1 , 1 9 3 7 , issue featured the face of one L e o Ribilzki on its cover. A long caption explained that the Sefior w a s the radio speaker on short-wave stations D J A and D J N , of Berlin, whose speeches about the cause of the Fascists in Spain meant so much to Puerto Rican listeners. T h e same issue also carried an article b y Alfonso L . G a r c i a , an instructor at the University of Puerto R i c o . T h i s article praised not only Franco, but also Italy and G e r m a n y . In issue after issue Avance continued to lay the ground­ w o r k for the organization of the Falange under the A m e r ­ ican flag. B y September, w h e n F r a n c o dispatched a travel­ ing "ambassador" to Latin America, the Falange banner was flying from the radiators of half of the cars parked out­ side of the University of Puerto R i c o e v e r y day.

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FALANGE

Luciano L o p e z Ferrer, the first of Franco's official "am­ bassadors at large," reached San J u a n in September 1 9 3 7 . H i s party included D r . Francisco J . A l m o d o v a r and a C a p ­ tain Julio de la T o r r e , of the Spanish Fascist A r m y . Dignified, venerable, v e r y much on the stuffed-shirt side, L o p e z Ferrer had a simple mission to perform. W h i l e gladhanding and flattering the wealthy Spaniards of the coun­ tries he visited, he acted as a perfect front for serious F a ­ lange agents like de la T o r r e . T h e Captain had a mission of his o w n in Puerto R i c o . H e w a s charged with getting the Falange Exterior branch formally organized. H a r d on the Captain's dashing heels came another Falangista from Burgos, charged with the task of making the organization stick. This individual was no stranger to Latin America, or to the Falange—where he rated as an " O l d Shirt," the Spanish equivalent of a Munich Beer-Hall Putsch veteran in the N a z i Party. His name was Jose Gonzalez Marin, T h e N e w W o r l d escapades of Gonzalez Marin have made him almost as fabulous a creature as R i c a r d o Dotres, the woman-crazy Falangist w h o acted as A x i s liaison agent in Havana. Gonzalez Marin, however, never bothered with women. H e had been to Puerto R i c o and other LatinAmerican countries long before the Spanish W a r . H e had for years been one of the leading recitadors (poetry read­ ers) in Spain. W i t h the coming of General von Faupel, Gonzalez Marin became one of the first of the many noted Spanish actors, musicians, and dancers to make international tours as Axis agents disguised in the robes of artists. It w a s as an artist that Gonzalez Marin arrived in Puerto R i c o in the fall of 1 9 3 7 . H e gave some public performances, including a benefit show for the Fascist side in Spain, handed out pictures of himself giving the Fascist salute while w e a r ­ ing the Falange uniform, and then w e n t to w o r k in earnest. T h e results of Gonzalez Marin's labors were soon made plain. T h e December 1 issue of Avance, on page 1 7 , ran a half-page photo of the speaker's table at a dinner given

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

129

b y the Spanish Societies of San J u a n at the Casa de Espafia. Present are seven men, each of them giving the brazo en alto salute. Gonzalez Marin is the man in the center of the group. A t his side stands Alfonso Miranda Esteve, iden­ tified in the caption as: " T h e Chief of the Falange Espafiola and Director of Avarice? T h e Franco forces of Puerto R i c o thrilled Gonzalez Marin. W h i l e he was in San Juan, he w a s taken to see the building occupied b y El Impartial, a daily newspaper whose press was bombed in 1937 when the editor had the temerity to print a story giving the Republican viewpoint of certain events in Spain. H e was shown the hold the pro-Falange groups had on the Casa de Espafia, and heard for himself the difficulties the anti-Fascists of Puerto R i c o encountered at e v e r y turn in their battle against the Falange. T h e Falange of Puerto R i c o had finally been launched. Satisfied with his handiwork, Gonzalez Marin boarded the plane for Venezuela. H i s "artistic tour" ultimately included a visit to the Falange of N e w Y o r k — b u t that is a story for a later chapter. International l a w became a mockery in Puerto R i c o where Spain w a s concerned. Dionisio T r i g o , whose posi­ tion as official representative of the Franco government had no legal standing in the United States, attended official functions at the Governor's Palace—La Fortaleaza—regu­ larly. M o r e regularly than Jacinto Ventosa, the consul of the Spanish Republic, the only Spanish government recog­ nized b y the State Department. Enemies of the Fascists in Spain found it next to impos­ sible to broadcast simple truths over the radio. D r . Antonio J . Colorado, spokesman f o r the Asociacion Pro-Democracia Espafiola de Puerto R i c o , was forced to evade the unique censorship in a spectacular manner. Since the censors forced him to delete all references to the fact that Hitler and M u s ­ solini w e r e even interested in the Spanish W a r , Colorado wrote his scripts around the magic w o r d censura. In time, radio listeners knew what Colorado meant when he de­ clared, " F r a n c o is fighting with the censura armies of the

i o 3

FALANGE

censura of censura and the censura of censura, w h o has a little mustache." T h e Fascists in Puerto R i c o were never forced to resort to such devices b y the censors, nor w e r e their presses ever bombed. E v e n before Gonzalez Marin arrived in Puerto R i c o , Avarice w a s publishing the standard Hitler attacks on de­ mocracy. H e was particularly impressed b y the unsigned editorial w h i c h had appeared on J u n e i, 1 9 3 7 , a piece called "National Socialism and D e m o c r a c y . " T h i s editorial made the interesting point that only in G e r m a n y did the truest democracy exist since . . . the repeated plebiscites held in Germany indicate that its government is a faithful expression of the conscience of the people. And if no credit is given to that institution, it is enough to travel through Germany and talk to all classes of people to see that an intimate bond exists between the government and the people. A f t e r demolishing the idea that democracy existed in England and France, the editorial w e n t on to declare: As to North America, President Roosevelt has just said in his second inaugural speech that one-third of the population has no food or sufficient clothing. That cannot be said of G e r ­ many or Italy. A n d there you see where democracy is effective, and where it is merely an illusion; where the government is for the people and by the people. Editorials like this one made it clear to everyone but Americans like G o v e r n o r Winship, Colonel J o h n W . W r i g h t , head of our garrison on the island, and Federal J u d g e R o b e r t A . Cooper, that the Falange of Puerto R i c o w a s involved in something more serious than preventing "communism" in Spain. These three gentlemen w e r e the most important American officials on the island, and their cordial relations with the Falange c r o w d became the subject

Gibraltar

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Harbor?

'3»

of a most enthusiastic report Gonzalez Marin delivered to his A x i s masters in Madrid. E a r l y in F e b r u a r y 1 9 3 8 , after Gonzalez Marin had left, the G e r m a n warship Meteor steamed into San Juan's har­ bor. F l y i n g t w o enormous swastika flags, the N a z i vessel tied up at the docks and held open house for the "high-life" Spanish set of the city. T h e Spanish Fascist societies of San J u a n welcomed the Nazis as heroes. T h e y hung a great picture of A d o l f Hitler in the' Casa de Espafia and invited H e n r y Fiese, H o n o r a r y G e r m a n Consul in San Juan, and the officers of the Meteor to a banquet. W h e n called upon to speak at this banquet, the c o m ­ mander of the Nazi warship said: " T o d a y w e find ourselves in the Casa de Espafia as guests of a nation whose sons, far a w a y from their land, follow the events of their mother­ land with ardent hearts. T h e y support the same struggle against Bolshevism that held G e r m a n y on the border of ruin, . . . I give m y most expressive thanks and I greet their motherland, the noble Nationalist Spain. Viva Franco! Arriba Espafia!" T h e Nazis and the Spaniards then posed f o r t w o inter­ esting pictures w h i c h appeared in the Puerto R i c o lllustrado of F e b r u a r y 1 2 . T h e first picture showed thirteen Span­ iards, including five members of the Falange, under Hitler's picture. T h e second showed Fiese and the officers of the Meteor standing before Franco's portrait. Publication of these pictures had no seeming effect on the g o o d relations the Falangistas seemed to enjoy with the Insular and American authorities. O n F e b r u a r y 1 9 , the Spanish Republic's Consul Ventosa was forced to issue a pained statement to the press: For quite a while now there has existed little cordiality be­ tween this Consulate and the Executive of Puerto Rico [Ven­ tosa revealed]. There are concrete cases that indicate that the Governor, to our mind, has not proceeded with absolute im-

FALANGE partiality in accordance with international law. W e have been able to see in certain of these official acts this manifest tend­ ency. . . . This [Meteor] incident is considered b y the Execu­ tive as of no value and as a purely social and private affair. On the other hand, this Consulate, as much as for the ideas shown as well as for the people who have participated, considers it public because of the facts involved. Puerto Ricans w h o recognized the implications of this, statement were, at that time, starting to encounter the re­ peated spectacle of uniformed Falangistas marching behind Franco's banners through the cities of the island. T o many of them, the continued official indifference to the antiAmerican, openly Fascist tenets of the Falangistas became the yardstick b y which they measured the democracy of the United States. Consul Ventosa himself became a symbol to thousands of Puerto Ricans. Secrets are v e r y hard to keep, scandals impossible to hide on the island. T h u s , when Ventosa w a s insulted and threatened b y gun-waving Falangistas in the Pardo Restaurant of San juan, the whole island k n e w that the authorities had ignored the incident. Some time after this gun-waving incident, Ventosa de­ livered a lecture at the A t e n e o Puertoriquefio. W h i l e he w a s on the platform, Francisco Cerdeira, a pugnacious F r a n c o partisan, rushed up and jammed a pistol into the Republican Consul's abdomen. In plain sight of the entire audience, Cerdeira pulled the trigger. T h e gun jammed. Ventosa pushed his assailant to the floor. A group of men present at the scene grabbed the gun and hid it in the piano. Cerdeira w a s subdued, and a call was sent for the police. Six of Puerto R i c o ' s most distinguished professional men signed the complaint against the gunman. T h e magistrate before w h o m the charge w a s brought complained that there were too many witnesses. D . A . Frankel appeared as attorney for Cerdeira. Frankel was the son-in-law of Miguel Such, the wealthy Spanish

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

•33

shipping man w h o served as honorary Japanese consul in San Juan. Cerdeira himself was the author of a laudatory biography of Sefior Such. T h e trial was postponed. It remained postponed until after Ventosa had departed forever from Puerto R i c o ; then the case was heard. T h e judge chose to accept the testimony of a waiter w h o claimed that the gun had be­ longed to Ventosa. Cerdeira w a s acquitted, and the stock of democracy sank still l o w e r in Puerto R i c o . V o i c e s raised against the Falange in Puerto R i c o w e r e generally heard with great difficulty b y the people. E v e n the voice of Father Martin Bernstein, a D u t c h friar at Catanzas, w a s drowned out b y the thunderous barrage of Falangist propaganda in the press, the cathedral, and over the radio. Father Martin's little w e e k l y paper, El Piloto, w a s one of the first publications in Puerto R i c o to denounce the Falange. L i k e the average Catholic in Spain, Father Martin looked upon the Falange as being anything but a holy crusade for Christianity. In J a n u a r y 1 9 3 7 Father Martin wrote the most classic of his denunciations of the Falange. M o r e than any one single piece of writing, this denunciation sums up the atti­ tude of the vast majority of Catholics in Spain and in Latin America toward the Falange and explains w h y they fought the Falange in Spain and abroad. Father Martin wrote: In Spain there is fascism. There it is called Falangism or National-Syndicalism. W e have already said . . . that Spanish Falangism is also to be condemned from a Catholic point of view. Falangism is incompatible with the Christian ideology. Falangism as a system tends to what is called totalitarianism, absolute State Power. A s such, it is an enormous danger for personal liberty and for Peace. As such, it preaches exaggerated national pride, imperialism, militarism, violence, hatred, and vengeance; violence against all those who do not submit to what a Falangist leader deems to be the "dignity of the State" or "national integrity."

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FALANGE

W e do not exaggerate. Here are the words from the official manifesto of the Falange: T o the realization of this task [to strengthen, elevate, and enlarge the supreme reality of Spain], it will be necessary to subordinate inexorably the interests of individuals, groups, classes. Our will is Empire. . . . Our state shall be a totali­ tarian instrument. W e will make a militaristic conception of life to permeate all Spanish life. . . . That [charged Father Martin] is a purely fascist program. It is the totalitarian monster with all its pride, intransigeance, coercion, violence. It is a system in which there is no room for virtues of humility, indulgence, respect, and love. Fomenting violence, it foments hatred: unhealthy hatred, against Jews, Masons, etc. . . . T h e very essence of Christianity is precisely love, universal love, a love which will exclude no one, a love which will presuppose a deep respect for human liberty and dignity. Falangism, therefore, is as such incompatible with the genuine Christian ideology. Father Martin's blunt words earned him the wrath of those sections of the Hierarchy which had a stake in Spanish fascism. M a n y Spanish priests canceled their subscriptions to Father Martin's paper w h e n he continued his attacks on the Falange. T h e Falangistas of Puerto R i c o denounced the white-haired friar. B u t his w o r d s struck home. In many instances, Father Martin's w o r d s w e r e a long time in taking their effect. T h e r e was, for instance, the case of Father V i c t o r Jesus H e r r e r o Padilla. Father Padilla is a Spaniard, a citizen of Spain. H e w a s the priest of the Monscrrate Church in Santurce, and orig­ inally a Franco partisan. In fact, on A p r i l i, 1939, Father Padilla took the Falangist oath and received membership book number 305 in the Puerto R i c a n branch of the Falange Tradicionalista Espafiola de la J . O . N . S . H e held his book until October 1, 1940. T h e n , without a w o r d of explana­ tion, he formally resigned from the Falange. Puerto R i c a n s close to the Padre of Monscrrate broadly hinted that Father Martin's writings on Falangismo had caused this resignation.

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13 5

T h e uniformed Falangistas preferred the writings of Avance to the columns of Father Martin's Piloto. In the issue of J a n u a r y 1, 1938, Avance hailed the Japanese recog­ nition of Franco as the legal head of the Spanish State— more than a year before the Republic fell—in w o r d s the G e r m a n origin of w h i c h w a s unmistakable. Japan could not be missing among those powers who offer us their company and their friendship [Avance announced]. Japan is a hierarchical believing nation, fundamentally honest with the ethical principles of society, noble in her aspirations, and an intelligent nation. She has to be with us hand in hand, heart to heart, with conscience and with unshakable will to fight Communism . . . who will not yield until the definite defeat of the Red credo is inflicted—defeat to Judaism, Masonry, the Soviet . . . Spaniards! For this victory of today . . . cry out with me: Long Live the Japanese Empire, as of today the intimate friend of our Spain! T h e same issue of Avance also denounced the "russoyankce press" and the J e w s for the "calumnies" against Falangismo many Spaniards had noticed on the Island of Puerto R i c o . T w o weeks later, Avance printed a speech b y Oliveira Salazar, the Caudillo of clerico-Fascist Portugal—a speech praising Franco for his role on the Iberian Peninsula. O n A p r i l 1 5 , 1 9 3 8 , Avance carried the latest regulations of the Falange Exterior as promulgated in Burgos. Alejandro Villanueva, General von Faupel's Inspector General of the Falange in the Americas, visited the Falange of Puerto R i c o in J u n e 1938. A c c o r d i n g to Avance, V i l l a nueva's visit w a s merely an inspection trip, since the In­ spector General w a s due to sail for Spain in A u g u s t. P e r ­ haps it w a s as a result of Villanueva's visit that the Falange organization of Puerto R i c o was shaken up. Leopoldo M a r ­ tinez Ochoa, a w e a l t h y businessman of San J u a n , replaced fiery y o u n g Alfonso Miranda Esteve as regional chief, and the pace of all Falange activities w a s stepped up. Dionisio T r i g o , the elder statesman of the Puerto Rican

FALANGE Falange, went to Spain shortly after Villanueva. H e never returned to Puerto R i c o . H i s visit to F r a n c o Spain had inevitably led him to N a z i G e r m a n y . In Frankfurt, T r i g o underwent an operation and died. T h e Falange turned out in full uniform to attend a Mass for T r i g o in San J u a n on October 20, 1 9 3 8 . It w a s the most spectacular Falangist mass until the one they cele­ brated in A p r i l 1 9 3 9 upon the victory of the F r a n c o forces in Spain. A t both Masses the Falangistas and the feminine section of the Falange donned the Fascist uniforms and carried the Falangist flags into the Cathedral. T h e Falange kept g r o w i n g in Puerto R i c o until the ad­ vent of the British and French declarations of w a r on N a z i G e r m a n y . M a n y Falangistas w h o thought of the American Government in terms of G o v e r n o r Winship were rudely shocked b y the obvious feelings of Franklin Roosevelt. W o r d had already filtered through to the N e w W o r l d that the Germans w e r e gobbling up all of Spain's resources. M a n y Puerto R i c a n Falangistas w h o had looked to F r a n c o to guard their investments in Spain were shocked to dis­ cover that the Nazis w e r e keeping all funds from leaving Spain—even dividends due Spaniards in Latin America. T h e Presidential E x e c u t i v e Order freezing A x i s funds early in 1940, while it chose to overlook Spain's being part of the N a z i Empire, sent many of Puerto R i c o ' s wealthier Falangistas scurrying to their bank vaults. T h e y had no illusions about the fact that Spain w a s an A x i s nation, and most of them felt that Spanish funds w o u l d inevitably be frozen under the terms of this order. In their panic, they began to sink vast sums into real estate—causing an aston­ ishing land boom on the poverty-stricken island. M a n y of the more timorous rich Falangistas resigned from the organization and tried to cover up their pro-Axis records. T h e y began to talk in terms of seeking United States citizenship, much to the disgust of the Franco consul in San J u a n . F r o m the Spanish Consulate the A x i s consul

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Harbor?

'37

sent angry reports to Madrid and to the Spanish Embassy in Washington. H e complained of the cowardice of the frightened Falangistas on the island, and followed up these complaints with a number of scathing personal denuncia­ tions. But the economic forces which had originally drawn the wealthy Spaniards of Puerto R i c o into the Falange w e r e n o w operating to force them into at least a tactical retreat. T h e N e w Spain might be glorious and real democracy might exist only in Italy and Germany, just as Avance wrote. Nevertheless, the prosperous Falangistas w e r e con­ fronted with the reality of a G e r m a n Gauleiter w h o had already frozen all Latin-American investments in Spain and the spectacle of an American President w h o had frozen the funds.of Italy, G e r m a n y , and Japan in the N e w W o r l d . T h e logical next step of freezing the funds of A x i s Spanish firms w o u l d place them economically between the G e r m a n anvil and the Y a n k e e hammer. Economic common sense, therefore, dictated that the Falangistas in Puerto R i c o should take all possible measures designed to protect their funds in the W e s t e r n Hemisphere. T h e wealthier Falangistas began dropping out of the organization. T h o s e w h o w e r e Spanish citizens immedi­ ately began to apply for American citizenship. W h a t re­ mained in the Falange was, b y and large, exactly that element which the Nazis wanted most—the young, fanat­ ical, emotional Fascists w h o had nothing to lose and every­ thing to gain b y an Axis v i c t o r y in W o r l d W a r I I , N o t even the voluntary dissolution of the Falange of Puerto R i c o in January 1 9 4 1 bothered Spain's N a z i masters. T h e pocketbook panic w h i c h had given the older Falan­ gistas such hysterics w a s a perfect cover f o r changing the form of the Falange in Puerto R i c o . B y 1 9 4 1 it suited von Faupel's plans to have the United States Government accept at face value the fact that the Falange no longer existed in Puerto R i c o . T h e seeds which had been planted in 1 9 3 6 , and nursed along b y such master Fascist gardeners as G o n -

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zalez Marin, Julio de la T o r r e , and Alejandro Villanueva, had produced a plant which could not be killed b y a formal act of a small group of frightened men. A s w a r approached, the United States started to increase the Puerto R i c a n garrison. Blanton Winship and Colonel W r i g h t disappeared from the scene. Winship w a s succeeded for a time b y Admiral L e a h y , w h o in turn w a s succeeded b y G u y S w o p e and then b y R e x f o r d G u y T u g w e l l . W h e n the former N e w Deal Brain T r u s t e r became G o v ­ ernor of Puerto R i c o in September 1 9 4 1 , he inherited one of the greatest headaches in our government. T h e forty years of American bungling w h i c h had succeeded four centuries of Spanish misrule had brought Puerto R i c o to the brink of the w a r in a condition conducive neither to g o o d government nor to sound military defense. T h e island could produce practically no food for the suddenly in­ creased garrison, let alone its o w n people. A n inadequately fed people lived in inadequate houses in shocking sanitary conditions. O n l y the temporary emergency jobs provided b y the defense projects stood between thousands of Puerto R i c a n families and ruin. G o v e r n o r T u g w e l l had plans for Puerto R i c o , plans w h i c h w o u l d have made it both a better place to live in and a sounder base of operations for the defense of the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. These plans included projects for a safe water system, cheap sanitary housing, and the enforcement of the 5 0 0 - A c r e L a w begun in 1 9 4 1 after four decades. T h i s act, written into the original Puerto R i c a n charter when the island first became a colony of the United States, w a s designed to keep the small Puerto R i c a n farmers from being made landless. It limited the size of all farms to five hundred acres. H a d it been en­ forced, Puerto R i c o ' s history as a stepchild of the A m e r i c a n Government might have been a brighter one. Instead, the fertile bottom land of one-third of the island w a s absorbed b y f o r t y - t w o sugar plantations o w n e d b y absentee A m e r ­ ican and Spanish corporations.

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Harbor!

