Francisco Sabaté Llopart

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Francisco Sabaté Llopart (March 30, 1915 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain – January 5, 1960 Sant Celoni, Catalonia, Spain), also known as "El Quico", was a Spanish libertarian anarchist involved in the resistance against the fascist regime of Franco.

[edit] Biography

By the age of 17, Sabaté had already joined the anarchist action group "Los Novatos" ("The Apprentices"), a part of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI, also known as CNT-FAI because of its close links to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo trade union). This group was involved in insurrections against the Conservative government of the Second Spanish Republic in late 1933 and fought against the army's coup attempt at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936. In 1935 Sabaté refused military service, the beginning of his life outside the law. Also in this year, Los Novatos carried out its first robbery (characterised by the group as "exproprations") to fund a prison relief group.

During the Civil War, Sabaté fought on the Aragon front with the CNT-FAI's "Young Eagles Column". When the war ended he was in the 216th Division ("Durruti Column") that crossed the French border. In France during World War II, he spent time in concentration camps and fought with the Maquis resistance against the Vichy regime.

After the end of the War, Sabaté returned to Spain to carry on resistance activities against Franco's regime. In large part these took the form of further robberies from wealthy businessmen to fund anarchist activities. He successfully evaded capture over the next 15 years, and has often been described as having been the regime's "Public Enemy Number One" during this time. In 1960, at the age of 45, he was finally killed in Saint Celoni by the Somaten (a Catalan fascist organisation) and the Civil Guard, along with four companions.