First of October Antifascist Resistance Group

The First of October Antifascist Resistance Group (GRAPO) is a Spanish leftist terrorist organization founded in the mid-1970s. From the beginning of its existence it has been overshadowed by the larger and more active nationalist Basque Fatherland and Liberty (Euskadi ta Askatasuna; ETA), and little is known about the group.

The group seems to have originated as the armed wing of the Reconstituted Communist Party, a hardline faction that broke from the Spanish Communist Party in 1968. GRAPO takes its name from date of the revenge killing of four police officers on October 1, 1975; the four were murdered in retaliation for the execution by Francisco Franco's regime of three radical leftists in September 1975. GRAPO advocates a Leninist revolutionary strategy, in which a vanguard of Communist rebels acts as a catalyst for revolution by the working class; in practice, its attacks, inasmuch as they seem to be directed toward a political goal, seem to center around getting amnesty for and better treatment of political prisoners. (The group did, however, organize a bombing campaign in support of labor interests during 2000.) While GRAPO has engaged in several bombing campaigns, kidnappings, and robberies during its history, the group's main tactic has been assassinations, mostly of security forces and other government officials.

GRAPO was most active between 1976 and 1982, a time of great upheaval in Spain. The fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco had come to an end with his death in October 1975, and the country was making the difficult transition to democracy and restoration of a constitutional monarchy. Many pro-Franco officials retained high positions in the government and especially the military, while political activity by radical leftists increased greatly after long suppression. During these years, GRAPO was at its most vehement about demands for amnesty for political prisoners, a very controversial issue in Spanish politics.

Despite GRAPO's attacks on rightist figures such as military generals, speculation was widespread that the group was a cat's-paw of the extreme Spanish right. Accusers point to the timing of GRAPO's attacks—many of the most spectacular occurred [Page 140]during times of political upheaval for the democratic government—and seemingly endless funds, as well as the scheduling of its attacks, which would seem to have required an intimate knowledge of the daily agendas and security precautions of the group's high-profile victims. No evidence has come to light in support of these suspicions, but in the late 1970s many GRAPO members were quietly released several months after being arrested without being tried.

The number of attacks attributed to GRAPO declined during the mid-1980s, after members began to serve lengthy prison sentences. The group appears to resemble the phoenix in its ability to resurrect itself. The Spanish police have announced that they believe the group to be all but destroyed more than half a dozen times, yet it has always returned to commit more attacks. The group's strength and funds have certainly been seriously diminished since its heyday. From a high of about 200 members, GRAPO is now believed to have about a dozen members who are not imprisoned.

In the late 1990s, the government began secret talks with the group to convince it to lay down its arms; talks broke down in 1998 over GRAPO demands that the government to reduce the prison sentences of some of its members. Spain's government refused unless the group revealed the whereabouts of Publio Cordon, a kidnapping victim that GRAPO claims to have set free in 1995 but who has not been seen since his abduction. In November 2000, French police arrested seven GRAPO leaders living in hiding in that country; officials hoped the group might finally be destroyed, but a week later GRAPO claimed responsibility for the killing of a police officer in Madrid. GRAPO remains an enigma, and its future is a mystery.

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