:

39

T h e wealthy Spaniards w h o had flocked to the F r a n c o banner w e r e quick to join hands with the American sugar corporations w h o declared w a r on T u g w e l l . Supporters of T u g w e l l w e r e more numerous on the island than his enemies. T h e i r voices, however, found f e w e r effective forums and newspapers at their disposal. T h e bombing of Pearl H a r b o r ended the reconstruction programs of G o v e r n o r T u g w e l l . N a z i submarines in the Caribbean, guided b y scores of Heinz Lunings, sank supply ship after supply ship. T h e island's food shortages, always serious, became catastrophic. T h e completion of the naval and military defense projects added to the island's unem­ ployment. In Madrid, General v o n Faupel had the satisfaction of learning that the w a r had brought Puerto R i c o to the state of acute crisis. H e had the additional satisfaction of learn­ ing that in Puerto R i c o , as in the Philippines, the Falange and its friends had swarmed into the civilian defense or­ ganizations. T h e civilian defense organization of Puerto R i c o , estab­ lished in 1 9 4 1 , has sixty thousand workers. Prospective air­ raid wardens and other civil defense volunteers w e r e a c ­ cepted into the ranks and given their credentials without investigation. Puerto R i c o ' s scrambled political lines had their reflec­ tion in G o v e r n o r T u g w e l l ' s appointee as the E x e c u t i v e Secretary of the civilian defense organization. Against his better judgment, T u g w e l l was maneuvered into appointing to this important post E n r i q u e de Orbeta, former Insular Chief of Police, brother-in-law of Dionisio T r i g o and uncle of t w o outstanding Falangistas. Orbeta's nephews, J u a n T r i g o de Orbeta and Dionisio T r i g o de Orbeta, are today in the civilian defense organi­ zation of Puerto R i c o . Both held membership cards in the Falange; Juan w a s a member of the Avance staff. Bonifacio Fernandez, w h o w a s also a Falange member, is a lieutenant in the civilian defense organization. H i s brother, Telesforo

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Fernandez, w h o carried a Falange card, is in the State Guard. Jose Fidalgo Diaz, w h o w a s both a member of the F a ­ lange and a contributor to Avance, is not only in the civilian defense organization but also the personal secretary to Sergio Cuevas, the Insular Government's Secretary of the Interior. Eliado R o d r i g u e z Otero, contributor to Avance, is in the civilian defense organization of R i o Piedras. T h e list of proved former members of the Falange in Puerto R i c o ' s civilian defense organization is huge. In cer­ tain communities, the people w h o suddenly awoke to dis­ cover that the Falangistas had taken over the local civilian posts raised such a scandal that the offending wardens had to resign. Former Falangistas and F r a n c o partisans have also swarmed into the U . S . O . W i v e s and daughters of Falan­ gistas w h o marched through the streets in the uniforms of the feminine section of the Falange yesterday are n o w serving coffee and cakes to American soldiers in U . S . O . clubhouses. A m o n g the outspoken F r a n c o partisans n o w engaged in U . S . O . w o r k is a society w o m a n of A r e c i b o . H e r case is typical of the n e w conditions in Puerto R i c o . O n Pearl H a r b o r D a y , as the news of the Japanese bomb­ ing attack came over the radio, she w a s in a store in A r e c i b o . T h e news excited her. " V i v a Hitler!" She cried. "Este es el hombre que necesitamos! ( H e is a man w e need h e r e ! ) " She is n o w active in the U . S . O . of A r e c i b o . In this seacoast t o w n there are also a group of Spanish priests w h o w e r e and are violently pro-Franco. On L a b o r D a y 1942 a dozen American fliers got reeling drunk at the parish house. T h e fliers were from the emergency air base the A r m y built near Arecibo. T h i s air base w a s built in great secrecy. A s soon as it was finished, the Vichy-controlled Martinique radio put on a special Spanish broadcast beamed at Puerto R i c o . In mocking tones t w o announcers congratulated the A m e r i ­ cans upon the swift completion of the base and then

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141

launched into a solicitous critique of its various shortcom­ ings. T h e effect of this broadcast on the Puerto Ricans w a s about as shocking as the well k n o w n fact that the N a z i submarine commanders in waters around Puerto R i c o have never made the mistake of sending a torpedo into a ship carrying dynamite. Submarines which torpedo dynamite ships are in danger of being sunk b y the resulting concus­ sion—a dynamite ship, in exploding, acts like a depth bomb. But the Nazi submarine commanders w h o p r e y on Puerto R i c a n shipping seem to have an uncanny idea of w h a t is in the cargo hold of every ship that crosses their periscopes. Pearl Harbor sent many once-proud Falangistas scurry­ ing to the Federal Court with petitions for American citi­ zenship. E a r l y in 1 9 4 2 , twenty-one Spanish residents of Puerto R i c o , all of them admitted members of the Falange during its official existence on the island, applied for A m e r ­ ican citizenship before J u d g e R o b e r t A . Cooper. It w a s the most spectacular court hearing in Puerto R i c o since J u d g e Cooper had found the leaders of the Nationalist Party guilty of treason in 1937. A t that time, Cooper had ruled that the Nationalist program of independence for Puerto R i c o constituted treason. In the case of the twenty-one Falangistas, the official program of the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista, like the program of the Nationalist Party, w a s on trial. Puerto Ricans, well-acquainted with those points of the Falange program which called for the restoration of the Spanish Empire, looked for fireworks from the bench. T h e y had good reason to expect drama. In an earlier citizenship hearing, on September 1 5 , 1 9 4 1 , J u d g e Cooper had made a strong pronouncement. " A n y person w h o be­ longs to organizations opposed to the United States," he declared, "cannot be considered a g o o d citizen, cannot fulfill his oath to defend and support the Constitution of the United States." W h e n the hearings began, however, it was not the J u d g e

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FALANGE

w h o provided the fireworks. First blood was drawn b y Alfonso Miranda Esteve, Director of Avance and first chief of the Falange of Puerto R i c o . Esteve was not an applicant for citizenship. H e was one of the chief attorneys for the petitioners. H e beamed when the J u d g e decided to hold court on Washington's Birth­ day, since, "In these days of emergency, one cannot lose time in festivities." * H e sat unruffled through the early skir­ mishes, smiling softly to himself as he laid his trap. Before Esteve could spring his surprise, the Falange Oath used in Puerto R i c o was introduced into the evidence. O n the face of it, it seemed enough to disqualify the petitioners w h o had signed it. In a faithful translation, It reads: I S W E A R to give myself always to the service of S P A I N . I S W E A R not to have any other pride than that of the Motherland and of the Falange with obedience and joy, im­ petus and patience, gallantry and silence. I S W E A R loyalty and submission to our Chiefs, honor to the memory of the dead, unswerving perseverance in all vicis­ situdes. I S W E A R that wherever I may be or be ordered to obey, to respect our Command from first to last rank. I S W E A R to reject and consider unheard any voice of friend or enemy that may weaken the spirit of F A L A N G E . I S W E A R to maintain above all the ideas of unity: U N I T Y between the lands of S P A I N , U N I T Y in man and among the men of S P A I N . I S W E A R to live in the holy brotherhood with all those of F A L A N G E and to lend all aid and oppose all differences whenever this holy brotherhood is invoked. A f t e r the Falange oath was introduced, Esteve main­ tained his amused calm. H e sat quietly at the counsel table while'Benecio Sanchez Castano, associated with him in the case, agreed with J u d g e C o o p e r on the importance of * T h i s and other speeches made at the hearings are translated from the accounts appearing in El Impartial, El Mundo, and other Puerto Rican newspapers at the time.

Gibraltar

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Harbor?

H 3

denying citizenship to members of subversive organizations. Nevertheless, Castano asserted, the fact that a person had been a member of the Falange w a s not grounds for the denial of citizenship. W h e n Castano w a s done with this argument, E s t e v e himself started to answer the Judge's questions. H e began b y explaining that, after the w a r began in Spain, a group of Puerto Ricans organized an association to aid the cause of the Fascists. T h e n , Esteve said, the Comite de las Damas —the Women's Committee—was organized in 1 9 3 7 to col­ lect funds for Franco. " T h e organizers w e r e all rich people," he said, "and contributed money of their o w n . " T h e Falange in Puerto R i c o , Esteve said, w a s organized in 1 9 3 8 . ( T h i s w o u l d have made the announcement in the December 1 9 3 7 issue of Avarice of w h i c h E s t e v e w a s the Director a lie.) A t this point J u d g e Cooper asked Alfonso Miranda Esteve whether the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista w a s the same as the N a z i Party of G e r m a n y . Esteve was ready with a v e r y glib answer. T h e Falange, he said, was quite different. T h e Falange w a s f o r a c o r ­ porate state like that of Portugal, and supported Franco because he promised to support its T w e n t y - S e v e n Points. " T h e Falange of Puerto R i c o , " Esteve said, "stood for the same program as the Falange of Spain." T h e first leader of the Puerto Rican Falange and di­ rector of its official magazine belittled his o w n efforts. N e v e r , he told the court, had the Falange on the island reached a membership of more than 250—a figure which startled all Puerto Ricans w h o had seen the streets dark­ ened on more than one occasion b y processions of uni­ formed Falangistas. H i en, mopping his lips with a limp handkerchief, Esteve launched into an apparently pointless story of the cele­ bration held at the Casa de Espafia to celebrate the F r a n c o victory in A p r i l 1 9 3 9 . Innocently, he started to describe the celebration in detail. H e blandly mentioned the names of many notables w h o attended the fiesta.

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Courtroom spectators gasped as some of the names slid from Esteve's lips. A t the F r a n c o victory celebration there had been many high officers of the American Government and the A r m y , Esteve named them all, pausing between names for effect. H e cited then-Governor Blanton W i n ship, Colonel W r i g h t , J u d g e Martin Trabieso, of the Puerto R i c a n Supreme Court. Esteve paused again, exchanged a queer look with some of the petitioners. H e revealed that the band of the regular United States A r m y garrison performed in the Casa de Espafia at that celebration. A n d then he named another prominent person w h o he saw in the Casa de Espafia that day. T h e name w a s — J u d g e R o b e r t A . Cooper! H a d he hurdled the bench, tied a string of giant Chinese firecrackers to the J u d g e ' s robe and ignited the fuse, Esteve could not have created a greater sensation in the San J u a n Federal Court on that memorable Washington's Birthday. W h e n order w a s restored, the J u d g e spluttered an in­ dignant denial. H e hotly denied that he had attended the celebration, or even that he had been invited to attend. B u t he felt that he o w e d some sort of explanation, for he asserted that if he w a s in the Casa de Espafia on that day, it was merely to play a game of billiards. J u d g e Cooper also felt constrained to remind his listeners that billiards w a s his favorite game. Puerto R i c o has been a land without laughter for four centuries. J u d g e Cooper's hasty explanation, however, made m a n y suffering Puerto Ricans laugh. F o r reasons best k n o w n to themselves, they thought it was v e r y funny. Miranda Esteve continued to dominate the hearing. H e w e n t on to tell the court that the Puerto R i c a n Falange was disbanded after the Spanish W a r , since it no longer had any reason to exist. B u t he did not explain w h y the Falange waited for nearly t w o years after the F r a n c o vic­ t o r y before disbanding for this stated reason. A n s w e r i n g another question, he said that the Falange still existed in Spain.

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

"Is it true," the J u d g e asked Esteve, "that the relations of F r a n c o and the Falange are similar to the relations be­ tween the National Socialist G e r m a n W o r k e r s P a r t y and Adolf Hitler?" "In essence, y e s , " Miranda Esteve replied. " T h e y are similar. But the Government of Francisco F r a n c o , " Esteve added, "is not opposed to political parties." ( T h e r e is only one legal political party in Spain.) "Is the government that n o w exists in Spain a representa­ tive government?" the J u d g e asked. " N o t exactly," Esteve answered. T h e J u d g e glanced at the petitioners before he put the next important question to Miranda Esteve. " H o w do y o u think some persons can advocate one form of government for one country and swear loyalty to another system of government under which they live?" T h e answer w a s quite frank. " I don't k n o w . " Puerto R i c a n democrats took heart from the Judge's reaction to this answer. Cooper said that he did not "under­ stand how a person wishes to swear loyalty to a system of government different from one he aided in organizing in an­ other country." N o t even the parade of high-placed character witnesses w h o appeared for the petitioners shook the faith of some spectators in Cooper's determination to refuse comfort to A x i s partisans. T h e imposing array of character witnesses was headed b y D r . M u n o z M a c C o r m i c k , director of the Puerto R i c o Defense Council. H e w a s followed to the stand b y Filipe de Ostos, head of the Puerto R i c a n Chamber of Commerce and leader of the anti-Tugwell forces. Both M a c C o r m i c k and de Ostos testified for Petitioner Emeliano Mendez. Alfonso Valencia, of the Bull Insular Lines, testi­ fied for a group of the petitioners. So imposing was the weight of the testimony about the A x i s character of the Falange, that, at one point, the J u d g e was forced to postpone the hearings in order to study the record. A t this point, J u d g e Cooper sounded w h a t seemed

146

FALANGE

to many listeners like the closing of the door to all citizen­ ship petitions b y A x i s partisans. " M y attention has been called to the possibility that the activities of the Falange Espanola in Puerto R i c o might be anti-American. I do not k n o w if the assertion is correct, nor if it includes the petitioners. I w a n t it to be understood," the J u d g e said, "that in postponing their cases I am not prejudging their admissibility. I believe I must proceed with a detailed examination of these petitions. . . . "Lately, w e have discovered that (some) political organi­ zations are much more powerful than w e believed. Of course, citizens m a y be in disagreement, but there should be no discrepancies at least as to certain fundamental principles. " F o r example," J u d g e Cooper, the former G o v e r n o r of South Carolina, pointed out, "it has been resolved that the principles of the K u K l u x K l a n w e r e anti-American. If proof w e r e offered that a candidate for citizenship belonged to the K u K l u x Klan, it seems to me it w o u l d be m y duty to clarify the situation before making a decision as to his admissibility." Again, in these words, the foes of the Falange found much promise. F o r the K u K l u x Klan, while as Fascist as the Falange in its principles, never demanded that any state or colony of the United States of America be restored to a foreign empire. O n these grounds alone, the Puerto R i c a n s w h o backed the United Nations in the w a r against the A x i s felt that at J u d g e Cooper's hands the Falange of Puerto R i c o was finally to receive a setback. These hopes w e r e all blasted on March 1 0 , 1 9 4 2 , w h e n Federal J u d g e R o b e r t A . Cooper, having studied the evi­ dence, prepared to hand d o w n his decision. "If I had a n y doubts regarding the good faith of the petitioners," J u d g e Cooper declared, " I w o u l d plainly refuse their request. • . . N o matter what may be said for or against the Falange," Cooper said, he was "satisfied that the petitioners w o u l d take the oath of loyalty in good faith." T h e twenty-one Spanish Falangistas, four months after Spain's A x i s partners and masters declared w a r on the

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

'47

United States, w e r e admitted to American citizenship b y the judge w h o played billiards at the Casa de Espafia. F e w judicial actions have ever given Fascists in American territories the encouragement J u d g e Cooper's decision gave the enemies of democracy in Puerto R i c o . It came at a time that N a z i submarine raiders in the Caribbean were reaching the peak of- their destructive efficiency, w h e n democracy meant only increased starvation on the island. Before J u d g e C o o p e r handed d o w n his decision, the A m e r i c a n authorities in Puerto R i c o had appeased F r a n c o in a manner that had made Puerto Ricans writhe. W h e n the garrison w a s increased, the authorities had to find a suit­ able headquarters for the U . S . O . T w o buildings proved physically and geographically suitable—the Ateneo Puertoriqueno and the Casa de Espafia. Both had ballrooms, meet­ ing halls, social rooms, and quarters for libraries and buffets. T h e Casa de Espafia, w h i c h flew the F r a n c o flag, w a s big­ ger and more modern than the Ateneo. It stood as a s y m ­ bol of A x i s p o w e r on the island, while the Atenoo w a s the only meeting place for pro-United Nations citizens of the island. Perhaps the authorities did not k n o w all this w h e n they decided to take over the A t e n e o Puertoriquefio for the U . S . O . Nevertheless, they could not have aimed a heavier b l o w at the pro-United Nations forces of Puerto R i c o than w h e n they took the Ateneo. T h e U . S . O . banner n o w flies from the Ateneo's standards, and the dispossessed Puerto R i c a n intellectuals gag e v e r y time they pass the near-by Casa de Espafia and see the F r a n c o flag waving insolently in the lazy breezes of the troubled c o l o n y . T h e Franco flag w a v e s in Puerto R i c o , w h i c h has v e r y f e w secrets. Disheartened Puerto R i c a n democrats, w h o see the Falange in its true colors, can see only danger ahead in the continued tolerance American officialdom seems to show for the most outspoken of the A x i s partisans of the island. In the meanwhile, F r a n c o supporters and former Falan­ gistas move about the island in perfect freedom. T h e y

i 8

FALANGE

4

dominate the civilian defense organizations and the U . S . O . , they hold positions of importance in the government, a n d they rub shoulders with American soldiers. A case in point is one Obregon, headwaiter at L a Mallorquina, one of San Juan's smartest restaurants. A m e r i ­ can army and n a v y officers often eat and drink at this ex­ pensive cafe, and many of them talk shop. Obregon is a recent arrival from Santander, Spain. H e boasts of having been an important Falange leader in Santander, w h e r e , he claims, he personally liquidated many enemies of Spanish fascism. T o d a y he pours rum and w h i s k y f o r the officers of America's Gibraltar. D r . J u a n Homedes Cordelia is another Spaniard w h o moves about in San J u a n in perfect freedom. Cortiella was living in Barcelona with his family when the Spanish W a r started. H e w ent to F r a n c e , where he wrote to D r . Roidan, head of the Puerto R i c a n Auxilio Muto and asked for a job. H e reached Puerto R i c o early in the course of the Spanish W a r and went to w o r k as an intern in the Auxilio M u t o clinic. W h e n D r . Cortiella reached San Juan, he visited the Spanish Republicans. H e was, he told them, an old anarchist and a foe of the Falange. H e started to attend pro-Loyalist meetings and make anti-Franco declarations. D u r i n g all of this time, however, he was attending various Falange func­ tions. O n February 24, 1 9 3 9 , D r . Cortiella joined the Puerto R i c a n Falange and was given card number 1 0 0 . H e resigned from the Falange on J u l y 1 , 1940, the date the President's order freezing A x i s funds took effect. M a n y outspoken supporters of Franco and the Falange o w n large estates which touch on the coastlines of the island. These estates are all capable of sheltering and shielding A x i s agents with radio equipment more powerful than the clandestine sender H e i n z August Luning operated in Havana. W h e r e v e r one turns in Puerto R i c o , the Falange and its most open supporters appear in high places. O n l y after Pearl Harbor was the daughter of a leader of the feminine r

Gibraltar

or Pearl

Harbor?

149

section of the Falange removed from her confidential post in the postal censorship office. A high-ranking militaryofficer w h o exchanged a g l o w i n g correspondence with Franco during the Spanish W a r today holds an important command on the island. Between the Falangistas, s w o r n enemies of the democra­ cies, and the American authorities, w h o evidently choose to ignore them, stand the vast b o d y of Puerto Ricans. T h e lot of these Puerto R i c a n s is an increasingly unhappy one. Starvation and unemployment are increasing in their ranks. A m e r i c a has failed them. T h e most articulate of their num­ bers welcomed America's entry into the w a r as the catalyst which w o u l d stimulate the factors which can bring democ­ r a c y and its benefits to Puerto R i c o . T o d a y , they are losing hope. In the continued official tolerance of the Falange and its leaders on the island, Puerto Ricans can see only the negation of all the democratic w a r aims.

C H A P T E R

E I G H T :

Mexico: Falange Concentration Point IF GENERAL WILHELM

VON F A U P E L ever writes an auto­

biography, he can well rate his successes in M e x i c o on a level with the Fifth Column he created for the A x i s in Manila. T h r o u g h the Falange and its chief Mexican sub­ sidiaries—the A c c i o n National and the Sinarquistas—he has established on the borders of the United States of A m e r i c a one of the most dangerous A x i s centers in the entire world. H e has created a co-ordinated movement em­ bracing w e l l over a half-million followers engaged in espionage, arms smuggling, propaganda, and sorties of vio­ lence often reaching the scale of actual warfare. A n d von Faupel has forged this A x i s a r m y in the space of less than a decade. Perhaps, if Carlton J . H . H a y e s , the American Ambassa­ dor to Spain, w h o in February 1943 chose to make a state­ ment praising the " w i s e " peace policies of Francisco Franco, had taken time to study the end results of this policy in Mexico—perhaps the Ambassador would have tempered his words. F o r in M e x i c o the mistakes the Western democracies made during the Spanish W a r between 1 9 3 6 and 1939 have given birth to one of the grisliest of Appeasement's Frankensteins. Falangismo reached M e x i c o three years after the Germans had set up a widespread and expensive N a z i network. In addition to their legations, the Nazis had sixteen organiza­ tions for Germans in Mexico—organizations ranging from the Mexican branch of the N a z i P a r t y to the IberoAmerican Institute and G e r m a n sports clubs. T h e Gestapo had a smoothly-running center in M e x i c o C i t y headed b y G e o r g Nicolaus. N a z i cells functioned from Guatemala to Texas. Something like t w e n t y thousand Germans all over M e x i c o paid their dues to the Nazi collectors and car­ ried out the orders of their local leaders. 150

Falange Concentration

Point

15r

In the early part of 1 9 3 5 , the N a z i leaders of M e x i c o received orders to cultivate the wealthier members of the Spanish colonies of M e x i c o . T h e Spaniards in M e x i c o owned about 60 per cent of the agricultural acreage, most of the real estate in Mexico City, and many mining interests. M o r e than two-thirds of the textile mills in M e x i c o belonged to Spaniards. T h e Spanish C o l o n y had a virtual monopoly of the domestic mercantile commerce of the nation, the printing and publishing business, and the processed-food industries. T h e men w h o o w n e d these enterprises looked d o w n upon Mexicans as inferiors and viewed the Mexican R e ­ public as something alien to their best interests. T h e y had important investments in Spain and, generally, considered the Spanish Republic to be an instrument of government as menacing to themselves as the Mexican Republic. W h e n Hitler invaded the Spanish Republic in 1936, the upper crust of M e x i c o ' s Spanish C o l o n y required little prodding to jump on the A x i s steamroller. T h e Falange program w a s one that appealed to their hearts and their purses, not only as the program that could do them the most good in Spain, but also as an eminently desirable blue­ print of the ideal Mexican State. T h e Nazis in M e x i c o were able to sell the Spaniards on the idea that the triumph of the A x i s in Spain would be the preliminary to the establish­ ment of a Falangist state in Mexico. U n d e r N a z i supervision, the Falange was created in Mexico within weeks of the start of the Spanish W a r . B y the time the German, Italian, and Japanese legations were expelled b y the Mexican Government in 1 9 4 1 , the Axis had, in the Mexican Falange, an instrument capable of continuing its anti-American activities from the strategic and valuable Mexican base. Since Pearl Harbor, the Falange network in M e x i c o has, if anything, g r o w n stronger and more menacing. It is not only the Axis Fifth Column nearest the United States borders; it is also the most powerful anti-American force in the hemisphere. Nominal chief of all Falange activities in M e x i c o is

i5i

FALANGE

Augusto Ibaflez Serrano, a Spaniard w h o had lived in Mexico for many years before the N a z i s gave him their blessing in 1 9 3 6 . H e sometimes signs his letters as "Personal Representative of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in M e x ­ i c o . " Although he receives his mail at 1 2 3 Calle Articulo, Mexico City, visitors to this building w o u l d have great difficulty finding Ibanez Serrano. T h e best place to find him is in the office he maintains in the Portuguese Legation in M e x i c o C i t y . Mexico, the only country in the Western Hemisphere which had aided the Spanish Republic, has never had diplo­ matic relations with A x i s Spain. Portugal looks after Spanish diplomatic interests in Mexico. A l l Spaniards w h o visit the Portuguese Legation for any reason must first be cleared b y Ibanez Serrano before they will be received b y the Legation's officials. F r o m his offices in the Portuguese Legation, Ibanez Ser­ rano today directs all Falange activities in Mexico. H e is the direct link between the Nazis in E u r o p e and the secret Fascist armies on the A m e r i c a n border. T h r o u g h special couriers, Ibanez Serrano keeps in constant touch with Colonel Sanz A g e r o , the current chief of all Falange activi­ ties in Central America, and with the Spanish Embassy in Washington. Colonel A g e r o is the Spanish Minister to Guatemala. Ibanez Serrano operates primarily through three close lieutenants, all of them lawyers. T h e y are Alejandro Quijano, G o m e z Morin, and Carlos Prieto. Quijano is Ibanez Serrano's legal adviser. Morin supervises the activities of Mexican groups organized and run b y the Falange. Prieto, among other things, keeps contact with N u n e z Iglesias in the Spanish Embassy in Washington. T h e s e four men have the intimate and varied activities of Falangismo in M e x i c o at their fingertips. T h e y see to it that the various organizations under their control contribute o n an average of three hundred thousand pesos each month to defray part of the expenses of running the net-

