Montejurra

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Montejurra in Spanish and Jurramendi in Basque are the names of a mountain in Navarre (Spain) region. Each year, it hosts a Carlista celebration, in remembrance of a 1873 battle during the Third Carlist War. In 2004, about a 1 000 persons were present.

1 1976 Gladio related terrorist incident
2 See also
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] 1976 Gladio related terrorist incident

On May 9, 1976, a year after Francisco Franco's death, the Carlist party was victim of a terrorist incident organized by Franco's supporters, who still controlled the state apparatus. Ricardo Garcia Pellejero and Aniano Jimenez Santo, two supporters of Carlist pretendant Carlos-Hugo, were gunned down by far-right terrorists, among whom Gladio operative Stefano Delle Chiaie. This terrorist incident was organized with the help of Carlos-Hugo's brother, Sixto de Borbon-Parma, a fascist opposed to the Carlist break with Franco (1965-67) and to the leftist Titoist turn taken by Carlos-Hugo's movement. Against this, Sixto had headed a far-right split.

According to General Sáenz de Santamaría, Sixto had obtained the secret services' help in order to overthrow his brother's faction during the Montejurra celebrations:

"The operation received the code-name "operation Reconquista". Contacts were established with organisms such as the SECED (CESID's predecessor), the Guardia Civil and Sixto's Carlist allies, José Arturo Márquez de Prado, Antonio María de Oriol, Urquijo, and general Campano, who was at that time Guardia Civil's head. Founded by Carrero Blanco, CESED was directed at this moment by general Juan Valverde. The meetings were coordinated by Minister Manuel Fraga himself." ^[1]

CESED brought far-right members to the Montejurra celebrations, while other extremist organizations such as the Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey (Christ King Guerrilleros), Fuerza Nueva and others contacted members of the Italian International Fascists and of the Argentinee Anticommunist Alliance (AAA). This explains why Stefano Delle Chiaie, Augusto Canchi or Argentinian Rodolfo Almirón were present for the shootings. Mercenary Jean Pierre Cherid also appeared for the first time at Montejurra.

Those crimes were executed before Interior Minister Manuel Fraga's security forces, without the gunmen being arrested neither their weapons seized. They have been related with Gladio "stay-behind" networks, as well as what would later become the GAL ("Antiterrorists Liberation Groups", a death-squad which fought ETA in the 1980s).

At the demand of the Carlist Party, José Luis Marín García Verde and Hermenegildo García Llorente were later accused of murder, before being amnestied, without any judgment.

On November 11, 2003, after various denegations, one of the Carlist Party's recourses led to the recognition by the Audiencia Nacional, Spanish highest court, of the two dead Carlists as victims of terrorism, allowing their families' indemnization ^[2].