1

Falange Concentration

Point

'53

w o r k . U n d e r the watchful eye of Gestapo-trained members of the Spanish Secret Service in Mexico, the four top leaders disburse these funds where they will do the United Nations the most harm. T h e official Falange Espafiola Tradicionalista de la J . O . N . S . en Mejico has about 50,000 uniformed, dues-pay­ ing members. Although the majority of its members are Mexicans of Spanish descent, Mexican citizens are not per­ mitted to hold important posts in the organization. T h e chief strongholds of the formal Falange in Mexico are centered in Puebla, V e r a Cruz, Merida, Comitan, Guadala­ jara, Morelia, Mazatlan, Guanajuato, T a m p i c o , Monterrey, T o r r e o n , and G u a y m a s . H e r e corps of blue-shirted Falan­ gistas, trained b y a succession of G e r m a n and Spanish mili­ tary officers, are at the service of General von Faupel and his subordinates in the Americas. A s the hour for Pearl Harbor approached, von Faupel considerably tightened the organizational controls of the Falange in M e x i c o . T h e most important move made for this purpose was the assignment given to E u l o g i o Cclorio Sordo, w h o was sent from Spain to take charge of the uniformed Falange of M e x i c o in J u l y , 1 9 4 1 . Celorio Sordo's title is Provincial Chief of the Falange in Mexico. H e re­ ceives his orders directly from Madrid, and is equal in rank with Ibafiez Serrano, the nominal chief of Falange activities. Celorio Sordo w o r k s out of Messones 1 2 7 , Mexico C i t y . H e heads the delegation of Falange leaders chosen in Spain, rather than in the office run b y Ibafiez Serrano at the Portu­ guese Legation. These Madrid-chosen Falange officers in­ clude personalities like Maria Luisa Gavito, chief of the feminine section and the Auxilio Social of the Falange, and Felipe Yubrita, chief of the Falange in M e x i c o C i t y . A s Provincial Chief of the Falange, Celorio Sordo super­ vises all the activities that the Falangistas themselves classify as "illegal." This, however, is not a moral classification. T h e term is used merely to designate those Falangist actions

154

FALANGE

which happen to run counter to the laws of M e x i c o — a judi­ cial code the Falange recognizes only as an unavoidable nui­ sance. These activities v a r y greatly, but a mere glance at a few representative Falange tasks in this category is enough to explain w h y they cannot be performed legally in Mexico. T h r e e examples picked at random tell their o w n stories. A member of the Falange ran a leather-goods shop in Mexico C i t y . Tourists visited the shop for handbags and tooled-leather belts. Falange shock troops visited the shop regularly—but never as customers. T h e y w e n t to the shop for sealed orders, and for packages containing rifles, bullets, and machine-gun ammunition. A certain business firm whose offices overlooked the blue waters of the G u l f of M e x i c o at V e r a Cruz received regular shipments from Spain that never w e r e entered in the books of the corporation. T h e s e special shipments arrived on Spanish ships of the C . T . E . line—and consisted of trained agents of the A x i s assigned to w o r k in M e x i c o or one of the Central American republics. A w e l l - k n o w n garage in M e x i c o C i t y is also the center of the transportation system used b y agents of the Falange and the Spanish Secret Service. Centers such as these are supervised b y Celorio Sordo and his aides all over M e x i c o . T o keep them w o r k i n g at top efficiency, the Falange in Spain has been sending about five hundred militantes to the Americas each month since 1 9 3 9 . T h e s e Spanish Falangistas cross the ocean in C . T . E . ships as tourists, business men, educators, and artists. U p o n arrival in Mexico, they are given new papers and new identities b y the Falange chiefs and then g o to w o r k as Falange agents. T h e important Falangistas are attached to Falange cells all over the country. In Mexico they are concentrated mainly in Puebla and in provinces of northern Mexico—the regions nearer the United States. Chief of these centers are Morclia, Guanajuato, and Mazatlan. A l l of the visiting militantes are trained in the basic prin­ ciples of sabotage, espionage, and secret warfare. M a n y w o n

Falange Concentration

Point

155

their spurs originally as officers in the Franco forces during the Spanish W a r , and in M e x i c o most of them train Falangist shock troops and other military organizations. A c t i n g on orders received even before they left Spain, they keep out of the limelight entirely in Mexico. T h e y hold no offices in the local Falange cells and remain under cover whenever the Falange groups they instruct hold any type of public demonstration. T h e s e militantes w e r e originally under the direct super­ vision of Hans Hellerman, a veteran Nazi agent w h o w a s sent to Spain b y General von Faupel as early as 1 9 3 4 . Hellerman remained in Spain until 1 9 3 7 , when he returned to Berlin f o r a short term as chief of the Spanish division of the N a z i Party. H e reached Mexico late in 1 9 3 8 , and took charge of the military training of the Falange. Pearl Harbor, which precipitated Mexico's entrance into war, ended Hellerman's career as generalissimo of the Falange shock troops in M e x i c o ; but nearly a y e a r before Pearl Harbor, von Faupel sent a new military chief to the Mexican Falange. T h e man chosen to supplant Hellerman was M a j o r Jose Enrique Carril Ontano, one of the most ruthless c o m ­ manders of the Fascist armies during the Spanish W a r . Major Carril Ontano had a specialty: he had developed to a fine art the technique of razing and looting undefended Republican villages. H e sailed from Spain f o r H a v a n a in J a n u a r y 1 9 4 1 . A f t e r his arrival in Havana, the Spanish Republican emigres learned that he was in Cuba-—and the Major went into hiding. In M a y of that year he sneaked out of Havana and went to M e x i c o C i t y . T h e apartment maintained b y the Major at 2 Oriente Street in Puebla is seldom used, since he travels over Mexico constantly. Major Carril Ontano goes nowhere without his picked guard; M e x i c o has many Republican refugees, and the Major is in constant terror of his life. W h e n he is in Mexico City, he stays in the vicinity of the Flotel Colisco. T w o Spanish army officers w h o also arrived in Mexico shortly before Pearl H a r b o r are Carril Ontano's chiefs of

i 6 S

FALANGE

staff. T h e y are Major Francisco G a r a y Unzuenta and C a p ­ tain Carlos Aravilla. L i k e their chief, they arc constantly on the move, checking on the w o r k of the mititantes in the Falange cells all over the country. Carril Ontano's military delegation, while nominally un­ der the direction of Celorio Sordo, receives its orders and di­ rectives from General M o r a Figueroa, chief of the Spanish Falange and Minister in the Spanish Cabinet. Figueroa, in turn, sends the Falange military delegation in M e x i c o di­ rectives d r a w n up b y General v o n Faupel and his staff. F o r the main part, these instructions deal with creating antiAmerican forces in areas close to the American border. T h e Falange militia in Mexico is not an army without arms. Spanish ships cross the oceans with great regularity, and many of them are little more than munitions ships at the service of the Falange Exterior. Just before Pearl Harbor, three Spanish ships reached Guatemala within a period of trwo w e e k s and unloaded cargoes of munitions w h i c h w e r e then trans-shipped to Chiapas, Mexico. T h e arms these and other Spanish ships succeeded in smuggling into M e x i c o have not been wasted for mere training purposes; they have gone and continue to g o into the vast secret arsenals the Falange maintains in scores of Mexican strongholds. T h e r e have been times in the past three years, however, w h e n bullets from these arsenals have been put to real use. A m o n g their other duties, the imported militantes from the Falange Fatherland act as executioners when the Falange passes judgment on local Falangistas w h o are tried and convicted b y the organization's o w n courts-martial: Death sentences are handed out to Falangistas w h o t r y to desert the blue-shirt ranks or sell the sectets of the Fifth Column. Other infractions can send errant Falangistas into one of the private jails maintained b y the Falange Exterior—sometunes for sentences of five years. T h e undercover militia represents only one aspect of Falangismo in M e x i c o . Dangerous as it is, this organized a r m y represents only a token force. V o n Faupel entertains no pipe dreams about using it to invade Texas, and, under

Falange Concentration

Point

157

any circumstances, it would prove no match for even the Mexican A r m y . W e r e the A x i s to make any serious moves in the Western Hemisphere, however, this Falange secret army in Mexico could and would be used to immobilize a sizable United Nations force and weaken our defenses. T h e Falange campaign in Mexico goes much further than the maintenance of a secret A x is army. Its objectives are v e r y clear. V i c e n t e L o m b a r d o Toledano, head of the anti-Axis Latin-American Confederation of Labor, summed up the A x i s aims in Mexico in a speech delivered a month before Pearl Harbor. H e declared that the A x i s wants: 1. T o use Mexico as the nearest base for Nazi espionage in the United States. 2 . T o use our countxv [Mexico] as a source of raw materials for its war. 3. T o make Mexico a center for organized acts of sabotage against the United States, as well as against our own export trade, so that wc may be prevented from sending help to the countries fighting the Axis. 4. T o establish a center of Fascist provocation against the United States, thus distracting that country's attention from the European and other theaters of war. 5. T o secure a center from which Fascist propaganda can be directed to all of Latin America. 6. T o instigate provocations against the government of Mex­ ico from within our country itself, so that the government will be obliged to retaliate with restrictive measures. Afterward, these measures will be used to discredit the present regime in Mexico, and turned against democracy within and without our country. Here, in a nutshell, is the master-plan of the Falange in Mexico. T h e first point of the program, that of establishing Mexico as the nearest base for N a z i espionage against the United States, has become one of the cardinal tasks of the Falange. N a z i espionage in M e x i c o was a going concern w h e n

i 8 5

FALANGE

Francisco Franco was still waiting for the Nazis to invade Spain. W i t h the establishment of the Falangist state in Spain in A p r i l 1939, the Reichsivehr accepted von Faupel's recom­ mendation that Spanish Fascists be trained b y the Gestapo to w o r k for the A x i s in Latin America. Special schools for Spaniards were established in H a m ­ burg, Bremen, Hanover, and Vienna; institutions with G e r ­ man experts as instructors in sabotage, espionage, radio, secret codes, map-making, microphotography and allied sub­ jects. Candidates for scholarships in these s p y colleges w e r e drawn from the ranks of the Spanish Falange. Preference went to those Falangistas w h o had joined the Franco movement before 1 9 3 6 and had been wounded in action during the three-year w a r against the Republic. T h e most acceptable candidates, however, w e r e those Spanish Fascists w h o had remained behind Republican lines as Falange agents during the w a r ; men like the band of Fascists in Madrid whose co-operation with the four A x i s columns converging on the c i t y gave the w o r l d a n e w w a r term to remember—the Fifth Column. Graduates of these special schools w e r e commissioned as officers in the Spanish A r m y ' s Intelligence Service, the S I M . A small number of them w e r e detailed to duties under the supervision of Gestapo officers in Spain. T h e rest w e r e sent to Latin A m e r i c a to w o r k under the direction of Gestapo and Japanese officers abroad. T h e w o r k of the S I M in Latin A m e r i c a w a s intensified after the G e r m a n legations in most of the hemisphere w e r e closed in the summer of 1 9 4 1 . W h i l e the diplomatic break did not eliminate more than 5 per cent of the A x i s espionage personnel in Latin America, it did add greatly to the importance of the S I M . T h e numerous Spanish legations n o w ' became the diplomatic fronts for all A x i s espionage, and S I M agents became liaison men between the Gestapo and the Spanish diplomatic network. In line with his master-plan, General von Faupel took steps to strengthen and prepare the S I M to carry the major burdens of A x i s espionage in M e x i c o . In December 1940,

Falange Concentration

Point

159

von Faupel had Alberto Mercado Flores, a veteran Spanish Falangist official, sent to M e x i c o . Flores was placed in com­ mand of the S I M operations for Mexico. Flores has made his headquarters in a small t o w n near the United States border. H e o w n s at least three false pass­ ports, which he uses w h e n traveling to San Francisco, L o s Angeles, and Washington—where, of course, he is k n o w n b y other names. H e is responsible for S I M operations in the United States and Central A m e r i c a as well as in Mexico. T h e S I M chief has two principal aides: Colonel Sanz A g e r o , the Spanish Minister to Guatemala, and Major E u g e n i o A l v a r e z C a n o . T h e latter w o r k s out of an apart­ ment at the corner of L o p e z and Independencia streets, Mexico C i t y . H i s movements are guarded and v e r y hard to trace. T w i c e , since A p r i l 1 9 4 1 , he has made trips to N e w Y o r k , where he conferred with Spanish officials and shipping men. In M e x i c o C i t y Cano w o r k s v e r y closely with Ibafiez Serrano, co-ordinator of all Franco activities in Mexico. T h e S I M organization that Flores directs in M e x i c o is an espionage machine built along the lines of the Gestapo, which created it. T h e w o r k of its agents falls into t w o definite categories: military and economic espionage, and "control" of the Spanish colonies of the country and of those non-Falangist Spaniards k n o w n to have relatives in Spain. T h e military espionage arm of the S I M operates in c o ­ operation with the hordes of G e r m a n and Japanese spies still actively at w o r k in Mexico. Since Pearl Harbor, the ranking military officer of the A x i s espionage network in this section of the w o r l d has been Colonel Sanz A g e r o . H i s is Flores's chief adviser in military matters. Part of the S I M network's fantastic efficiency can be traced directly to its utilization of thousands of unpaid Falangistas and members of Falange-controlled Mexican organizations as part-time assistants. M u c h of the routine " d o n k e y w o r k " which takes up the energies of a profes­ sional s p y is performed for the S I M b y these fanatical fol-

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lowers of Falangismo. E v e r y paid S I M agent has at his dis­ posal at least one functioning cell of the Falange Exterior: a cell which in most cases includes a Spanish militante sent from Madrid to keep it functioning at maximum efficiency. F o r this reason, the field headquarters of the S I M are located in cities where the Falange concentrations are strongest. T h e S I M maintains its chief field branches in the following Mexican centers: Monterrey, Torreon, Mazatlan, T a m p i c o , V e r a Cruz, Guadalajara, Puebla, Jalapa, Merida, Tapachula, and Comitan. T h e r e is scarcely a hamlet in Mexico without at least one S I M agent in its fold. Often the S I M operative in a tiny Mexican village will also turn out to be the Spanish mili­ tante of the local Falange, or the home-town leader of one of the Mexican subsidiaries of the Falange. M e x i c o C i t y , on the other hand, has over a thousand Gestapo-trained S I M agents w o r k i n g out of no less than eleven offices in the capital alone. T h e S I M has a complete list of Falangistas and F r a n c o partisans in Mexican government bureaus, business houses, shipping companies, and other offices. Using these lists as their levers, the S I M has established pipe lines of informa­ tion in all of these places. T h e Nazis have been flooding all of Latin A m e r i c a with S I M operatives since 1939. Sources close to Madrid ruling circles estimate the S I M delegation in M e x i c o and G u a t e ­ mala at close to ten thousand paid agents. T h e i r routine r e ­ ports reach E u r o p e via Spanish boats, but scores of secret radio stations in Mexico often flash important intelligence to relay stations in Venezuela. T h e S I M in Venezuela sifts and transmits these reports to Madrid within minutes of their reception. Often, S I M agents visit Spanish ships arriving in Mexican ports and arrange to use the ship's radio for their transmissions. T h e radio operators on Spanish boats are hand-picked Falangistas—like the notorious A x i s agent "Camarada Martinez," w h o is marked for immediate arrest if the Cuban authorities ever catch up w i t h him.

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T h e propaganda of the Falange in M e x i c o is as ener­ getically anti-United States as are the activities of the S I M and the militantes. T h e Falange controls a number of pub­ lications and radio stations, openly or covertly as suits the plans of its leaders. Jose Castedo, a veteran of the blue-shirt ranks, edits His­ panidad, the official magazine of the Mexican Falange. H e r e , assisted by Falangistas A d o l f o Caso, Julio Luna, Delfin Sanchez Juarez, Francisco Ramirez, M a r c o Almazan, and A . Perez, Castedo produces a standard Falange E x t e r i o r organ along the lines of magazines like Avance of Puerto R i c o , Arriba Espana of Buenos Aires, Yugo of Manila, and the other official publications in the Americas. T h i s maga­ zine is sold openly, unlike the Boletin del Partido, a w e e k l y distributed only to Falange members. Ibafiez Serrano has a personal organ in El Diario Espanol. La Semana and Mexico Nueva c a r r y the Falange line, and, like Omega and El Hombre Libre, are controlled b y the Falange. T h e w e e k l y El Sinarquista, published b y the Falange-operated Sinarquist movement, is one of the most potent propaganda enemies of the United Nations in M e x ­ ico. La Nacion, a w e e k l y edited b y G o m e z Morin (one of Ibafiez Serrano's three principal aides) and Alfonso J u n c o , Mexico's foremost apostle of Hispanidad, outdoes nearly every other Falangist publication in its campaign for the Axis. T h e venom of the Falangist press is reserved almost ex­ clusively for the United States. T h u s on N o v e m b e r 1 4 , 1 9 4 2 , Luis G . Orozco blandly anounced in Omega that "Roosevelt is pushing his people into the pit of Bolshe­ vism." T h i s was in an article called " T h e Catholic Church and the W o r l d Revolution," which also said: Whether they know it or not, those members of the clergy who have declared themselves in favor of the "democracies" are working in favor of Bolshevism. . . . H o w is it possible that members of the clergy have made speeches from the same platform with members of the Masonic order?

FALANGE T h i s article appeared after Omega described the A m e r i ­ can landings in N o r t h A f r i c a as a "treacherous attack." Omega also runs large advertisements f o r books like Jeivs over America, b y " D r . A t l , whose competence as an expert on international affairs is universally recognized." T h e chapters of the book include: " E l Kabal, Roosevelt Is a J e w on A l l Sides"; " J e w s in the N e w D e a l " ; " A Jewish leader to be feared: Felix Frankfurter." F r o m El Hombre Libre, a year after Pearl Harbor, come such choice nuggets of A x i s propaganda as this: T h e people of the United States are still under the influence of a government that tries to make them believe in a final vic­ tory, so that they may accept all the sacrifices imposed upon them by this war—a war that in the final balance will not take a very great toll of their lives anyway, for individuals of these races never fight, and the armies that march beneath the ban­ ners of John Bull and Uncle Sam are made up of colored peo­ ples—black and brown—considered as inferiors by the AngloSaxons, who have always looked down upon them. T h i s was more than a mere parroting of the stock N a z i lies; it w a s part of the campaign being w a g e d against compulsory military service and the sending of M e x i c a n troops to fight the A x i s armies abroad. T h e article then went on to carry the old Hispanidad line: T h e world can well understand why nations with large pop­ ulations like England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Italy have sought to build up colonial empires. T h e United States, however, has a great amount of territory and only her ambitions, her thirst for dominating other people, have driven her to try to form a colonial empire with the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Pacific Islands, and the British pos­ sessions that have fallen into her hands. Still unsatisfied, she now wants control of all the countries of Latin America, right­ ful sons of Spain. T h e quotation which sums up the complete line of the

Falange Concentration

Point

Falangist press in Mexico is the following, taken Omega.

163 from

A democratic government is a thousand times more danger­ ous than a dictatorship like Hitler's or Mussolini's. Democracy exploits and deceives the people in the name of liberty, equal­ ity, and fraternity. T h e democracies are protecting us from Hitler b y throwing us into the arms of Roosevelt, who is the greatest danger of all those that menace Latin America today. T h i s theme, embroidered with anti-Semitism and gilded with Hispanidad, is reiterated day after day in the Falange publications south of the R i o Grande, In radio broadcasts over Station X E Z and other outlets, the Falange both scat­ ters this line and issues coded instructions to its militantes. In books, meetings, pamphlets, and forums the Falange spreads this N a z i version of w o r l d affairs to millions of Mexicans. It has had a distinct and unpleasant effect on Mexico's w a r effort, and has been responsible for the spread of anti-American feeling in many sections of the country. T h e Falange in M e x i c o has developed more "front" or­ ganizations than in any other country in the w o r l d . T h e s e fronts range from dignified cultural bodies like the A c a d e mia Espanola de la L e n g u a to the Fascist legions like the National Union of Sinarquistas. T h e y all p l a y specific roles in the A x i s campaign to disrupt life in Mexico and make things difficult for the United Nations in the Western Hemisphere. T h e Academia Espanola de la Lengua is the leading cul­ tural organization in Spain. It is the source of all Spanish intellectual briefs for fascism, and has branches in many Latin-American lands, O n l y the elite are invited to the Academia sessions—the elite which can most effectively influence public opinion. T h e Academia w o r k s on news­ paper publishers, college professors, statesmen, and dis­ tinguished clerics. I n M e x i c o Ibanez Serrano is the official representative

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of the Academia Espahola. H e has delegated the actual w o r k of running the affairs of this cultural front to his aide, Alejandro Quijano, and to Alfonso J u n c o , editor of La Nation. T h e s e fanatical enemies of the democracies run v e r y exclusive forums at which the invited guests hear arguments for fascism, for Hispanidad, and for anti-Semi­ tism couched in intellectual terms b y the leading pundits of Falangismo. T h e Academia Espanola influences a small group of Mexicans, but their importance far exceeds their numbers. Somewhat lower on the intellectual scale is the Escuadra de A c c i o n Tradicionalista. These " A c t i o n Squadrons" are just what their name implies: shock troops. T h e y are organ­ ized along highly secret lines; so much so that only a handful of members k n o w the identity of their supreme commander. H e is Major San Julian of the Spanish A r m y , a Fascist killer w h o joined the Falange some time before the Spanish W a r . Of M a j o r Julian, it was said during this w a r that ice water w o u l d have frozen in his heart. L i k e Major Carril Ontano, San Julian was a past master in the art of liquidating whole Republican villages. San Julian's talents as a shock-troop leader w o n him the post of chief of the Escuadra de A c c i o n Tradicionalista of M e x i c o . Here, aided b y L e o n Osorio—a member of the Mexican branch of the G e r m a n N a z i P a r t y — S a n Julian commands a terror army of hand-picked Falangistas and Mexican Fascists. T h e r e are probably no more than 5,000 men in these "action squads," but they are the most violent of all the Falange fighters in the Americas. In action, the Escuadra de A c c i o n Tradicionalista assumes a role v e r y similar to that assigned by Spanish fascism to the Falange in Spain before the Nazis entered the picture. L i k e the p r e - 1 9 3 6 Spanish Falange, the Escuadra is at the service of all the Fascist organizations in Mexico. T h e y do all the dirtiest jobs, for rewards which can best be imagined. M o r e cultural than the Escuadra de A c c i o n , but far less exclusive than the Academia Espanola, is the n e w l y formed L i g a de Hispanidad Ibero-America. T h i s League of Hispani-

Falange Concentration

Point

16 5

dad w a s established to spread the racist doctrines of the Council of Hispanidad. Its first leader, chosen b y G o m e z Morin, was Octavio Elizalde, a Mexican w h o corresponds regularly with Andres Soriano, late of Manila. Elizalde re­ signed after a f e w months of spreading the Hispanidad creed. T h e league is now led b y Jose Castedo, editor of Hispani­ dad, the official organ of the Falange Exterior in Mexico. T w o friends of Ibafiez Serrano's assist Castedo in managing the affairs of the L e a g u e . T h e y are Francisco C a y o n y C o s and A d o l f o Caso, a M e x i c o C i t y l a w y e r . T h e P . A . M . (Partido Autonomista Mexicano) is a small storm-troop party led b y a noted rabble-rouser named Pedrozo, w h o is financed and supervised b y the Falange. It is one of a handful of groups including the Vanguardia Nacionalista, the Dorados, and the Frente A n t i - C o m m u nista, financed and controlled b y the Falange. These groups all have one commodity they place at the disposal of the major Fascist groups in Mexico: violence. T h e y are scat­ tered all over the country, and are responsible for much disunity in M e x i c o . N e x t to the National Union of Sinarquistas—probably W i l h e l m von Faupel's Mexican masterpiece—the A c c i o n Nacional must rank as the most important of the Falange fronts in Mexico. T h e A c c i o n National, formed shortly after the Falange appeared in Mexico, is a Fascist party directed b y G o m e z Morin, one of the three principal lieutenants of Ibafiez Ser­ rano, Franco's personal representative in M e x i c o . It is one of the most "respectable" of the Falange fronts in M e x i c o , opening its doors o n l y to the wealthier and middle-class ele­ ments in the Spanish colonies and business circles of the country. T h e program of the A c c i o n Nacional is simple: a corpo­ rate state for M e x i c o and "absolute Hispanidad." It has close relations with some sections of the Spanish Catholic Church, and is heavily subsidized b y the Falange Exterior. G o m e z Morin is in constant touch with Jose Maria Peman

FALANGE and Carlos P e r o y a — t w o of the leading Falange propa­ gandists in Spain. U n d e r his leadership, the A c c i o n Nacional has planted the Fascist doctrines of the A x i s in exceedingly fertile soil. It has become the perfect vehicle for those pros­ perous pro-Franco Spaniards of Mexico w h o lacked the physical courage to join the uniformed military ranks of the Falange Espanola and yet wanted to join the movimiento of E l Caudillo. Because of its composition, the A c c i o n Nacional is in many respects the most menacing of the Falange groups in all of Mexico. It cannot, however, hold a candle to the National U n i o n of Sinarquistas. O n M a y 23, 1937, in the provincial city of Leon, a group of idealistic Mexicans, "motivated b y the moral, political, and economic disorder precipitated in the Republic, resolved to form one union which would fight for the Christian Social Order." These men, Salvador Abascal, J o s e Olivares Manuel Zermeno, and a third named Urquiza, thereupon formed the National U n i o n of Sinarquistas—which in 1943 has 500,000 devoted members in M e x i c o . T h u s runs the official Sinarquist version of the m o v e ­ ment's actual origins. T h e facts, however, are slightly different. W h i l e the date is accurate, the three actual organizers of the Sinar­ quistas w e r e Hellmuth Oskar Schreiter and the brothers Jose and Alfonso T r u e b a Olivares. T h e Sinarquistas' organi­ zation papers, as filed with the government, listed these three and Melchor Ortega and A d o l f o Maldonado—governor and general secretary of Guanajuato Province—and I . G . Valdivia, a Mexican lawyer, as the founding fathers of Sinarquismo. Schreiter was anything but a Mexican idealist. A native of G e r m a n y , he carried an old, "low-number" G e r m a n N a z i P a r t y card. His dues to the Nazis were paid up to date on M a y 23, 1 9 3 7 . B y profession Schreiter w a s a chemical en­ gineer; but for quite some time he had been following other callings in Mexico. H e had a job as professor of languages in the State College of Guanajuato, and served as president

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Point

167

of the province's Nazi Fichte B u n d . His real job in Mexico can be described quite simply: Hellmuth Oskar Schreiter was a Nazi agent. T h e T r u e b a Olivares brothers w e r e powerful Spanish haciendados whose great Mexican estates were veritable feudal domains. T h e y w e r e leaders of the Falange Espanola. T h e movement these three men created in the Sinarquistas was a Nazi-Falange legion identical in structure and aims with the Fascist parties of both G e r m a n y and Spain. F r o m the beginning, N a z i agents like Paul Klement, Alexander Holste, Otto Hilbert, and Frederico Heinn were assigned to w o r k with the frustrated country lawyers chosen to serve as the nominal heads of the movement. These Nazi agents w e r e ultimately replaced b y whole corps of Falange militantes and advisers sent from Spain to M e x i c o . L i k e the Nazi and the Falange parties, the Sinarquistas promised all things to all men. If the Sinarquist slogan, "Faith, Blood, and V i c t o r y " was more than faintly remi­ niscent of the beer-cellar mysticism of Nazism and Falingismo, its program w a s simply a Mexican carbon c o p y of Fascist platforms the w o r l d over. Because the Sinarquist movement today has 500,000 mem­ bers below the United States border—and quite a number of devoted followers above the R i o Grande—an examination of its program is in order. It is of importance to all A m e r i ­ cans to k n o w exactly w h y one of the last issues of C o u g h lin's Social Justice to appear before that publication w a s banned from the United States mails for sedition carried these revealing words: Advocates of Christian social justice in America, Christian Americans who once dreamed of a national union to effect a 16-point reform, and who have watched the progress of the Christian States headed by Salazar, De Valera, General Franeo, and Mussolini, will want to hear further from Mexico's Sinarchists with their " 1 6 principles" of social justice. T h e program of Sinarquismo calls, first of all, for a

FALANGE Corporate State—which is a Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish euphemism for fascism. T h e official publication of the Sinarquist movement describes this state in these terms: T h e members of the same craft or profession must unite, building corporate groups. Over these professional or cor­ porate groups, a superior power must be established, in charge of their mutual relationships and directing them to the common good. Similar professional corporations must unite within themselves, submitting to a supreme authority [a dictator] em­ bodied in the political structure of the Nation. T h e "supreme authority" will be so great, according to the official program of the movement, that: Among us one does not discuss—there is our strength. Take away discipline, take away loyalty to the leader, and Sinarquismo is nothing. T h i s corporate state, however, must not be an inde­ pendent or free Mexican state. " L e t us return to Spain" is one of the chief slogans of the Sinarquistas, In the A p r i l 1939 issue of El Sinarquista, an official organ, they declare: All those who have been concerned with dignifying the life of Mexico, as well as those who have wanted to point the w a y to the real aggrandizement of Mexico, speak of Spain. T o put it more concretely, they speak of the work done b y the Mother Country during the historical colonial period- She showed us the road and gave us our bearings. So Mexico must cling to its traditions to find the meaning of its future. Thus, those who feel the desperate uncertainty that today hangs dense and heavy over the nation, want to return to Spain. T h e Sinarquist propagandists picture Mexico under Spanish domination as a paradise. T h e M a y 25, 1 9 4 1 , issue of El Sinarquista, for example, described pre-Rcpublican Mexico in these idyllic terms: In the eighteenth century Mexico was the largest, the most

Falange Concentration

Point

169

cultured, richest, most illustrious, most powerful nation of the Continent. Spain protected the workers by means of unions and the peasants by means of Indian legislation. All this without any need to resort to strikes and fights, simply because the State knew its duties and protected the worker, considering him a son of God, worthy of the same benefits as the rich. T h e government of two hundred years ago was sincere, the present ones are deceitful. In N e w Spain [Mexico] agriculture was entrusted to the workers and landlords. T h e King told the landlords that if he permitted them to till the soil and get benefits, it was only so that they would in turn dedicate them­ selves to improving the material and intellectual lot of the Indians they governed. EI Sinarquista, the w e e k l y paper of the movement w h i c h constantly recalls the glories of colonial Mexico, links its lamentations for past glories with one pat explanation for the destruction of Spanish p o w e r in Mexico: the United States of America, as part of a Masonic-Protestant conspiracy, subsidized and lent military support to Hidalgo and Juarez and the other liberators of Mexico. T h e National Union of Sinarquistas, which clamors con­ stantly for a Christian Social Order, has never presented a complete blueprint of this order to the Mexican people. But among the things they have attacked as being contrary to the concepts of such an order are free non-clerical public schools, social-security legislation, and the land reforms of Cardenas and Madero. T h e land problems of the nation contain the k e y to the p o w e r of the Sinarquistas. T h e varied land-reform programs attempted during the past three decades in Mexico, while distributing vast tracts to thousands of landless peons, have nevertheless left the bulk of the great haciendas pretty much intact. T h e overwhelming majority of the peons are still landless. W o r l d upheavals since 1 9 2 9 have added to the normal hardships of the peons' life in Mexico. W h i l e in­ creased misery is the lot of the peasantry, the powerful haciendados eat well and have plenty of money, but in

i o 7

FALANGE

the back of their minds is a l w a y s the fear of further and greater land reforms which m a y some d a y affect their o w n estates. T h e Sinarquistas, in the classic Fascist manner, managed to w i n both the haciendados and the landless peons to their banners—just as Hitler w o n both the landed J u n k e r s and the simple Bauern. T h e haciendados w e r e w o n over b y promises of eternal w a r on the v e r y principles of land reform. T h e Sinarquistas denounce land reform as a by-product of the Mexican Revolution and declare, in their manifesto, that "Sinarquismo was born fighting the Revolution: Sinarquismo was born aggressively anti-revolutionary." T h e peons were d r a w n to the Sinarquist ranks b y the fer­ vor with which the Nazi-Falange cabal in the movement's leadership exploited their misery. Concretely, the Sinar­ quistas promise the peons nothing: their appeal is, rather, along the lines of the "every-man-a-king" panaceas offered b y H u e y L o n g , Mysticism, violence, marches, military dem­ onstrations—the cheapest sort of circus—are utilized b y the Sinarquistas in their w o r k among the landless peons. They convince the peons that the only solution for their problems lies in the destruction of the Republic—and they promise them arms and a chance to kill those Republican evildoers "responsible" for their misery. Sophisticated Americans living in large cities like N e w Y o r k or Chicago might snicker at the idea of a n e w empire created out of Mexico and parts of the American southwest. But the Sinarquistas have presented, and successfully, the dream of a new Spanish domain—FJ G r a n Imperio Sinarquista—with a brand n e w capital city, "Sinarcopolis," built in what are n o w the plains of Texas. Hitler's dictum about the greatest lies being the ones that gain the widest accep­ tance has not been lost on the architects of "Sinarcopolis." T h e Sinarquist leaders, aided b y Falange specialists as­ signed to w o r k exclusively with the movement, have been giving their followers military training for six years. T h e Sinarquist peons are too poor to afford uniforms; their

Falange Concentration

Point

I-JI

o n l y "military dress" is the armbands they wear. But w e a r ­ ing o n l y their e v e r y d a y clothes and these armbands with the emblem of the movement, Sinarquist storm troops drill with sub-machine guns, rifles, and other arms kindly sup­ plied b y the Nazis via Spanish boats. F r o m time to time the leaders stage a military demonstra­ tion intended to bolster the ardor of their troops and to impress all onlookers with the futility of opposing the w a v e of the future. One of these maneuvers is still talked about: an exercise which, on M a y 18, 1 9 4 1 , saw some 30,000 well-drilled Sinarquistas "capture" the c i t y of Morelia in forty minutes. Although the staff w o r k was done b y Spanish Falangistas, the tactics used in the "storming" of the city w e r e unmistakably G e r m a n . Mexico's entry into the w a r against the A x is has converted these peaceful marches into smaller but violent sorties. Shortly after M e x i c o became a belligerent, the Sinarquistas became the sponsors of a new organization—the L i g a A n t i belica Mexicana—which seems to exist on paper only. In the name of this A n t i w a r League, the Sinarquistas distribute leaflets with calls like the following: Mexicans! Be alert! Watch out for seducers. Stay out of the war. Y o u have no quarrel with any other country. Mexico of Christ the King and Santa Maria de Guadalupe, you must not be enmeshed in the Jewish International. W h e n the Mexican l a w y e r and prominent Catholic l a y ­ man, Mariano A l c o c e r , speaking in the name of the A r c h ­ bishop, called upon all Mexicans in 1942 to unite behind President Comacho in the w a r effort, the official organ of the Sinarquistas attacked him for condemning G e r m a n y rather than Russia and "equally atheistic" England. T h e Sinarquistas raised the battle call, "Death to compulsory military service." T h e i r prime objective became the hamper­ ing of the w a r effort. In December 1 9 4 2 the National Union of Sinarquistas issued a manifesto at their annual congress which pro-

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claimed that the existing "Mexican government is not re­ publican, not representative, and not democratic." It is rather, according to the manifesto, "based on fraud and violence," possessing "all the characteristics of a primitive dictatorship." T h i s congress set the stage for the series of raids the Sinarquistas began to stage on defenseless towns. Brandish­ ing excellent arms, employing the tactics taught them b y the Falangistas w h o led them on these raids, the Sinarquistas began to assault villages all o v e r northern Mexico. In D e ­ cember 1942 three villages in Zacatecas w e r e attacked b y frenzied Sinarquist storm troops w h o , shouting "Death to compulsory military service and Cardenas," killed some thirty Mexicans, including the m a y o r of Miguel A u z a and his small son. In Nieves, the Sinarquistas—like the old Cristeros—killed the local public-school teacher, A d o l f o Lozano. ( T h e Cristeros, a clerico-Fascist movement which reached its peak in 1927, w a g e d unending w a r against nonclerical teachers.) These attacks were synchronized with the actions of rov­ ing bands of Sinarquist troopers w h o disrupted railway communications and, like one armed battalion near the city of Pastora, cut and burned hundreds of telephone and tele­ graph lines. A n organized formation of Sinarquistas battled federal troops near T e m o a c for eight hours before retreating in J a n u a r y 1 9 4 3 . Since December 1942 these outbreaks have come in sudden waves all over northern Mexico. E a r l y in 1943 the Mexican National Civil Defense Committee delivered a sharp memorandum to the government declaring that "the A x i s p o w e r s are carrying on their Fifth Column w o r k in M e x i c o through the leaders of Sinarquismo." T h e Chamber of Deputies, M e x i c o ' s lower house, voted for the dissolution of the National Union of Sinarquistas in J a n u a r y 1 9 4 3 — but the movement is still flourishing. E a r l y in its existence, the Sinarquist movement started' to clamor for the right to settle 100,000 of its followers in the arid waste lands of L o w e r California. T h e idea, they

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said, w a s to prevent "a hostile foreign p o w e r " from annex­ ing the sparsely settled peninsula. E v e r y o n e knew that this hostile p o w e r was the United States of America. Lazaro Cardenas, then President of Mexico, turned the offer d o w n without a second thought. T h e Sinarquistas went on campaigning for the L o w e r California colony. In the spring of 1 9 4 1 they repeated their offer to President A v i l a Comacho. T h e y chimed that they were willing to organize industries and construct cer­ tain planned roadworks at half of the amount set aside for this purpose in the Mexican budget. Comacho asked them to submit further details, and a y e a r later granted the Sinar­ quistas permission to settle a great number of their members on the Peninsula. Mexicans bitterly refer to lower California, today, as the "Republica Sinarquista." T o the shores of this "re­ public" have come G e r m a n and Japanese submarines for Smuggled shipments of valuable Mexican mercury. W i t h i n its borders the Sinarquistas have established a state within a state, and a potential p o w d e r keg of far from minute dimensions. T h e caudillo of the Sinarquist settlement is Salvador Abascal, former "supreme leader" of the m o v e ­ ment itself. H e has been having some difficulties with c e r ­ tain of his followers w h o accuse him of personally grabbing funds of the colony for his o w n pocket. T h e current "supreme leader," Manuel T o r r e s Bueno, has backed A b a s ­ cal in his present conflict. W e r e the Sinarquistas and their influence confined to Mexico alone, their existence would still be cause for alarm. H o w e v e r , Sinarquismo has long since crossed the borders to the north. It has become an American, as well as a M e x i ­ can, problem. T h e Sinarquist movement has established itself like a can­ cer in many centers of Mexican population in the United States. L o s Angeles, one of Sinarquismo's American strong­ holds, has a Mexican population of 300,000. T o w n s in Texas, N e w Mexico, and Arizona have suddenly discovered

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that local branches of the Sinarquist organization are ter­ rorizing their Mexican quarters, producing bloodshed and disorder. T h e offices of an anti-Sinarquist Mexican organi­ zation in Chicago w e r e invaded and w r e c k e d b y an armed mob of Sinarquistas late in 1 9 4 2 . In places as far north as the Bronx, N e w Y o r k , F . B . I , agents have arrested Sinar­ quist agents w h o w e r e inciting loyal Mexican-Americans to treason. In L o s Angeles the movement is so w e l l intrenched that it publishes a special edition of El Sinarquista, the official organ of the Mexican parent organization. In L o s Angeles the Sinarquistas are aided b y notorious figures like Jesus M . Jiminez, w h o m President Cardenas exiled for Gold-Shirt and N a z i activities, and b y members of G e r m a n and Italian organizations dissolved after Pearl Harbor. T h e L o s Angeles Sinarquist movement has been held directly responsible for a crime w a v e which broke out among unemployed Mexican youths in 1 9 4 2 , and figured as a prime factor in at least one California murder case. T h e California editon of El Sinarquista calls for blood. In October 1942 it w r o t e : Do not expect our struggle to go smoothly and peacefully. Never gossip about your leaders. Understand that this struggle cannot fail, and that blood and suffering will bring us victory. A n idea of what the American aspects of this "struggle" are can be glimpsed in the resolution passed b y the C . I . O . U n i o n Council of L o s Angeles, which has m a n y loyal M e x i ­ can members. In N o v e m b e r 1 9 4 2 , at the request of its Mexican members, the Council made a study of Sinarquist influence in the United States. T h e result was a resolution characterizing the Sinarquistas as an "evil influence among Mexican workers in the United States whose program coin­ cides with that of Franco's Fascist Spanish regime." T h e resolution went on to reveal that: T h e Sinarquistas are telling the Mexican people in the United

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States not to enlist in war activities, such as Civilian Defense and the Red Cross, not to purchase war bonds, and in general not to support this country's war effort, because the "Mexican people have nothing to gain from an Allied victory." Shortly after this resolution w a s made public, the Office of W a r Information started a drive to explain the w a r aims to the Spanish-speaking peoples of California and the South­ west. T h e campaign was made necessary b y the p o w e r of Sinarquist propagandists operating in the United States. In Mexico the Sinarquistas have been making statements designed for United States consumption only—ambiguous statements which give their defenders in America an oppor­ tunity to defend the Sinarquistas as a patriotic and Christian legion interested only in saving the Western Hemisphere from Bolshevism. T h i s subterfuge does not fool bureaus like the F . B . I . , however, which recognizes the Sinarquist movement for the A x i s instrument it really is. T h e Spanish canvas of Mexico g r e w more crowded than ever in 1 9 3 9 , when the Falange and anti-Falange colonies w o k e up to find themselves with a new antagonist. H e w a s a handsome, middle-aged gentleman whose passport de­ scribed him as Luis G o n z a g o del Villa, the Marques de Castellon of Spain. T h e Marques announced himself as the official repre­ sentative in Mexico of the Spanish Monarchist Union. T o all w h o would listen, the titled visitor explained that the Spanish Monarchists had broken with Franco. H e and a small g r o u p of aides set up shop in Mexico C i t y and started to reveal secrets about Franco Spain and the Falange. T h e i r revelations w e r e often accurate, but never news to the M e x i ­ can Government. In brief—they w e r e revealing facts al­ ready k n o w n . Although the Monarchists in Spain had e v e r y reason to be pleased with Franco, the Marques declared that they were out to overthrow F r a n c o . O f course, this overthrow would not be followed b y the restoration of the "Bolshevik"

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Spanish Republic. Perish the thought! W h a t they wanted w a s the restoration of the old Spanish monarchy. Seemingly well-supplied with funds, the Marques ran lavish parties for the Mexican and American society crowds in M e x i c o City, and special parties for the diplomatic social sets. H e established good relations with the A r c h ­ bishop of Mexico, saw only the v e r y fashionable people, and generally cut quite a figure. R u m o r s began to fly about Mexico C i t y after Pearl H a r b o r that the British Government w a s backing the Monarchists, that the United States looked upon their cause with favor, and that a Monarchist Spanish government-inexile w a s about to be formed. T h e exiled Spanish R e p u b l i ­ cans in M e x i c o became worried, and they started to check up on the Marques's history. T h e Marques claimed to have been both a LieutenantColonel in the Spanish A r m y and an aide-de-camp to G e n ­ eral Mola. Neither fact showed up in any Spanish military directory of the period. T o the Republicans, these omissions w e r e challenges. Some months later—it w a s in M a y 1942—the Republicans presented grave charges to the Mexican authorities. T h e y presented a dossier on the Marques which indicated that all was not as it seemed. A c c o r d i n g to this dossier, the Marques was not Spanish, but a Mexican named Luis Sevilla, whose parents still lived on M e x i c o City's Calle de Insurgentes. It went on to say that in 1 9 3 1 L u i s Sevilla sailed for Spain while out on bail pending charges of swindling a sum of money from General L i m o n . T h e dossier disclosed that during the Spanish W a r Sevilla w o r k e d in Marseilles as an agent of Franco's Secret Service —posing, during this period, as an agent of the Spanish Monarchist Parry. In 1 9 3 8 Sevilla, carrying letters of safe conduct, visited Premier J u a n N e g r i n in Barcelona, told the Loyalist leader that the Monarchists w e r e against F r a n c o and the Falange, and tried to negotiate a deal w h e r e b y the Republic w o u l d yield in favor of a monarchy. In 1 9 3 9 he went to M e x i c o where, according to the R e p u b -

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licans, he maintained relations with Ibanez Serrano, Franco's official representative. T h e dossier on the Marques caused a blast w h i c h r e v e r ­ berated throughout the Spanish-speaking w o r l d . T h e M a r ­ ques proceeded to quietly disappear, but in withdrawing he left some troubled suspicions floating over the Mexican capital. Anxious anti-Axis Mexicans and Spanish R e p u b l i ­ cans wonder if the Marques really had some of the nonA x i s backing he claimed to have.

C H A P T E R

N I N E :

Patagonia to Panama T H E P H I L I P P I N E S , Cuba, Puerto R i c o , Mexico—the Spanishspeaking countries w h i c h have the most direct bearing on the United States—tell the story of Falagismo on the march. B u t b y no means the whole story. If the preceding chapters have dealt w i t h the Faianges of these sectors at greater length, it is because they affect the lives and the security of all N o r t h Americans more immediately than, say, the Faianges of Argentina or Peru. T h e complete story of the Falange penetration and or­ ganization on the South American continent and the Central A m e r i c a n republics is being compiled in scores of g o v e r n ­ ment bureaus in the Americas. In J u l y 1942 a report on the Falange was submitted to the Venezuelan Congress b y a special sub-committee—a report which named m a n y g o v ­ ernment officials as members of the Falange Espanola. In U r u g u a y the Consultive Committee for the Political D e ­ fense of the Continent—an official investigating b o d y sup­ ported b y the democracies of the Americas—continues to accumulate evidence proving that the Falange is g r o w i n g more dangerous hourly. F r o m all over the hemisphere documentary data continues to pile up—evidence that in the Falange Exterior the nations of the Western Hemisphere are confronted with one of their most pressing problems. T h e complete dossier on the Falange in South and Central A m e r i c a lists names of over a million active adherents be­ tween Patagonia and Panama. It lists secret arsenals, radio stations, fueling bases, military shock troops, and espionage centers in country after country. It lists names of hundreds of k n o w n statesmen and military leaders whose ties to Falan­ gist Spain are far more binding than the formal .ties they maintain with Washington. It is, in short, a dossier that cannot be revealed in its entirety until the Axis is completely crushed. 178

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But certain facts that make up this dossier should be k n o w n now. Facts hke those contained in the report sub­ mitted to the Argentine Congress in 1941 b y D e p u t y R a o u l Damonte Taborda, chairman of the Congressional Commit­ tee investigating A x i s activities—the report which the Cas­ tillo government has suppressed completely. T h e T a b o r d a R e p o r t , which covered the N a z i penetra­ tion in the Argentine, deals briefly with the Falange E x ­ terior as an instrument of the N a z i Fifth Column in that country. In this report, T a b o r d a revealed the close link between General von Faupel and his Ibcro-American Institute and the Spanish Falange. Speaking of the Ibero-American Insti­ tute, T a b o r d a said: Its real objective: while, on the one hand the Germans build their "aryan minorities" with German Nationals abroad, on the other hand they attempt to stir up the nationalistic senti­ ments of the masses of Spanish origin. Taborda maintained that the greatest obstacle to this campaign was the Spanish people themselves. T h e proven liberalism of the Iberian residents [in Argentina] constitutes a barrier for the Falangistas who try to group them as a minority. T h e report quoted von Faupel as declaring that: " T h e Panamerican idea is an unsound invention, and it is necessary to oppose to it the idea of an Iberian America. T h e countries of South and Central A m e r i c a are»nearer to Spain than to the United States." A f t e r declaring that " G e r m a n y and Italy sponsor the imperialistic policy of F r a n c o , " the T a b o r d a report re­ viewed the career of G e r m a n y ' s regent in Spain—-Wilhelm von Faupel. It revealed that, while serving as military coun­ selor to the Argentine A r m y , von Faupel, "in his teachings about Patagonia . . . advised that it should be abandoned

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in case of war, considering it defenseless." T h e report went on to prove that the Nazis are behind n e current agitation for the independence of Patagonia—thereby underlining the fact that fully a decade before the Reichstag Fire, W i l helm von Faupel w a s playing the N a z i game in Argentina. T h e T a b o r d a report declared that V o n Faupel's "stay in Spain served, among other things, to found in San Sebastian in M a y , 1938, a N a z i college for Argentine citizens. F r o m there w o u l d come the future directors of the Fascists of the Argentine R e p u b l i c . " In its w a y , this college is concrete evidence of the complete domination of Franco Spain b y the Nazis. T h e suppressed T a b o r d a R e p o r t minced no w o r d s in its analysis of Falangismo: With Franco, the Spanish Falangte triumphed in the Mother­ land. With the Spanish Falange, the Ibero-American Institute triumphed in Berlin, hi exact terms—Nazism. T h e Falange is a copy of the Nazi Party—a blueprint to such a point that it made a literal translation of all the principles that fascism uses to plant the seeds of propaganda. Nazi technicians take part in their plans, directing them politically. Their work in the LatinAmerican countries is oriented toward the forming in solid blocks of the great Spanish masses, an attempt to achieve what the Nazis achieved with the German "blood comrades." It is a strong Ibero-Americanism practiced from Berlin. T h e simplest reading of the program of the Falange tells us to beware of it.

• T h e n the R e p o r t goes on to quote points 3 , 4 , and 5 of the Falange Program (see Chapter I ) to prove the subversive nature of Falangismo; and then: T h e Spanish Falange aspires to set back the clock of history by two centuries, but it will not succeed. But insofar as it is alive, it is a factor of disorder that should be annihilated. Since Argentina has remained at peace with the Axis, the Argentine Falange is still kept in the background as part of the greater N a z i network. T h e N a z i s not only have

Patagonia to Panama organized the Germans there, but also control and finance a number of native Fascist organizations. T h e T a b o r d a R e ­ port, revealing that this Fifth Column operated clandes­ tine radio stations and secret military bases, declared that it w o r k s alongside a Nazi-Falange secret service w h i c h has up-to-date maps and data on roads, bridges, w a t e r w a y s , and detailed plans of arsenals, bases, electric plants, and vital factories. Do not believe that w e are shouting in the dark [says the historic report, citing the Nazis' own estimate that] zz,ooo perfectly disciplined men are ready, plus 8,000 Germans from the Nazi Party, 14,000 members of the German Workers Front, 3,000 Italian Fascists, 15,000 Falangistas, and many others from the Juventud Germano Argentina and many other thousands affiliated with the Alianza Nacionalista Argentina— all ready to strike. Although Taborda's hard-hitting report w a s suppressed b y the Castillo government, the rising anti-Axis sentiment of the Argentine people themselves has continued to g r o w since the w a r began. Despite the diplomatic stand taken b y President Castillo, the A r g e n t i n e Government has had to rely on F r a n c o Spain to an increasing extent in its deal­ ings with the A x i s . A f t e r Pearl H a r b o r it w a s a foregone conclusion that Spain w a s going to loom larger than ever in the Argentine diplomatic picture. Argentine democrats expected Spain to make a big move early in 1942—but the Spanish Falangista chosen to make this move w a s a surprise even to those A r g e n t i n e foes of fascism w h o had g r o w n used to expect all sorts of insolence from the N a z i puppets in Madrid. In M a y 1942 Spain dispatched a trade mission to Buenos Aires—a mission headed b y one E d u a r d o A u n o s . If ever a cabal gave a w a y its intentions b y a stroke of over-confidence born of arrogance, the men that chose to put A u n o s at the head of this mission committed just this blunder. A u n o s w a s admittedly a man of many talents—but for-

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eign commerce was not one of his specialties. A l a w y e r b y profession, A u n o s had served as Minister of L a b o r in the old Primo de R i v e r a dictatorship in Spain. After the fall of the de R i v e r a government, A u n o s wrote The Corpo­ rate State and a number of other books proving that fascism w a s the solution to the problems of the world. E a r l y in the course of the von Faupel-Sanjurjo conspiracy to destroy the Spanish Republic, A u n o s was admitted into the inner councils of the Spanish conspirators. H e joined the Falange in 1 9 3 5 , and w a s named Counselor of its N a ­ tional Council. A f t e r joining the Falange, A u n o s paid the first of his many visits to " L a Fragate," a modest villa overlooking the sea at Biarritz, then the main headquarters of G e r m a n espion­ age in southern E u r o p e . T h e secret radio under its tiled roofs broadcast daily instructions to N a z i and Falange agents in Spain, Spanish M o r o c c o , and the C a n a r y Islands between the summer of 1935 and J u l y 1 9 , 1 9 3 6 . These visits proved both instructive and fruitful. W i t h the German-Italian invasion of Spain in 1 9 3 6 , E d u a r d o A u n o s moved to Paris, w h e r e he established himself as the chief of Falange espionage in France at 21 R u e Berri. H e remained at this post for t w o years. A s chief of Falange espionage in France, A u n o s made his reports to the Exterior Service of the Falange, then located in Salamanca, Spain. H i s reports to Salamanca w e r e relayed through another high-ranking officer of Fascist espionage, Colonel Sanz A g e r o , then stationed near the Franco-Spanish border at Irun. Sanz A g e r o is today the Spanish Minister to Guatemala. A u n o s did a good job for the A x i s in F r a n c e ; so good a j o b that in 1938 he was appointed Ambassador of Franco Spain to Belgium. His diplomatic duties never were allowed to interfere with his other w o r k . In Belgium A u n o s estab­ lished extremely "cordial" relations with the Rexists—the Belgian Fascist party proven to have been controlled b y the Nazis. E d u a r d o A u n o s remained in Belgium until the G e r ­ mans occupied that little nation in 1940. ( T h e Rexists, w h o

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helped ease the w a y for the Nazis, later sent a token force to fight alongside of the Spanish Blue Legions in the N a z i armies at the Russian front.) These facts about E d u a r d o A u n o s w e r e not exactly a se­ cret in diplomatic circles w h e n he embarked for Buenos Aires. Despite the reams of publicity put out b y A x i s and appeasement sources in Argentina—propaganda aimed to make Argentinians believe that the commercial pact be­ tween Spain and Argentina w o u l d bring great prosperity to the country—Argentine democrats looked to other direc­ tions for a line on what had really brought A u n o s to Buenos Aires. W h i l e speculation as to the nature of the Falangist mission raged, Argentine Foreign Minister R u i z Guinazu—whose anti-United Nations feelings are seldom camouflaged—at­ tended a banquet held in Aunos's honor in Buenos Aires. T h e foreign Minister made a long speech in which he not only praised A u n o s and F r a n c o Spam, but also predicted a trade treaty between Spain and Argentina that would be of immeasurable benefit to both countries. T h e n w o r d began to leak out that A u n o s was in A r g e n ­ tina for the negotiation of a pact of more than merely com­ mercial significance. W h i l e Aunos and the other Falangistas of his mission met with scores of government and political leaders, careless attaches of the Spanish Legation i n Buenos Aires took to boasting in cafes and drawing rooms about a n e w Madrid-Buenos Aires airline, about a cultural pact with trick hidden clauses, and about a mysterious about-to-beestablished Argentine free port in Spain. A special Spanish commission prepared a complete memo­ randum on the planes of the war-grounded Italian Lati A i r Line—especially the transports "interned" in Brazil after the R i o Conference. Papers in Madrid spoke out about using these planes in the establishment of an air line linking Spain and Argentina. Falangist papers in Buenos Aires like the Diario Espanol and the Correo de Galicia began to paint vivid pictures of the great benefits—both economic and moral—Argentina

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w o u l d derive after the trade pact w a s signed. T h e y went to great pains to point out that the wheat rotting in the w a r e ­ houses, the corn being used as fuel in locomotives, and the millions of pounds of unsold beef in the packers' storage houses w e r e being wasted because the United States w a s utilizing the w a r as a device to destroy Argentine agricul­ ture. On the other hand, ran the Falange propaganda line, immortal Spain, the great M o t h e r C o u n t r y w h i c h had slain the t w i n dragons of liberalism and communism, not only needed Argentine agricultural products to sustain herself, but also had the ships and the gold to p a y for them. A n d as for Argentina's g r o w i n g shortages of manufactured goods and m a c h i n e r y — w h y , Spain w o u l d probably be able to bar­ ter manufactures for food. T h i s was the official line, and to make it stick, A u n o s be­ gan to flood the Argentine with imported Spanish lecturers, movies, and entertainers. F o r the head of a commercial mis­ sion from a land ravaged b y starvation to a nation w i t h a tremendous food surplus, E d u a r d o A u n o s exhibited a sur­ prising lack of desire to get a pact signed as quickly as pos­ sible. T h e negotiations seemed to drag on for months on end. Perhaps, if Aunos's sole mission in Buenos A i r e s w a s the trade agreement, the pact w o u l d have been drawn and signed within a month of the start of the talks. T h e truth about the A u n o s mission w a s that its chief w a s concerned primarily w i t h the Falanges of South A m e r i c a first and the commercial treaty second. A u n o s had arrived in Buenos Aires w i t h great powers delegated to him b y the Falange Exterior National Council in Madrid. During his entire stay in Argentina—and he did not return to Spain until October—he was acting as von Faupel's Extraordinary Inspector General of the Falange Exterior in the Americas. Most of his time w a s spent w i t h delegates of the Falanges of Latin America and Argentina. H e reviewed the reports they had to make on the Falanges in their respective countries and gave them orders both for their groups and for the Spanish diplomatic legations which w o r k e d with their groups.

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T h e A u n o s mission p l a y e d its cards with a finesse that as­ tounded all observers. In August 1 9 4 2 , for example, A u n o s saw to it that Argentine President R a m o n Castillo received the G r a n d Collar of the Order of Isabel—one of Spain's rar­ est decorations. A f t e r the decoration w a s received, A u n o s ordered the press attache of the Spanish E m b a s s y in Buenos Aires, J o s e Ignacio R a m o s , to hold regular joint meetings with the envoys of G e r m a n y , Italy, and Japan—sessions at w h i c h the all-Axis propaganda drive w a s planned and c o ­ ordinated. N o t until September 8, 1 9 4 2 , w a s the A u n o s - G u i n a z u pact finally signed. B y the time it w a s ready f o r the signa­ tures of pro-Franco Argentine Ambassador to Madrid E s ­ cobar and Spanish F o r e i g n Minister G o m e z Jordana, it had become both a trade and a cultural pact. T h e text of the agreement was never made public. B u t as in earlier agreements between F r a n c o Spain and Argentina, the Iberian A x i s nation promised to barter manufactured goods for Argentine grain and beef. In J a n u a r y 1 9 4 1 A r g e n ­ tina had sent 350,000 tons of corn to Spain—which, in p a y ­ ment, w a s to deliver an unspecified amount of iron and steel. Argentina is still waiting for the metals. A later barter deal became a cash deal after Spain had received Argentine cattle and beef—and paid for them out of the earnings of the C o m paiiia Argentina de Electricidad, subsidiary of Chade, the Spanish utility trust. Spain, whose exports of food and minerals to G e r m a n y are n o w at an all-time high, is today receiving vast shipments of A r g e n t i n e food under the terms of the n e w pact. T h e projected air line between Madrid and Buenos Aires, w h i l e covered in the treaty, has not y e t been established. It has, instead, become another of the aces in the Spanish blackmail deck; an ace the A x i s will not hesitate to play w h e n e v e r fur­ ther concessions are sought from the democracies. T h e cul­ tural angles of the pact w e r e made quite plain on October 12, 1942—Columbus Day. T h e Falange celebrates Columbus D a y in Latin A m e r i c a as E l D i a de la Raza—the D a y of the R a c e . In Buenos Aires

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there w e r e many celebrations, official, religious, and politi­ cal. Foreign Minister R u i z Guinazu, in a speech broadcast to Spain as well as over the Argentine networks, exchanged sentiments with Madrid short-wave speakers in a special t w o - w a y radio celebration staged b y both countries. Guinazu pledged that Spain and Argentina, " w h i c h find themselves traveling the same road and w h i c h have parallel interests," would be bound b y still closer bonds—bonds, he declared, that w o u l d be created "not with w o r d s but with deeds." President Castillo celebrated the day b y attending a sol­ emn ceremony devoted to extolling Franco Spain and the concept of Hispanidad—which calls for the return of A r ­ gentina to the Spanish E m p i r e . L a t e r in the evening, t w o great Fascist rallies were held in Buenos Aires, and the speeches made at these rallies w e r e broadcast over the radio to the entire country. T h e larger one w a s held b y the Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista, the Fascist party organized and backed b y the Germans and the Falangistas. Its leader, anti-Semitic General J u a n Bautista Molina, had been formally charged with treason b y the late President Ortiz, and his trial was still pending at the time. Flanked b y Argentine and Falange flags draped around signs reading " H O M A G E T O S P A I N , " Molina delivered a violently anti-Semitic, pro-Axis, and anti-United States speech that had his frenzied 18,000 followers cheering and giving the stiff-arm Fascist salute between paragraphs. A m o n g the things assailed b y Molina and other Fascists at the Columbus D a y rallies w e r e Pan-Americanism, J e w i s h Imperialists, the United Nations, liberalism, Roosevelt, S u m ­ ner Welles, and the Atlantic Charter. T h e s e speeches w e r e all broadcast. But the radio micro­ phones w e r e absent from one other meeting held in Buenos Aires that night—a meeting that was held o n l y after a pro­ longed fight with the government for permission to stage it. N o t only w e r e its speeches not broadcast, but the papers were forbidden to report their texts the next day. T h i s meet­ ing w a s staged b y labor and liberal organizations of Buenos

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Aires to affirm the pro-United Nations sentiments of the Argentinian people. Its speakers included D e p u t y Raoul Damonte T a b o r d a , Colonel Francisco Galan of the Spanish Republican A r m y , and many Argentine labor leaders. T h e press did not report the keynote speech delivered b y Pedro Chiaranti, the noted Argentine labor leader, w h o . shouted: W e in Argentina can aid the Spanish people by fighting the Spanish Falange and by forcing our country to take the side of the United Nations against the Axis Powers. Shortly after the Columbus D a y celebrations, Argentine D e p u t y J u a n Antonio Solari, w h o succeeded T a b o r d a as chairman of the congressional committee investigating anti­ democratic activities, made a report which explained the cultural and political results of the A u n o s mission more fully. Solari exposed the fact that the Fascist parties of A r g e n ­ tina were n o w relying more than ever before on the facade of Falangist Spain as a front for their attacks on the democ­ racies. In his report, which w a s neatly squelched by the Castillo administration, Solari charged that the Spanish A m ­ bassador, J o s e Coll Mirambell, was supervising the activities of the Falangist Casa de Espafia—ordered closed b y Presi­ dent Ortiz in M a y 1 9 3 9 . T h e D e p u t y further revealed that the Spanish ships w h i c h crossed the ocean to take on cargoes of Argentinian grain and beef brought not manufactured goods but tons of Falangist propaganda to Argentina. T h i s propaganda was all openly pro-Axis. These, then, w e r e the benefits A r g e n ­ tina received from the A u n o s mission—propaganda and in­ creased Falangist activities. ( A u n o s himself was rewarded handsomely b y von Faupel for his mission: H e is n o w Min­ ister of Justice in the Spanish Cabinet.) T h e complete dossier on the Falange in the Americas w o u l d not overlook Argentina's democratic neighbor to the

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west, the Republic of Chile. H e r e the strength of the C h i l ­ ean labor movement and the organized democratic political parties has forced the Falange to keep its thirty-five Chilean cells w e l l under cover. T h e Falange in Chile is confined largely to the southern part of the country, which has an enormous G e r m a n popu­ lation. T h e anti-Falange sentiments of the Chilean people are so marked that after Pearl H a r b o r Madrid sent a con­ fidential memorandum ordering all Spanish Falangistas in Chile to seek Chilean citizenship and to cease appearing in public in the Falange blue shirts. T h e bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, made the Falange and the Spanish diplomatic network in Chile v e r y important to the A x i s . In January 1942 the Falange sent Jose Gonzalez Honares from Spain to Chile. Honares, the chief liaison man between the Japanese and the Falange, was ordered to Chile to take over the w o r k of the Japanese on that west-coast South American bastion. T o d a y , Honares and the Spanish diplomats are the chief A x i s agents in Chile, but their efforts are not made any easier b y one of the most vigilantly democratic peoples in the world. T h e anti-Falangist, anti-Axis feelings of the Chilean peo­ ple are so pronounced that in at least one instance k n o w n to United Nations Intelligence services the Falange in Chile has been forced to distribute Spanish propaganda through the diplomatic machinery of a certain Latin-American lega­ tion in Santiago de Chile, Brazil takes up a surprising amount of space in the c o m ­ plete dossier on the Falange in South America. L a t e in 1940, the Falange in Madrid announced the for­ mation of the All-Iberian Confederation of Portuguese and Spanish Falange parties. T h e organization w a s a joint c o m ­ mittee of the Fascist parties of both Portugal and Spain, and as such had governmental backing in both Lisbon and Madrid. W i t h the launching of the Confederation, Spain sent a

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n e w ambassador to Brazil. H e w a s Raimundo Fernandez Cuesta, the former chief of the Falange in Spain and one of its earliest members. Although sadly lacking in experience as a diplomat, Cuesta needed little coaching in the theory and technique of operating a Falange Fifth Column. Before Brazil entered the war, and prior to the arrival of the A u n o s mission to Argentina, Cuesta directed all South American Falange activities from his embassy in R i o de Janiero. T h e Falange leader not only managed the continental Falange Exterior affairs, but he also set up an organization in Portuguese-speaking Brazil w h i c h added to his laurels in Madrid. Cuesta had five secretaries in the Embassy. T h e y were all trained Falange officials w h o , protected b y their diplomatic passports, aided Cuesta in his tasks of pjppaganda and organization. Cuesta camouflaged the Hispanidad line in Brazil. Instead, he appealed to the Portuguese origin of Brazilians b y link­ ing Salazar, Dictator of Portugal, and F r a n c o as the joint chiefs of a great Iberian empire-to-be. T h e All-Iberian Con­ federation became Cuesta's w e d g e in Brazil, and he used it with telling effect. F r o m R i o , Cuesta set the Falange propaganda line for the entire continent through Nueva Espana, the Falangist paper published at 70 A v e n i d a Porto Alegre. T h r o u g h this paper and through news furnished the Berlin radio b y the Spanish Embassy at R i o — n e w s the Berlin radio rebroadcast to all of Latin America—Cuesta kept Falange propaganda going along the paths determined in von Faupel's Madrid office. T h e great bulk of Ambassador Cuesta's large staff was com­ posed of Falangist inspectors w h o maintained liaison be­ tween their chief and the Falanges of neighboring countries. W h e n Brazil broke with G e r m a n y , one of Cuesta's five secretaries, Manuel Montero, was entrusted with the mis­ sion of taking confidential documents of the closed G e r m a n Embassy to Spain f o r trans-shipment to Berlin. H e sailed on the Cabo de Homos in M a y 1942, just as A u n o s w a s arriving in Argentina. T h e w a r forced all of the Falanges in South America to

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pull in their horns. In Brazil all members of the small but influential section of the Falange Espanola were given copies of the confidential circular which w a s published in Madrid and sent to the Spanish legations in Latin America. T h e Brazilian edition of the circular, which bore the heading, "Extraordinary Bulletin of Instructions," said, in part: Complying with orders received from our Superior Chiefs, because of special difficult circumstances that have arisen and affected our propaganda in America . . . all work will be interrupted until further notice. Persecuted by certain govern­ ments at the service of International J e w r y , we must forbid all visits to our meeting places, even if they remain open for purely commercial ends. T h e following orders have been re­ ceived— 1. Avoid visiting the Embassy, and only in cases of absolute necessity call for information at Department 142. A n y other consultation should be made personally with the chief of the group to which each member belongs. Never use the telephone, not even for discreet conversation. 2. Keep careful reserve in dealing with natives of the coun­ try [Brazil], who did not rate our complete confidence before this time, because they may now become very dangerous to the sacred cause of the Empire with the new change of the tide [Brazil's declaration of w a r ] . 3. Maintain the spirit of action, guiding it principally through the Portuguese feeling in opposition to the fluctuating Pan-Americanism. Beware of employing the terms Hispanidad and Hispanismo—words that may hurt the extreme sensitivities of these [Brazilian] people. These are instructions received from the Consejo de His­ panidad, and should not be mentioned in any Conversations. If others quote these instructions, you must affirm that it [the Consejo de Hispanidad] has been dissolved. . . . 6. Never forget the spirit of sacrifice of the Falange Espa­ nola, nor the punishment that is reserved for all the traitors or cowards who might compromise in any way—such as answer­ ing police questions or exhibiting copies of this bulletin, which must be returned within three days of its receipt. T h e slogan "Attack for V i c t o r y " is now changed to the new slogan, "Discretion for Victory." . . .

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T h i s circular is worth noting for the clear w a y in which it identifies the Spanish Embassy with the subversive activi­ ties of the Falange Exterior. N o t e , too, the reference to "International J e w r y " as being the sole force opposed to the A x i s in the war, and the line about avoiding the usual Falange meeting places "even if they remain open for purely commercial ends." M a n y Spanish business houses in Latin America act as headquarters for Falange cells, and the Span­ ish firms in Brazil were no exception. Brazil's declaration of w a r on G e r m a n y and Italy not only forced the Brazilian Falange to retrench, but also made it inadvisable for Spanish Ambassador Cuesta to operate out of R i o . T h e A x i s w a s afraid to risk having him interned if the United Nations ever widened their w a r front to take in all A x i s nations, including Spain. One of the jobs assigned to the A u n o s mission w a s making Cuesta's retreat from the Western Hemisphere an orderly one. T h e center of Falange activities on the continent was shifted to Argentina. Shortly after A u n o s completed his mis­ sion, Cuesta was recalled from Brazil and named Spanish Ambassador to R o m e . In the general shifting of leaders and headquarters, one other significant change was made. C o l o ­ nel Manuel de la Sierra, attached to the Spanish Embassy in Washington, w a s transferred to the legation at Buenos Aires. Sierra is one of the k e y figures in the Spanish Secret Service, and his new assignment was made as part of a broad master-plan for all of the American nations. One of the most amazing parts of the dossier on the Falange in South A m e r i c a is the section dealing with Peru, A prominent Peruvian writer put his finger on the strange power of Falangismo recently. Falangismo speaks for feudalism as an ideal. In Peru, where feudalism is not an ideal but a bitter reality, Falangismo there­ fore found fertile soil. On the Peruvian hacienda, the haciendado is All Powerful. Each hacienda represents, in spirit, a perfect Falangist state in miniature. It is therefore not surpris-

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ing to find the Falange strongest among the great landowners and their spokesmen in the press and the government. T h e p o w e r of Falangismo w a s felt in Peru v e r y early dur­ ing the course of the Spanish W a r . Jose Maria Arguedas and Manuel Moreno, t w o Peruvian writers, organized a meeting at the University in L i m a and spoke up in favor of the Span­ ish Republic. T h e y w e r e immediately arrested and kept in­ communicado for six months in prison before protests from all over Latin America forced the government to release them. A f t e r that, there were no open anti-Falange manifes­ tations in Peru. T h e country's " T w o Hundred Families" vied among themselves to see w h o could do the most for the A x i s cause during the Spanish W a r . W h e n E u g e n i o Montes, one of the most important Falangist propagandists, visited Peru during this war, he had limousines and villas put at his disposal w h e r e v e r he went. Montes returned to Peru to lecture after the A x i s triumph. H e w a s followed b y Jose Maria Peman, the Falangist writer whose lectures were attended b y Peru's President, Manuel Prado, and other leading Peruvian dig­ nitaries. T h e man generally credited with being the real leader of the Falange in Peru is Jose de la R i v a A g u e r o , one of the country's wealthiest citizens. H e likes to be k n o w n b y his Spanish title, the Marques de Aulestia—a title he had re­ validated in Spain in 1 9 3 4 . R i v a A g u e r o is one of Peru's lead­ ing intellectuals, and in both the press and on the public platform he is the most outspoken exponent of Falangismo and Hispanidad. T o the Peruvian Falange, whose slogan is, "Spiritual U n i t y between Spain and Peru," R i v a A g u e r o has been an intellectual and financial t o w e r of strength. H e visited Spain in 1940, and on his return in 1941 w a s quoted in the maga­ zine Tourismo as declaring that Falangismo "is necessary for the life of Peru . . . the movement in Spain is an in­ spiration for all of us."

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R i v a Aguero's ties with the Japanese in Peru—where they formed the most powerful Fifth Column in the country— were as close as were his ties with F r a n c o . W h e n Peru, at the last minute, cast its diplomatic lot w i t h the United Nations, the hysterically anti-United States o r ­ gan of the Peruvian Falange, Unidad, w a s suspended b y the government. T h i s , however, w a s little more than a gesture— because the most powerful voice of the Falange also hap­ pens to be one of the largest papers in Peru, El Comercio. T h e r e are m a n y points of similarity between El Comer­ cio, of Lima, and Havana's Diario de la Marina. L i k e the Diario's Pepin R i v e r o , El Comercto's guiding genius, Carlos M i r o Quesada Laos, also w o n the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism in 1 9 4 1 — t h e prize awarded to the editor w h o does the most to cement N o r t h and South American friend­ ship. L i k e the Diario, El Comercio also jumped on the F r a n c o bandwagon with the first shots of the Spanish W a r . L i k e Pepin R i v e r o , M i r o Quesada also enjoyed good rela­ tions w i t h Axis diplomats other than those of Spain. H e was, in fact, violently opposed to Peru's diplomatic break with J a p a n . " T h e r e is no harm at all in the Japanese being in Peru," he told an American magazine w r i t e r about a w e e k before Pearl H a r b o r . H e also told this A m e r i c a n that, " T h e r e is nothing like the progressive character of N a ­ tional Socialism. H o w e v e r , Falangismo is even a step higher than National Socialism." D u r i n g the Spanish W a r , Miro Quesada visited the F r a n c o side as correspondent f o r his paper. El Comercio has long preached Hispanidad and Falangismo, and if M i r o Quesada's detractors sometimes describe him as " F r a n c o ' s Unofficial G o e b b e l s , " they can hardly be blamed or accused of exaggerating the role of El Comercio. In addition to his journalistic writings, M i r o Quesada also w r o t e a book based o n his interviews w i t h Hitler, F r a n c o , Salazar, and Mussolini. Needless to say, this book—which bore an introduction written b y R i v a Aguero—had nothing but praise for these dictators. F o r M i r o Quesada likes die-

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tators as much as he hates Spanish Republicans, w h o m he calls b y one name only: " R e d s . " H e was the man most in­ fluential in keeping the Spanish Republican refugees out of Peru. H i s uncle is one of the intimate advisers of President Prado. T h e Falange and its partisans in Peru abound in such col­ orful personalities as R i v a A g u e r o and M i r o Quesada. T h e r e is also, for example, R a o u l Parras Barrenechea, w h o is noted both as a toreador and as an essayist. H e served as an attache in the Peruvian Legation in F r a n c o Spain, where he spent a good deal of time doing research in the archives of the Council of the Indies, the historical predecessor of the C o u n ­ cil of Hispanidad. U p o n his return to Peru, Barrenechea published a w o r k based on " n e w material" he had found in the ancient ar­ chives—a book proving that Conquistador Pizarro was not a murderous looter but a shining and kindly knight of Chris­ tian brotherhood. T h e unique thesis of the book took hold in Peru's wealthy Spanish colony, but Peruvian democrats laughed and coined a nickname for the author: "Pizarro the Good." Barrenechea n o w holds a post in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A n intimate of R i v a Aguero's, he is openly antiUnited States and a fervent propagandist of Hispanidad. Another important member of R i v a A g u e r o ' s social set is R a o u l Ferrero Rebagliatti, a Peruvian l a w y e r of Italian descent. A n admirer of Mussolini, Rebagliatti once tried to found a "real" Fascist party in Peru. H e praises R i v a A g u e r o as a "master of Peruvian youth." In 1 9 4 1 he delivered a famous pro-Franco lecture to the foreign students (most of them from the United States) at the summer school of the University of San M a r c o s in Lima. R i v a A g u e r o ' s close friend H o y o s Osores, editor of the daily La Yrensa of Lima, is an outspoken pro-Falangist. El Comercio and La Yrensa are addressed to adults, but the Falange message is served to Peruvians from the moment they begin to read. A n official textbook used in all Peruvian

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schools describes F r a n c o as a savior of Christianity "against the assaults of Jewish Communism." N o w that Peru has broken diplomatic ties with the A x i s nations, Spain has taken over all Axis representation. F r a n ­ co's Ambassador, D . Pablo Churruca, is active in public functions day in and day out. His words and public activities are breathlessly recorded in the openly pro-Falangist press of the country, to w h o m he is a statesman of w o r l d im­ portance. Peru's o w n envoys to Spain have been as ardently for Franco and Hispanidad as Churruca. In 1940 Peru's A m b a s ­ sador was Ex-President Benavides, w h o w a s decorated b y Franco and given a banquet b y Spanish military officers in Barcelona. H e n o w represents Peru in Argentina. Pedro Irogoyen, w h o succeeded Benavides as Ambassador to Spain, made a Columbus D a y address in 1 9 4 1 in which he declared, " T h e Spanish movement should serve as an exam­ ple for South A m e r i c a . " These personalities are a reflection of the strength of Falangismo in a country whose importance must never be underestimated. T h e Falange itself was never large in Peru —it never had to be. T h e Axis relied on the huge Japanese and Italian Fifth Columns for manpower there. Since Spain took over the A x i s diplomatic front in Peru, the Falange has increased in importance. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Antonio Luis Escobar, a high-ranking officer in the Spanish Secret Service ( S I M ) arrived in Peru from Spain to serve the Axis in w a y s that need no description. H e is still there. Peru's impoverished neighbor, Ecuador, is no less afflicted with the Falange virus. A s in Peru, the Falange did not be­ come the dominant A x i s front until after Pearl Harbor. T h e Italian A r m y had a contract to train the Ecuadorian officers. T h e largest school in Quito w a s the G e r m a n Collegio Aleman. A n d the Japanese had a large hand in the economic destinies of the country.

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Because of this all-Axis front, the most important organ of Falangismo, El Debate, was financed not o n l y b y Spain but also b y Italy, G e r m a n y , and Japan. It was run b y M a r i ­ ano Suarez Veintemilla, n o w a deputy in the nation's C o n ­ gress, and Senator Moises L u n a — a statesman w h o de­ nounced the Rotarian Congress held at the University in Quito as a " M a s o n i c - J e w i s h " conspiracy against E c u a d o r . El Debate, like the Falangist organs Hoja Popular and Crisol, was finally banned in M a y 1 9 4 2 . Since Ecuador's diplomatic break with the A x i s powers, the N a z i Transocean N e w s Service, which reached all E c u a dorean papers free of charge, has been replaced b y the F r a n c o news agency, E F E — w h i c h also furnishes a free serv­ ice. T h e E F E wires g o to all papers in E c u a d o r with the ex­ ception of anti-Fascist publications like El Dia and La

Defensa. B e f o r e Pearl Harbor, the N a z i s maintained a number of clandestine radio stations in E c u a d o r . M a n y of them are n o w operated b y the Falange. Ecuador's wealthy Spanish C o l o n y is as fervently Falang­ ist as that of Peru. Nevertheless, in 1940 the Falange w o r k e d w i t h the Japanese and the N a z i s to stir u p still another w a r g r o w i n g out of the century-old border controversy between Peru and E c u a d o r . Little w a s said in the press of the w o r l d about this w a r . Described in most N o r t h A m e r i c a n papers as a typical minor "border dispute," it w a s v e r y m u c h of a real modern w a r during the months that it raged. T h e v o n Faupel- and J a p a ­ nese-trained Peruvian A r m y finally crushed the Italiantrained Ecuadoreans—but at a cost in human lives far be­ y o n d the space they w o n in the headlines. It w a s a w a r w h i c h s a w Italian Caproni bombers in the hands of the P e r u ­ vians blot out whole villages, and such bombings spell death even in unpubficized wars. (Italy sold to both sides.) W h e n the shooting-was over, and the disputed territory securely in the hands of Peru, the Falange in Spain sent a delegation of prominent Falangistas to Peru to commemo­ rate the 450th anniversary of Columbus. T h e most distin-

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guished of the delegates, w h o came as guests of the Peru­ vian Government, w a s the Marquesa de la Conquista, de­ scendant of Pizarro—a fitting note, since the prime purpose of the delegation from Spain was to lend moral authority to the Peruvian conquest. T h i s feat they accomplished b y cit­ ing ancient maps of the Council of the Indies which justified Peru's border claims. M o r e than Peru and E c u a d o r w e r e involved in this w a r , however. It was nothing more than a well-timed dress re­ hearsal of the hell the Nazis are prepared to unleash in all of Latin A m e r i c a . Border wars, military uprisings, civil wars, fake minority movements like that of Patagonia—all these are weapons, in Latin America, against the United Nations and particularly against the United States. T h e A x i s aim in Latin A m e r i c a is to increase the war-borne hardships to acute misery, and then convert this misery to chaos—a chaos that will have a telling effect on the w a r effort of e v e r y American nation. Spain became a N a z i colony as a result of a fake rrulitary uprising organized b y the Germans. T o d a y Spain is nearer to many Latin American countries than the United States. A n d the Nazi-run Spanish Falange is active and large in these countries. It will cost the Germans next to nothing in men and materials to stir up serious disturbances in L a t i n America through the Falange Espafiola. T h e all-over dossier on the Falange in Latin A m e r i c a gets v e r y hot w h e n it touches Colombia, the strategic land which flanks the Panama Canal on the South. H e r e the Falange pattern seems like a carbon c o p y of Cuba's. A s in Cuba, Falangismo came to Colombia's wealthy Spanish C o l o n y and to one of the country's largest publish­ ers long before the Falange could send an agent from Spain to Bogota to formally organize the Falange Exterior branches. T h e t w o dominant figures in the F r a n c o camp in C o l o m ­ bia in 1 9 3 6 w e r e Laureano G o m e z and Hilario Rajul. G o m e z publishes the influential daily, El Sigh, one of the

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most violently anti-United States papers published a n y ­ where in the w o r l d , including Falangist Madrid. H e is also the leader of the Conservative P a r t y of Colombia. Rajul, a Spanish citizen in his fifties, is a well-to-do Bogota business man. A i d e d b y other Spaniards and w e a l t h y Colombians, G o m e z and Rajul kept the Franco fires burning brightly until the end of 1937, when the Falange in Spain sent Gines de Albareda to Bogota (the Falangistas always used the ancient name of Sante F e de Bogota for the Colombian cap­ ital) to organize the Falange Exterior cells. Laureano G o m e z g a v e the visiting Falange agent a lavish banquet, at which the y o u n g men of the Caro A c a d e m y acted as Albareda's guard of honor. F o r weeks, Albareda sat as the guest of honor at a series of dinners and receptions. Special Masses were said in his honor at the San Ignacio and other Spanish Churches. W e r e Albareda a less cynical fel­ l o w , he might have imagined that Colombia was ripe for a Falangist uprising of its v e r y own. But the average Colombian, and even the average Span­ iard in Colombia, w a s not at all like Laureano G o m e z . A l ­ bareda sensed the anti-Falangist feeling of the Colombian majority and therefore, in setting up the Falange Exterior structure, he gave it the name of "Circulo Nacionalist. E s panol." W h e n Albareda tried to speak at meetings to which the general public had been invited, he met with near disaster so often that he decided to confine his orations to more ex­ clusive gatherings. A t least, at closed meetings attended only b y Falangistas and their sympathizers, he could make himself heard. A t one of these meetings, Albareda heard Laureano G o m e z make a speech that brought the house down. It was an impassioned address which ended with these tingling words: All Spain, coming forward as the solitary fighter for Chris­ tian culture, has taken the vanguard step of all nations of the

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Occident in the reconstruction of the Empire of Hispanidad, in whose Falanges we inscribe our names with indescribable joy. W e bless G o d because he has allowed us to live through this epoch of unforeseen transformation and because we are able to exclaim with a cry that comes forth from our deepest feel­ ings—Arriba Espana, Catholic and Imperial! A s he sounded this tocsin call, his face purple, sweat pour­ ing into his tear-filled eyes, Laureano G o m e z snapped to at­ tention and flung his hand up in the stiff-arm Fascist salute—

the brazo en alto. Albareda led the applause which greeted this speech. It told him that the time had come to begin circulating among the wealthy Spaniards of Colombia to collect large sums for the cause of E l Caudillo. H e had little difficulty in raising a most respectable w a r chest. T h e Falange organized and the money collected, G i n e s de Albareda decided to take his leave. Before sailing for Spain, Albareda appointed Antonio V a l v e r d e to the post of chief of the Colombian Falange, H i s pockets heavy with the money he had raised in C o ­ lombia, Albareda said farewell to the leading Falangists of Bogota with the classic brazo en alto and a m a n l y embrace for each man. But according to an account published in Buenos Aires quoting El Liberal of Bogota, the money proved to be more powerful than the ideology of N u e v a Espana. Gines de Albareda w a s there accused of personally pocketing every penny of the moneys donated to E l C a u ­ dillo b y the Colombian Falangistas. H e was never sent abroad on a confidential mission again. V a l v e r d e tried to make the Falange over into an ascetic religious order. H e soon gave up this tack. A f t e r the triumph of Franco, V a l v e r d e had a series of arguments over the w o r k of the Falange with the first F r a n c o Minister to Colombia. H e resented this interference so much that he turned the af­ fairs of the Colombian Falange over to his assistant, L u i s Roldan, and went to Spain to seek justice. One of the results

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of this trip w a s a letter to Roldan (quoted in Chapter I ) promising that the Minister w o u l d soon be placed under the orders of the Falange chief. T h e letter w a s no idle boast. Shortly after Roldan re­ ceived it, the Spanish Legation in Bogota received a n e w secretary, one Onos de Plandolit. Plandolit w a s new to the diplomatic business, but he had g r o w n up with the Falange in Spain, and he had the implicit confidence of men like General v o n Faupel and the highest-ranking Spaniards in the Falange. Plandolit became the absolute chief of the Legation, and it w a s he w h o restored order to the Falange in Colombia. H e became, in effect, the actual chief of the Falange, and re­ mained in Bogota until his post-Pearl H a r b o r transfer to the Spanish Legation in Panama. In Bogota, Plandolit busied himself with more than merely Colombian affairs. D u r i n g his tenure the Spanish Legation was taking advantage of the Pan-American Postal Convention franking privileges to send propaganda to the United States and other countries. T h e following excerpt, taken from a bulletin the Spanish Legation in Colombia sent to N e w Y o r k C i t y via franked mail, is a fair sample of Plan­ dolit's w o r k . . . . Roosevelt . . . will do all he can to aid in the defeat of Hitler and of the European people who are fighting for their liberty against Bolshevik barbarism and the sordid egoism of the democratic, Jewish, and Protestant plutocracies. During the Spanish W a r , V a l v e r d e started a campaign to raise funds for the A x i s forces. T h e campaign—which w a s announced as a "permanent" one—was assisted b y a per­ manent announcement appearing* daily in Gomez's El Siglo. T h i s announcement, which bore the heading, in big capital letters, " V I V A F R A N C O ! A R R I B A E S P A N A ! " called for funds for F r a n c o and published honor lists of those w h o contributed the money. G o m e z ' s fervor for Falangismo had v e r y interesting, if

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pathological, roots. H e not only hated the Spanish Republic but, with equal venom, the Republic of Colombia as well. During the Spanish W a r , the Bogota publisher found a w a y of addressing an impassioned plea to F r a n c o personally, a plea for aid in overthrowing the government of Colombia. Franco answered this request with a definite promise of military aid—after the Spanish Republic w a s destroyed. Franco's solemn promise made G o m e z w o r k all the harder for the triumph of the Falange in Spain. T h e zeal of the Colombian Falange's most fervent member did not diminish when Luis R o l d a n succeeded V a l v e r d e as chief of the F a ­ lange in 1940. G o m e z gave R o l d a n the full support he had shown V a l v e r d e . Roldan remained chief of the Colombian Falange until August 1 9 4 1 , when he w a s transferred to Panama—one of the most important Falange concentration points in the world. O n December 1 8 , 1 0 4 1 , he sailed from Panama to H a v a n a on a Chilean liner, the Imperial. H e w a s in H a v a n a to await passage on board a C . T . E . steamer bound for Spain. But Roldan's movements in Havana Falange circles aroused the suspicions of the Cuban Secret Police, w h o w e r e in possession of letters Roldan had sent to Alejandro V i l l a nueva in 1940, when Villanueva w a s the Inspector General of the Falange in the Americas. T h e Cuban police arrested Roldan on J a n u a r y 2, 1 9 4 2 . H e was tried ten days later, but was acquitted—largely b y his promise to take the next boat out of Cuba. Roldan's arrest, however, led to the revelation of m a n y of the secrets of the Colombian Falange, for he had been carrying a case of important documents and a file of his correspondence to Spain when the Cuban police arrested him. T h e documents included copies of orders R o l d a n had sent to D a r i o Cuadrado, the landowner and textile magnate w h o succeeded him as chief of the Colombian Falange; orders received b y R o l d a n from Spain; letters linking G e r ­ man and Italian diplomats with Falangist activities in Latin A m e r i c a ; and assorted documents relating to Falangist ac-

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tivities in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Puerto R i c o , E I Salvador, and other Latin-American nations. T h e r e w e r e official com­ munications to Roldan from Valverde—then his Falange chief—sent from Venezuela, Panama, Germany, England, France, and Spain. R o l d a n had kept a complete file—in­ cluding copies of e v e r y letter he sent as a Falangist officer. A m o n g these, as a starter, w a s the letter he had sent to Valverde in Barranquilla, Colombia, in December 1 9 3 8 , a letter which contained these sentences: I already went to the Italian Legation to take leave in your name and to tell them to cable to Caracas your arrival there. The [legation] secretary promised to do so. A later letter (the italics are mine) from Roldan to V a l ­ verde w a s mailed when the then-chief of the Colombian Falange w a s in Zaragoza, Spain. It said, in part: . . . A s I announced to you in my previous letter, I have completely organized the Auxilio Social and to that section I have dedicated number four and five of our Review. . . . I have distributed the girls in groups as well as the boys, and I have ordered them to make a collection among all the friends and businessmen of Bogota who sympathize with our Move­ ment. . . . Immediately after, that is, on the first Sunday of March, w e will hold a grand bazaar, which surely will be held in the Plaza de los Martircs. . . . I am giving a religious char­ acter to the organization of this Bazaar to collect funds for the reconstruction of the churches demolished in Spain. . . . In this manner I believe I will achieve a greater success, since I will have the collaboration of almost all the religious orders which I warned in advance, and will get the support of all the Colombian people who in their inner self are religious even though they take a liberal pose. . . . All this, as it is natural, I will manage, and I will distribute the women of the Auxilio Social in the various booths, and the funds, I don't have to even tell you, will be exclusively for the Falange. . . . T h i s letter speaks volumes for the sincerity of the F a -

Patagonia to Panama lange's noisy crusade for Catholicism, and for the real char­ acter of the Auxilio Social, the Falange's own "relief" society. B u t the most sensational document of the Roldan collec­ tion w a s a c o p y of a report Roldan sent to the National Delegation of the Falange Exterior in Spain on February 1 5 , 1939. T h i s report said, in part (the italics are m i n e ) : The circle of conferences that I initiated here I had to stop because of serious reasons which exist in this country [Co­ lombia]. Here the political atmosphere is heavy now, for among the Conservatives themselves there have been splits because some, among them Laureano Gomez, wish violent or revolutionary attitudes . . . these gentlemen have adddres'sed themselves to our victorious Caudillo [Franco] requesting help to accomplish in this country a revolution similar to ours [in Spain], and the Caudillo has answered them that they shall have everything they -wish after our war finishes. . . . Under these conditions the officials of the government here have thought that these activities are being carried on through the Falange and ordered a raid on our office by the Secret Police. It w a s a bombshell in Colombia. H e r e w a s a signed ad­ mission from the former chief of the Colombian Falange that Laureano G o m e z had petitioned F r a n c o for aid in overthrowing democracy in Colombia! El Liberal, the newspaper of Colombia's present Presi­ dent, Alfonso L o p e z , published the R o l d a n - V a l v e r d e Falange Exterior documents in full in February 1 9 4 1 . T h e nation was shocked—and the Colombian police began a series of raids on the homes and offices of Falangistas and F r a n c o partisans. T h e raids produced some amazing results. A t the home of Dario Cuadrado, the Falange chief of Colombia, police found orders sent from Madrid and signed b y Jose Gimenez Rosado, the Secretary General of the Falange Espanola. T h e r e w e r e also copies of orders sent b y Cuadrado to re­ gional heads of the Falange in Colombia, and their reports

FALANGE to him. W h e n questioned b y the police, Cuadrado admit­ ted that Laureano G 6 m e z attended secret meetings of the Falange. A t the home of Hilario Rajul, the police were insulted b y the Spanish Falangista's wife, w h o called them " R e d Communists" and similar names. W h i l e the detectives w e r e at Rajul's files, Irwin Goldtucker, the G e r m a n chauffeur of the Spanish Legation, arrived at the Rajul household and cursed them out roundly. T h e y w e r e about to arrest him when he whipped out his Spanish diplomatic passport and flaunted it in their faces. T h e raid produced one document that shook the coun­ try. It revealed that, prior to Pearl Harbor, the Falange and the Conservative P a r t y had formed a w o r k i n g alliance, and that a Falangist official traveled throughout the R e ­ public (with all expenses paid b y publisher Gomez's p a r t y ) and converted the Conservative Party into a replica of the Falange. T h e name of this Falangist agent w a s revealed to be A r t u r o Rajul—son of Hilario and Chancellor of the Spanish Legation. Rajul's tour was followed b y a circular letter sent to all chiefs of the Conservative P a r t y in Colombia on December 20, 1 9 4 1 , announcing the start of a new drive for p o w e r . T h e raids of F e b r u a r y 1942 served only to make the Falangistas more discreet in Colombia. T h e Nazis have v e r y good reasons to keep the Falange functioning at top effi­ c i e n c y in Colombia. T h e reason can be best expressed in t w o words—Panama Canal. T h e Darien Mountains, between Colombia and Panama, are only sixty miles from the Canal. T h e y are crawling with A x i s agents, and are so important to the Nazis that the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin has a separate "Office of Darien Affairs" run b y a staff of specialist officers. While the Falange has been made illegal as such in C o ­ lombia, it continues under the name of the A c c i o n N a cionalista Popular, and publishes a magazine called Falanje. It is still aided b y the Spanish Legation, and it is still a

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menace to the Republic of Colombia and to the w a r effort of the entire Western Hemisphere. A n o t h e r fascinating section of the Falange Exterior dos­ sier covers the Dominican R e p u b l i c . W h e n the Spanish W a r broke out, the Spanish Republic was one of the big­ gest customers for Dominican produce and cattle. Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator, sympathized with F r a n c o —but the Spanish Republicans paid their bills on time, and Trujillo had important private investments at home that depended on these bills. N i n e t y per cent of the Spanish merchants w e r e openly pro-Franco. L i k e their colleagues in Havana, they collected vast sums of money, coffee, tobacco, rum, and other sup­ plies for the A x i s forces in Spain. T h e pro-Nazi chief of Dominican Intelligence, Major Miguel A n g e l Paulino, had many supporters of the Spanish Republic arrested and im­ prisoned. Then, in 1 9 3 7 , the Spanish Falange sent Francisco A l m o d o v a r to Trujillo C i t y to organize the local division of the Falange Exterior. A l m o d o v a r visited Trujillo at his home, where he re­ ceived funds and promises of other aid. W h e n A l m o d o v a r left Santo Domingo, the Falange ordered another agent, Francisco Larcegui, to continue the organization job in Santo Domingo. Larcegui w a s stationed in N e w Y o r k when he received these orders. A veteran Falangist, Larcegui entered the United States as the accredited correspondent of three Latin-American papers—Pepin Rivero's Diario de la Ma­ rina, Laureano Gomez's El Siglo, and the Falangist Diario Espaiiol of Montevideo, U r u g u a y . H e , too, received some funds from Trujillo. H e remained in Santo D o m i n g o for some months, establishing a strong branch of the Falange. In December 1 9 3 7 , after L a r c e g u i had returned to N e w Y o r k , the Franco Junta in Burgos sent a Captain T o r r e s to ask Trujillo to break off diplomatic relations with the Span­ ish R e p u b l i c . T h e Captain's mission w a s unsuccessful, for

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Trujillo w a s then in the process of selling a large order of cattle to the embattled but solvent Republic. T h e Falange, however, made great headway among the Dominican Republic's upper crust. Listin Diario, one of the nation's leading newspapers, jumped on the Franco v i c t o r y chariot. T h e paper ran a series of pro-Franco stories b y E m i l i o S. Morel, President of the Superior Junta of the dominant Dominican Party. W h e n Franco took p o w e r , Morel w a s named Dominican Minister to Madrid— where he placed a wreath on the tomb of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera in Rafael Trujillo's name and then sank into obscurity. Since Pearl Harbor, the Falange in Santo D o m i n g o has been running a vigorous anti-American campaign and at­ tempting to take up the tasks of the Nazis imprisoned o r expelled b y the Realpolitik fortunes of the w a r . In J u n e 1942 alert American Intelligence agents discov­ ered that the Captain of a Spanish ship had deposited $300,000 in a Dominican bank, and that the money w a s to be used to meet the expenses of the N a z i agents in the Americas. N e w s of the discovery of this cache leaked out to the newspapers of several Central American countries. Trujillo quickly announced that he w a s confiscating the $300,000—but until the news broke in the press, he had been attempting to convert the money into Cuban c u r ­ rency. H i s agent in this transaction had been Sanchez A r cilla, the former staff writer of the Diario de la Marina w h o was serving as Cuba's Minister to Santo D o m i n g o . Arcilla was v e r y close to the Falange. T h e Spanish Legation in Trujillo C i t y not only transmits orders from Madrid to the Falange of the Dominican R e ­ public, but also certain confidential letters from G e r m a n y to pro-Nazi Dominican government officials. It also acts as a forwarding station in the information service the A x i s maintains in the Caribbean. W h e n y o u learn that the Falange in Santo Domingo is today the front f o r one of the most powerful Fifth Columns the Nazis succeeded in establishing in the Americas before

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Pearl Harbor, y o u understand w h y General von Faupel is held in such high esteem in Berlin. F o r the Caribbean is one of the graveyards of United Nations shipping in the Atlantic. Between Miami and Venezuela, the Axis—through the Falanges of Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto R i c o , and the Vichysois of Martinique—maintains an almost un­ broken chain of observation posts and secret radio stations in constant contact with N a z i submarine and surface raiders. T h e northern coast of Venezuela is infested with hun­ dreds of Falangist agents—many of w h o m have casually and without ecclesiastical authority donned the robes of priests—whose radio instructions lead N a z i submarines across the paths of United Nations oil tankers. T h e dossier is endless. W h e r e v e r y o u turn in Latin A m e r ­ ica, whether in small but strategic Panama or in large and powerful Argentina, the Falange Exterior hits y o u between the eyes. There is no mistaking the facts once they face y o u . Spain has taken over the diplomatic fronts behind w h i c h Axis Fifth Column w o r k is carried out in Latin A m e r i c a . In every Latin-American country, the Falange E x t e r i o r has an active, well-trained, well-financed organization—either under its o w n name or under such false fronts as the A c c i o n Nacionalista Popular of Colombia; the Fatherland, Order, and L i b e r t y Society of U r u g u a y ; or, as in Mexico, under both its o w n and the false banners of Sinarquismo. U p w a r d s of a million Falangistas and their dupes—acting on orders dictated b y N a z i General Wilhelm von Faupel in Madrid—are actively engaged in warfare against the United Nations, for the A x i s . T h i s warfare is w a g e d on many fronts: political, eco­ nomic, military. T h e fronts are endless. A recent confiden­ tial survey of A x i s operations in the Americas revealed that the Spanish Secret Service, the S I M , has 1 4 , 7 6 3 operatives functioning between the R i o G r a n d e and the wind-sheared pastures of Patagonia. Wilhelm von Faupel makes f e w speeches, but w h e n he

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does mount the rostrum he never minces his words. In June 1 9 3 9 , during the Pan-American Conference in Lima, von Faupel delivered a lecture before the G e r m a n A c a d e m y in Berlin. Pointing to L i m a on the large map beside the lec­ tern, von Faupel quietly declared: A victory for Fascist Spain will cement our relations with Latin America and will be a rude shock to the G o o d Neighbor Policy of President Roosevelt. T o d a y , to make this shock even ruder, von Faupel main­ tains a special school in Barcelona for Latin-American F a ­ langistas. T h e school is in the Barcelona Building of the Ibero-American Institute, and from it pour Latin-American Falangistas w h o k n o w just h o w best to serve the A x i s in their native lands. T h e increasing tightness of the w a r situation is grist to the Falange mill. A s the w a r continues, w e can expect an increase of Falangist activities which will exploit the hard­ ships and the sacrifices the w a r is forcing on all civilians in Latin America. Granting that it is perhaps far-fetched to speak in terms of a G e r m a n or an Italian or a Japanese invasion of Latin America, the fact remains that the Falange is with us in force in the Americas now. Hitler is not fooling—-and the Falanges in Latin A m e r i c a are Hitler's. One immediate step can cripple the Falanges of the entire Western Hemisphere, can make their objectives a thousand times more difficult to achieve than they are n o w . T h e Falangist diplomatic front must be eliminated: e v e r y lega­ tion of A x i s Spain must be shut d o w n and its officials sent back to Madrid. T h i s will not end the Falange menace b y any means, but it will certainly pull some of its sharpest teeth. T h e initiative for this hemisphere-wide diplomatic move rests in only one place—Washington. A s the United States moves, so move the nations of Latin A m e r i c a . T h e y fol-

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lowed us into the w a r , and the average Latin-American is more than anxious to see the F r a n c o legations driven from his country forever, Y e t , until w e make the initial move, the Latin-American nations are powerless to act.

C H A P T E R

T E N

The Falange in the United States and revealing book La Falange Exterior which the Nazis tried so hard to destroy completely after it was published in Santander, Spain, contained a most interesting paragraph on page 20. In translation, this paragraph reads: T H E FRANK

In some countries there are but few Spanish colonies. But in those where it is convenient to assist the cause of Spain, in a sense of effective propaganda, groups of foreign sympathizers have been constituted, maintaining also a close and continuous relation with the [Spanish] compatriots residing there. A l ­ though their number might not be sufficient to create a formal organization of the Falange Espafiola Tradicionalista de la J.O.N.S., delegates and representatives have been named that carry out a useful work for our Movement. T h e United States is one of these countries where "there are but f e w Spanish colonies." B u t early in the Spanish w a r the United States became the home of the other type of Falange Exterior organizations described in the above paragraph. N e v e r v e r y large numerically, the Falangist or­ ganizations and their American off-shoots have nevertheless proved themselves to be one of the most effective of the Falange E x t e r i o r Fifth Columns in the w o r l d . W h e n the history of the Second W o r l d W a r is written, the role the Falange Exterior played in the successful A m e r i c a n cam­ paign to prevent the lifting of the A r m s E m b a r g o on L o y ­ alist Spain will fill some of the blackest pages in that tragic chronicle. In January, 1 9 3 7 , a group of F r a n c o partisans held a formal meeting in the A l h a m b r a Coffee House, at 2 Stone Street, N e w Y o r k . Most of the men present w e r e Spaniards living in the United States but retaining their Spanish citi-

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zenship. Some w e r e powerful Puerto Ricans, others w e r e Spanish-born American citizens. T h e most powerful men in Spanish-American shipping, Marcelino Garcia and Manuel Diaz—owners of the firm of G a r c i a & Diaz—dominated the first meeting of this group. Jose Maria T o r r e s Perona, personal representative in N e w Y o r k of Havana's Pepin Rivera, and Francisco Larcegui, the Spaniard carrying credentials from R i v e r a ' s Diario de la Marina and other papers, were among the others in the group. T h e y shared ideas and delicacies with D r . R a m o n Castroviejo, Julio R o j o , a Puerto R i c a n Spaniard, Benito Coilado, Felix Lopez, Jose R e y e s , and other prom­ inent members of the Spanish big-business set in N e w Y o r k . Out of this meeting came the organization of the Casa de Espafia (House of S p a i n ) , a club w h i c h set up head­ quarters in the Park Central Hotel. T h e manager of the Spanish department of the Park Central, a charter member of the Casa de Espana, w a s T o m a s Coilado. H i s brother Benito, also a charter member, o w n e d E l Chico, a G r e e n ­ wich Village night club. T h e Casa de Espana was the first American branch of the Falange Exterior. L i k e all foreign Faianges, it soon organized the local branch of the Auxilio Social of the Falange. In the United States the Auxilio Social took the form of t w o American committees—the Spanish Nationalist Relief Committee and the American Spanish Relief Fund, and one Spanish organization, the National Spanish Relief Association, Incorporated. T h e directors of the Spanish association included Emilio Gonzalez, D r . Castroviejo, and Juan Gallego, a Spanish shipping man of N e w Y o r k . A m o n g the "foreign sympathizers" w h o m the handbook of the Falange Exterior sought w e r e the American mem­ bers of the Spanish Nationalist Relief Committee. T h e s e included Americans like W . Cameron Forbes, former American Ambassador to Japan; James W . G e r a r d , former Ambassador to G e r m a n y ; Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia; M r s . H a r r y P a y n e W h i t n e y ;

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A n n e M o r g a n ; M a r y Pickford; and D r . A . Hamilton R i c e . T h e literature of this committee stated that it w a s the " A m e r i c a n representative for raising funds in the United States for the Auxilio Social—Social H e l p S e r v i c e — w h i c h represents in a marvelous manner the spirit and unity of N e w Spain." W h i l e the Auxilio Social organizations raised funds f o r the A x i s in Spain, the Casa de Espana concentrated on mak­ ing propaganda for the Fascist armies in the Spanish W a r . T h e Park Central Hotel became the scene of endless din­ ners, forums, dance and music recitals, and lectures on the F r a n c o movement. O n the tables of the Casa de Espana visitors and the seven hundred-odd members could a l w a y s find Fascist propaganda pamphlets and magazines printed both here and abroad. A large painting of Francisco F r a n c o hung on the wall of the club headquarters. T h e feminine section of the Falange, run b y Pilar Primo de R i v e r a in Spain, had its American representation in the feminine section of the Casa de Espana. Prominent in the leadership of this section w a s M a r y G r e e v y G a r c i a , w i f e of Marcelino G a r c i a , and a native of the United States. T h e leader of the American feminine section w a s M r s . Etelvina Lubiano of Y o n k e r s , N . Y . Francisco Larcegui, one of the founders of the Casa de Espana, w a s originally its closest link with the Falange in Spain. A veteran member of the Falange in Spain, L a r c e g u i operated both in Central A m e r i c a and the United States. A l w a y s well supplied with funds—Larcegui loved to flash an impressive roll of big bills at the slightest provocation— he proved to be the American correspondent for the Diario de la Marina of H a v a n a and the fervently anti-American El Siglo of Bogota, Colombia, F r o m time to time L a r c e g u i went t o H a v a n a to have his visa renewed at the American Legation there. But these visits to Havana also s a w L a r c e g u i conferring with Falange Exterior leaders like J u a n A d r i e n sens, Alejandro Villanueva, and Miguel Espinos. Although Larcegui's j o b w a s primarily of a propaganda

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nature, he was—at least in the early days of the Casa de Espana—a contact man for the espionage network then being created b y the G e r m a n masters of the Falange. Larcegui, however, w a s not as important to the Spanish Fascists as were G a r c i a and Diaz. T h e role of these t w o Spanish shipping men in N e w Y o r k w a s brought to the attention of the United States Senate as early as M a y 1 9 3 7 , when Senator G e r a l d P. N y e charged them with being Franco spies w h o "would look with favor upon the viola­ tion of the Monroe Doctrine." T h e knowledge which caused this outburst b y Senator N y e — w h o m even the most fervent American Fascists could not accuse of Communist bias—was contained in t w o letters taken from the files of G a r c i a & Diaz in N e w Y o r k . T h e letters w e r e inserted into the Congressional R e c o r d . Both letters w e r e written on the letterhead of G a r c i a & Diaz, 17 Battery Place, N e w Y o r k C i t y . T h e first, sent via air mail to Sefior D o n Federico Varela, Apartado 60, V e r a Cruz, Mexico, w a s signed only by M a n ­ uel Diaz, and dated F e b r u a r y 20, 1 9 3 7 . It said: In accordance with your indication, and in order that you should know that w e had received the code, I have just sent you the following cablegram: "Just received your letter February 17. Many thanks." A n d when in the future w e have to communicate with y o u by cable we will make good use of the words that you were so good to prepare. I am very pleased to see that you so disinterestedly offer yourself to keep us posted about everything going on there; this, of course, encourages me to continue bothering you: but in the same manner I wish to offer myself to you for anything, in case I can be of any service, and without anything further for the moment, I am, yours truly, MANUEL DIAZ

T h e full meaning of this letter w a s indicated in the second letter, dated M a r c h 5, 1 9 3 7 , and mailed to J u a n Claudio Guell, Conde de Ruisenada, Hotel Fernando Isabel, V a l l a -

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dolid, Spain. T h e second letter said, in part (the italics are mine): Here we live hour to hour pending news from Spain. T h e press, in its majority Jewish, is rather hostile to our cause and while it advances the lies of the Reds (they make enormous propaganda) it makes efforts to belittle the success of our glorious army. T h e help from Russia is well known, as well as the enormous help from Mexico. It is a pity that there is not a speedy armed

ship in the strait of Yucatan. If there were, not one of the ships with armaments would get through. T h e place could not be any more advantageous because for the provisioning of its needs the ship could be helped in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, a friendly country. Fond greeting from your good friends, MANUEL DIAZ MARCEHNO GARCIA

Senator N y e minced few w o r d s in his denunciation of the t w o leaders of the Casa de Espafia. (Garcia, in fact, w a s president of the club.) It is plain to be seen from a study of the Garcia and Diaz correspondence that this firm is party to and aware of activ­ ities which violate and threaten American neutrality. It is evident as well [ N y e declared], that these persons would look with favor upon violation of the Monroe Doctrine and en­ courage the presence of foreign warships in American waters to destroy shipping related to the present Spanish Govern­ ment, which is recognized by our government. N y e reminded the Senate of the fate of the Mar Cantahrico, a Spanish ship which sailed from N e w Y o r k in J a n ­ u a r y 1 9 3 7 with a cargo of food, medicines, and munitions (the last arms sold to the Republic before the E m b a r g o w a s declared). T h e ship w a s torpedoed b y a G e r m a n sub­ marine off the coast of Spain toward the end of the v o y a g e . During the entire time the ship was in American waters

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[ N y e told the Senate], it appears to have been spied upon by agents who were reporting to Garcia and Diaz in N e w York, who, in turn, were reporting to the higher-up agents of the General Franco forces. T h e Senator had more than a complaint to lodge, h o w ­ ever; he also had a suggestion. In the course of his investi­ gation he discovered that, although both Garcia and Diaz had been in the United States for over thirty years, neither of them had become an American citizen. " T h e y and their kind should be no part of us," N y e told his Senate col­ leagues. "It seems to me that Garcia and Diaz are engaged in activities that subject them most absolutely to depor­ tation." T h e Government took no action on this suggestion. But Garcia and Diaz did. O n F e b r u a r y 28, 1 9 3 8 , Manuel Diaz became an American citizen in the Federal Court of the Southern District of N e w Y o r k . O n March 1 0 , 1938, M a r celino G a r c i a was made an American citizen b y the Eastern District Court of N e w Y o r k . T o d a y , the G a r c i a and Diaz firm is the American agent for the notorious Compania Transatlantica Espanola, Hitler's bridge of spies between occupied E u r o p e and the Western Hemisphere. A b o u t six months after the Casa de Espana w a s founded, the Nazis in Burgos sent Jose Gonzalez Marin to organize the Falange "shirt" cells in N e w Y o r k and Puerto R i c o . T h e effeminate poetry reader, an " O l d Shirt" of the Falange in Spain, gave several recitals at the Casa de Espana and then got d o w n to the real business of his American tour. Because of the widespread anti-Fascist sentiments of the American people, General von Faupel felt that it w o u l d be wiser to choose another name for the Falange in the United States. T h e name chosen w a s the Club Isabel y F e r ­ nando. Marin appointed J o s e de Perignat, a Spaniard w h o lived at 500 W e s t 144th St., Manhattan, chief of the N e w Y o r k Falange. Second and third in command w e r e Antonio Gallego and Abelardo Campa. Most of the 700 members

FALANGE of the Casa de Espana signed up with the formal Falange organization, but an hysterical speech Marin delivered at a secret meeting of the Club Isabel y Fernando sent the ma­ jority of them scurrying for the nearest exits. Marin, in his speech, declared that all w h o joined the Falange would have to return to Spain to bear arms on the front lines—and the prosperous Spanish importers and shipping men w h o formed a majority in the Casa de Espana got cold feet. O n l y a hundred-odd fanatics remained in the Club Isabel y Fernando after Marin left for Puerto R i c o . Burgos then ordered Alejandro Villanueva, the ranking Falange official in the Americas, to visit N e w Y o r k to correct this state of affairs. Villanueva reached N e w Y o r k early in 1 9 3 8 . H e promptly purchased a Packard roadster with Falange funds and began touring the brothels of N e w Y o r k . A f t e r a month of high living, Villanueva visited the Casa de Espana, w h e r e he addressed a secret session of the Club Isabel y Fernando for something like ten minutes. H e had seen enough of N e w Y o r k to learn that if he ever ordered his Falangists to don blue shirts and appear in public like the uniformed Falan­ gistas of Latin America, mayhem w o u l d be the mildest of the results. "Camaradas," he said, " I must depart f o r Havana at once. B u t carry on f o r our glorious cause despite what the Jewish-controlled press of A m e r i c a says about us." A n d with these parting words, Villanueva skipped to Havana. T h e r e just was no place in the United States for the t y p e of Falange organization Gonzalez Marin had tried to or­ ganize, and the practical Villanueva was the first to see this. In his report to the Falange in Burgos, however, Villanueva did not underestimate the effective job the Casa de Espana and its subsidiaries w e r e doing f o r the A x i s cause in Spain. Charles Coughlin's Social Justice had become in many r e ­ spects a house organ f o r the Falange, and both the members and the publications of many native American Fascist groups w e r e spreading the Franco propaganda w i d e l y . T h e Casa de Espafia w o r k e d v e r y closely with J u a n F . -

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Cardenas, w h o had held diplomatic posts under both the Spanish monarchy and the Spanish Republic. A t the start of the Spanish W a r , Cardenas set up headquarters in N e w Y o r k ' s R i t z Carlton Hotel as the official representative of Francisco Franco. H e w a s made an honorary member of the Casa de Espana, and, via orders received through the Italian Consulate in N e w Y o r k , he w a s able to guide the organization's destinies effectively. T h e Casa ran special affairs t w o and three times each week. A t one of these, held in 1 9 3 8 at the School of the Franciscan Fathers, 300 W e s t 16th Street, N e w Y o r k , they offered as a speaker Magistrate Sylvester Sabbatino, an oldline T a m m a n y politico. Sabbatino delivered a long speech attacking the A m e r i c a n authorities f o r their "persecution" of the Spanish Fascists. T h e affair is recalled here because it w a s so typical of the Casa activities during those days. A t such affairs, and at "patriotic celebrations" sponsored b y Fascist groups like the Christian Front and featuring Casa speakers like Marcelino Garcia, the Casa de Espana brought its propaganda to large bodies of Americans. Casa leaders like G a r c i a also enjoyed close relations with Americans of the stripe of M e r w i n K . Hart, intimate of native American Fascist leaders and himself a spokesman for all the hate-England, hate-Roosevelt, and other reaction­ a r y causes. H a r t made a trip to F r a n c o Spain in 1 9 3 8 and wrote a book about his experiences w h i c h left no doubt about where he stood in the w a r between the Spanish R e ­ public and the armies of G e r m a n y and Italy. Hart's useful­ ness to the Falange in A m e r i c a w a s limited, however, to that lunatic fringe of the American Fascist movements. F e w Americans outside of this lunatic fringe ever took Hart's w o r d s v e r y seriously. In direct contrast to M e r w i n K . H a r t was the middleaged and somewhat dipsomaniac Marquesa de Cienfuegos. T h e Falange organizations in A m e r i c a imported the M a r ­ quesa in 1 9 3 8 — a n d turned her loose on reporters, radio audiences, and paying guests at various Fascist rallies. T h e y

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sent her forth to modest duplex apartments on Park A v e n u e and to the most exclusive homes in the exclusive suburbs of many great American cities. T h e Marquesa de Cienfucgos was everything that the local Falange could w a n t in their dreams. She bore a noble name; fine for the Park A v e n u e trade. She w a s a native of Atlanta, Georgia, having been born plain Jane Anderson. T h i s gave her story a neat American appeal. She had been jailed b y the Spanish Republic in Madrid, and held there on charges of being a Franco agent. She w o n her freedom through the intervention of the American Embassy—and then w e n t on tour to prove that the Spanish Government had not jailed her in error. T h e Marquesa had rare oratorical talents. She clenched her fists, and closed her eyes, and sobbed with nearly e v e r y sentence. T h e effect, to detached observers w h o k n e w some­ thing of her past, w a s that of a small-time actress giving an imitation of Hitler and Eleanora Duse rolled into one. B u t to those w h o took her at her face value, the Marquesa de Cienfuegos w a s a sensation. Monsignor Fulton Sheehan of the Catholic University declared that the Marquesa was "one of the living martyrs" of history. T h e Catholic Digest described the Marquessa as "the world's greatest w o m a n orator in the fight against communism." T h e Marquesa regaled her listeners with blood curdling accounts of the doings of the Spanish Republicans—like her Falangist colleagues, she called them the Reck—and then w e n t on to speak of the glories of F r a n c o Spain. M i l ­ lions of Americans read her w o r d s in their newspapers— the Marquesa got a good press—and the fact that she w a s just a simple G e o r g i a girl added credibility to her claims. Thousands w e r e s w a y e d b y her act on the public platforms, and hundreds of influential Americans w h o sat through in­ formal dinner parties with her w e r e completely sold on the F r a n c o cause b y the American-born noblewoman w h o had suffered so cruelly at the hands of the " R e d s . " A f t e r the Spanish W a r , the Marquesa de Cienfuegos dis­ appeared from the American scene. But her words w e r e

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not to be lost to American ears. Shortly after the second phase of W o r l d W a r II started in W a r s a w , the Marquesa turned up in the real capital of Spain—Berlin. H e r e , as plain Jane Anderson, the G e o r g i a cracker gal, the tear-jerking Marquesa continued her career along logical lines. Seated before a microphone in the N a z i short-wave sending station, J a n e A n d e r s o n started to make regular broadcasts to her native land in G e o r g i a English. These broadcasts continued after Pearl Harbor, but n o w they w e r e made more often. Durin g the first w e e k of J a n ­ u a r y 1 9 4 2 , J a n e Anderson made four separate broadcasts to her native land. T h e broadcasts had a familiar ring to them. T o her many friends in America, plain Jane A n d e r ­ son shrieked that the entry of the United States into the w a r w a s part of a Jewish plot to save the necks of Joseph Stalin and the International Bankers. H e r other broadcasts were all in this vein. Jane Anderson's success as a N a z i short-wave radio speaker w o n her a n e w noble title—one she acquired with­ out marrying another nobleman. T h e newspapers unani­ mously chose to call J a n e Anderson L a d y H a w - H a w . T h e Government of the United States, in J a n u a r y 1 9 4 3 , chose to indict Plain J a n e de Cienfuegos H a w - H a w Anderson along with other "radio traitors" like E z r a Pound, R o b e r t Best, and F r e d Kaltenbach. If this "living m a r t y r " ever does return to her o w n , her native land, it will be as a federal prisoner. But in 1 9 3 8 , when J a n e Anderson toured the United States for the Falange, she was able to play a highly im­ portant part in the A x i s campaign to keep the State D e ­ partment from lifting the embargo on arms to the Spanish Republic—a step that many Americans in all walks of life w e r e demanding of their government. Perhaps, next to the versatile G a r c i a and Diaz, the future L a d y H a w - H a w was the one person w h o accomplished the most for the Falange Exterior in the United States during the organization's first period. F o r in the United States, as in Latin America, G e n ­ eral von Faupel had planned for the Falange to go through

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three distinct periods: the organization and propaganda pe­ riod ending w i t h the triumph at Madrid, the period of tightening and preparation between the victory at Madrid and the bombing of W a r s a w , and finally the period of maximum effort. T h e second period of the Falange in the United States got off with a grand flourish. T h e battered body of the Spanish Republic w a s still war m w h e n the United States recognized the F r a n c o gang as the legal government of Spain. E v e n as the victorious Fascists started organizing firing-squad parties in Spain, the gates of the United States w e r e swung wide open b y a considerate State Department for a veritable army of Falange agents bearing diplomatic passports. J u a n F . Cardenas was accepted as Spanish Ambassador to the United States. T h e Falangistas in Madrid assigned Miguel E c h e g a r a y to the Embassy in Washington to super­ vise the real w o r k of the Spanish diplomatic corps in the United States. E c h e g a r a y was given the nominal title of Agricultural Attache. T h e n to check on both E c h e g a r a y and Cardenas, General von Faupel sent Colonel Sierra to Washington as Military Attache. Sierra's real job was Chief of Spanish Military Intelligence for the United States. T i m i d Daniel Danis, the n e w Minister Plenipotentiary in Washington, w a s detailed to handle one of the most con­ fidential jobs in the Legation. Danis w a s the contact man between Cardenas and Augustin Ibafiez Serrano, the Falange Exterior Chief in M e x i c o . Fie w o r k e d out a system early in his career of maintaining this liaison through the Portu­ guese Legation in Washington. It w a s D a n i s w h o arranged for Ibafiez Serrano to get an office in the Portuguese E m ­ bassy in Mexico C i t y . Because of his extreme caution, Danis decided to use third persons for most necessary trips be­ tween Ibafiez Serrano and Washington. Most of these couriers w e r e girls, one of them being the daughter of a Mexican general. T h e Spanish Consulate in N e w Y o r k became an impor-

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tant Falange outpost in the Americas. Miguel Espinos, the current Consul General, is a completely pro-Axis Fascist w h o has previously w o r k e d for the Falange in Manila and in Havana. One of the friends he sees v e r y often today is Andres Soriano, the powerful associate of the Philippine Falange w h o serves as Secretary of T r e a s u r y in the Philip­ pine government-in-exile. A n o t h e r intimate of Espinos's is Jose Maria Casabo, personal representative of Francisco Cambo. Sefior Cambo heads Chade, the international public utilities corporation whose ties with corporations in R o m e , Berlin, Lisbon, and Buenos A i r e s bulked so importantly during the Spanish W a r . U n d e r Espinos, the Consulate in N e w Y o r k started to w o r k overtime for the Axis, J u a n Adriensens, one of the earliest organizers of the Falange in Cuba, w a s brought to N e w Y o r k and installed as Vice-Consul. H e and A n t o n i o Mendez de Quiros, the new Counselor of the Consulate, w e r e put in charge of direct contact with the Falange in the United States. Adriensens tried to continue the organization of the "shirt" Falange where Gonzalez Marin had left off. H e began holding regular clandestine meetings with Falange Chief Jose de Perignat. T h e most efficient Falangista in the N e w Y o r k Consulate is Joaquin Sunye. A protege of the Count de Giiell, S u n y e takes his orders directly from E c h e g a r a y in Washington. S u n y e helped organize much economic support for the F r a n c o regime, assuming the post of secretary of the Span­ ish Chamber of Commerce to aid his efforts along these lines. H i s brothers are powerful officials of the Compania Transatlantica in Spain. O n the Pacific Coast, the Consulate was staffed with men highly acceptable to General von Faupel. T h e Consul G e n ­ eral in San Francisco is Francisco de Amat, a cousin of the Philippine Resident Commissioner in Washington, Octavio Elizalde. His Vice-Consul, Captain Jose Martin, played a major share in the organization of the Falange fronts on the Pacific Coast. T h e confidential liaison w o r k between

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de A m a t and the Embassy in Washington is handled b y Maria Arrillaga, w h o carries messages that can not be en­ trusted to the mails. Before the Republic fell to the A x i s troops, the Falange maintained a formal propaganda service in the United States. T h e Cardenas " J u n t a " published an elaborate m a g ­ azine in English, Spain, and operated a bureau k n o w n as the Peninsular N e w s Service. S u n y e converted the magazine into the official publica­ tion of the Spanish Government, and made Larcegui head of Peninsular N e w s Service. B u t this w a s not in line w i t h von Faupel's more ambitious plans. Larcegui's amorous life made him a bit unreliable for the major job of running all Falangist propaganda In the United States. Before m a n y months had passed, Madrid sent G a y t a n de A y a l a , a rotund and heavy-drinking " O l d Shirt," to S u n y e . T h e n e w l y arrived de A y a l a was given diplomatic stand­ ing as an attache of the Embassy, U n d e r S u n y e ' s immediate supervision, de A y a l a opened a separate office in N e w Y o r k called the Spanish L i b r a r y of Information. T h i s n e w bureau t o o k over the duties of the Peninsular N e w s Service, the publication of Spain, and the other propaganda tasks of the Falange Exterior in the United States. T h e Falange had an existing mailing list for its propapanda when A y a l a reached the United States. It had been compiled b y the Casa de Espana and its various offshoots. Agents of General von Faupel immediately arranged for this list to be amplified b y a still larger list—that of the G e r ­ man L i b r a r y of Information in N e w Y o r k . S u b s c r i b e r s paid and free—to the publications G e o r g e Sylvester V i e r e c k w a s putting out for the G e r m a n propaganda office began to receive Spain and other publications of the Spanish p r o p ­ aganda bureau. Further to cement the friendship between Madrid and Berlin, people on the old Falange propaganda lists began to receive publications of the G e r m a n L i b r a r y of Information. Larcegui, w h o w a s retained as assistant to de A y a l a , started a n e w service devoted to Central American affairs.

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113

H e established independent headquarters in the Hotel L i n ­ coln in N e w Y o r k and operated the Inter-American N e w s Service—a convenient blind for his real activities. U n d e r A y a l a ' s supervision, the Falange published or sub­ sidized the following organs: Spain. T h i s was a most expensively printed monthly mag­ azine, crammed with pictures, and devoted mainly to prop­ aganda about the marvels Franco w a s accomplishing in Falangist Spain. It w a s written in English. Cava al Sol (Face to the S u n ) . T h e name is taken from the anthem of the Falange. A Spanish-language w e e k l y , it was listed in the official handbooks of the Falange in M a ­ drid as the official organ of the Falange in the United States. Espana Nueva ( N e w S p a i n ) . A Spanish language monthly, edited b y A . F . Arguelles. Mailing address P . O . B o x 8 4 , Station W . , N e w Y o r k C i t y . V i o l e n t l y pro-Axis, anti-Semitic, anti-British. Although on the surface a private venture, it w a s supported b y advertisements from the Span­ ish Consulate, Spanish banks, and other enterprises of the Spanish Government. Epoca. Another Spanish magazine, published at 1 7 7 5 B r o a d w a y , N e w Y o r k City, b y Rafael O . Galvan. Epoca received similar subsidies through de A y a l a . In addition to these periodicals, the Spanish L i b r a r y of Information published hundreds of pamphlets and brochures which received w i d e distribution both through the mailing lists at D e A y a l a ' s disposal and through the schools and colleges of the land. U n d e r the Cardenas unofficial Junta, Spain had employed a bombastic adventurer named J o h n E o g h a n K e l l y as a writer on military and historical subjects. K e l l y , w h o held a captain's commission in the United States A r m y Reserves, cut quite a swath in the lunatic fringe of the native A m e r i ­ can fascist movements. Son of a G e r m a n mother and an Irish nationalist father, K e l l y w a s trained as an engineer. During the last W o r l d W a r , he w a s in Mexico, he claims, as a "civilian attached

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FALANGE

to Military Intelligence," but his former wife has a less charitable version of w h y K e l l y spent the w a r in Alexico as a civilian. E a r l y in the Spanish W a r , K e l l y popped up in N e w Y o r k as one of the glamour boys of the Franco camp. W i t h M e r w i n K . Hart and A l l e n Zoll, he served on the board of the American U n i o n for Nationalist Spain. K e l l y , in fact, w a s the secretary of this Franco group. Before this, he had maintained an engineering office at 1 7 Battery Place, N e w Y o r k . Flere he had met a G e r m a n named Buelow, w h o introduced him to the Steuben S o ­ ciety. K e l l y started to move in circles which included na­ tive American Fascists like G e o r g e Deatherage, V a n H o r n Mosely, and James Campbell. H e became a Lieutenant in the United States A r m y Reserves, and subsequently w o n t w o promotions in rank. W h e n the charter papers of the Christian Front w e r e filed with the N e w Y o r k State S u ­ preme Court, the name of J o h n E o g h a n K e l l y was regis­ tered as one of the organizers. Durin g the three years of the Spanish W a r , K e l l y made a number of trips to Spain and G e r m a n y . O n M a y 22, 1 9 3 9 , K e l l y was introduced at a B r o o k l y n Christian Front meet­ ing as a "representative of the Spanish Government." W h e n M e r w i n K . H a r t wanted to go to the Franco zone during the Spanish W a r , he found himself halted b y the fact that his passport had been stamped "not valid in Spain." H a r t managed to get to Spain and even wrote a book about his trip. N o t included in the book was a certain letter written on his behalf to the Passport Division of the State Department. T h e letter explained that Hart wanted to g o to Franco territory and concluded: I would greatly appreciate any help that you can give M r . Hart and have asked him to convey my personal regards. T h i s letter was signed b y J o h n E o g h a n K e l l y . In 1 9 3 8 K e l l y started to write for the Peninsular N e w s Service, the propaganda agency of the Franco Junta in N e w

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225

Y o r k . H e spoke at scores o f Fascist rallies, and became a leader in the Falangist campaign to keep the United States from lifting the arms embargo applied against the Spanish Republic. H e wrote for Spain, and, after the triumph of the Nazis in Spain, received a fee from the Spanish L i b r a r y of Information of twenty-five dollars f o r every F r a n c o meeting he attended. Although the Spanish L i b r a r y and its chief, G a y t a n de A y a l a , w e r e registered with the State D e ­ partment as paid agents of foreign powers, K e l l y never registered. K e l l y ' s activities led to his being dropped from the A r m y Reserves in 1 9 4 1 , after he had attained the rank of major. On March 1, 1943, J o h n E o g h a n K e l l y w a s arrested b y the F . B . I . in California following a federal grand j u r y indict­ ment in Washington. T h e j u r y charged that K e l l y had failed to register as an agent of the Fascist Spanish G o v ­ ernment. In announcing K e l l y ' s arrest, Special A g e n t N a t J . L . Perrin said that K e l l y had made "defeatist" statements in California—where he had operated a mine—and had tried to talk t w o y o u n g Americans out of joining the A r m y . T h e Fascist character of Spain and other Falangist pub­ lications in the United States w a s never disguised. Openly, firmly, at times arrogantly, the Falangist organs in the United States attacked democracy, A m e r i c a n institutions, and our defense outposts. O n the subject of fascism, Spain has printed some v e r y explicit statements. Fascism is at least theistic and it respects and promotes the values of religious institutions. . . . T h e Fascist dictatorship, which respects individual liberty and dignity, private property and savings, the family and the nation, morals and religion, inserts itself in an ordered civilization. In still another issue, Spain carried these words: Authentic fascism establishes order, invokes unity of destiny and gathers together all the vital forces of a people.

FALANGE O n l y a f e w months before Pearl Harbor, Spain, like all Falangist publications in Spain and Latin America, sneered at American influences in the Philippines. T h e issue of S e p ­ tember 1 9 4 1 carried a story on the Philippines which said, among other things: It is a seat of Hispanicism and as such should receive the attention of our greatest intellectuals. Today the entire Uni­ versity [Santo Tomas] has come under the spiritual and sym­ bolic rectorate of the Caudillo of Spain, B y having rescued culture from barbarism, he made a peace with his sword for the continued flowering of the sciences, letters, and the arts. A t the time this w a s written, Caudillo Franco's chief representative in the Philippines w a s Jose del Castano— w h o was then v e r y busily engaged in preparing the w a y for the Japanese allies of the Caudillo. T h e w e e k l y publication of the Spanish L i b r a r y of I n ­ formation, Cora al Sol, w a s openly acknowledged to be the official organ of the Falange in the United States. E a c h issue bore the y o k e and arrows emblem of the Falange, and the official orders of the Falange Exterior were a l w a y s car­ ried in this magazine. A n editorial in Cara al Sol w h i c h typifies all of the edi­ torials the magazine carried w a s the lead editorial of the F e b r u a r y 25, 1 9 3 9 , issue. T h i s began with these words: Our movement is not democratic; it is rather the greatest opposition that can be raised up against democracy. T h e de­ mocracies need, in order to "fulfill" the will of the people, to bother them with continuous calls to drop papers in voting urns. . . . Shortly after this editorial ran, Cara al Sol ran an article b y Rafael Sanchez Mazas, then chief of the Falange E x ­ terior. T h i s article ran not only in Cara al Sol, but in every other official organ of the Falange Exterior from Avance in Puerto R i c o to Arriba in Argentina. ( T h e italics are mine.)

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T h e Falange from its center, from its heart, is born and grows like the spiral of the Empire. At least a third of the

great work, the total work, of the Falange lies with you of the foreign service. T h i s appeared shortly after Cara al Sol editorialized: It is indispensable that the good Spaniards who live outside of Spain, without class distinctions, impose on themselves the obligation of aiding in the aggrandizement of Spain. T h e significance of the "third of the total w o r k " Mazas mentioned and the "aggrandizement of Spain" w a s further amplified b y Cara al Sol in a subsequent issue. Our missionary labor has begun. Spanish America again turns its eyes to us and again on the other side of the Atlantic there are bent knees for the triumph of Franco. T h e race has heard once more the voice of G o d , and Hispanidad, aware of its historic mission, is again on the march behind the proud ban­ ners of national-syndicalism. . . . It is now the work of the Falange to unify the desires of those millions of Spaniards who, far from the Motherland, feel . . . in their souls the pride of our old glory; and to . . . shout to the world that our juris­ prudence, our industry, and our spiritual influence have the right of hegemony over a third of the earth. . . . Hundreds of thousands of Blue Shirts scattered over the continents de­ mand this with their arms raised in salute, their faces to the sun, and in each corner a flag with the Yoke and Arrows . . . speaks of the imperial mission of Spain. This is the essential function of the Foreign Service of Falange, and this is our arduous missionary task. Such editorials never affected the security of the United States proper. B u t Cara al Sol reached many Spaniards in A m e r i c a w h o took it to heart. W h a t such sentiments, once accepted b y their readers, meant to our security when the "imperial mission of Spain" clashed with the armed forces of the United States in Manila after Pearl Harbor is some­ thing else again.

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FALANGE

T h e sentiments expressed in Spain and in Cara alSol w e r e , however, v e r y mild beside the fiery words flung b y Espana Nueva, the privately owned monthly supported b y paid advertising from the Spanish Consulate, the Spanish L i b r a r y of Information, Spanish banks, the National Spanish Relief Association, and similar clients. F r o m Espana Nueva its readers learned that Pan-Ameri­ canism is "of J e w i s h and Protestant origin." Speaking of the war, Espana Nueva declared: If among the results of the present war we can count the appearance of a world free from the Jewish press in place of the perpetuation of the Jewish free press, European blood will not have been shed in vain. T h e J e w i s h problem, in fact, has long been one of Espana Nueva's greatest worries. L i k e the Nazis, the men behind this N e w Y o r k magazine feel it incumbent upon themselves to protect all Americans from the J e w s . Espana Nueva makes its reasons for fearing the press quite clear. In no uncertain terms, it wrote—and these writings were carried through the United States mails and distributed free of charge b y the Spanish L i b r a r y of Information to thousands of American high school students—editorials like the fol­ lowing: T h e Jewish press, whose mission is none other than Marxist and Bolshevik propaganda, personifies the international clique which applauds or hisses at Moscow's command. T h e champions of Stalin, those who conferred Zionist honors on Roosevelt, those who take tea with Mrs. Roosevelt, those who applauded the robbers of the Spanish treasury and the assassins of the Spanish people must logically attack and defame Franco and the ideals he personifies. T h i s particular outburst w a s brought on b y an article in that organ of international Marxism and Bolshevism k n o w n as "the N e w Y o r k Times." Espana Nueva, however, also carried messages of cheer

The Falange in the United States

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