Repression was one of the main bases for the survival of the Franco regime, both in the war of 36 and in the post-war period, as well as in the following decades. In the years after the war, the group that suffered the most from this repression was the Maki guerrillas, because they were the ones, especially in the 1940s, who fought the regime in the most active way.

As Franco’s troops advanced, the Maki movement was born of several left-wing militants who hid in the mountains, which would later have the support of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) until 1948. Even without the support of the PCE, some Maki remained active during the following years, even those considered the last Maki to be killed in the 1960s. The invasion of the Aran Valley (Aragon, Spain) was the most prestigious act of the Maki, carried out in 1944 and with the participation of thousands of guerrillas, with the aim of recovering Spain. But he failed.

They developed their guerrilla activity mainly in the mountains between Galicia and Cantabria, in the eastern part of the peninsula, between Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha, and in the southern part of Andalusia, but occasionally, especially for escape, they passed through the Basque Country. Specifically, in 1947, in the Rías, and in 1948, in the area of Zubieta, the Civil Guard killed some Maki.

From Leon to the Rivers

On October 17, 1947, Felipe Villegas Nieto, Gerardo Santos Álvarez Katiuska and Matías García Bañuelos Matias were killed in a house in the Comporta neighborhood, in the current Ibaeta neighborhood. According to the official version of the time, when they were surrounded by civil guards, the three committed suicide, while the communist media Euzkadi Roja published on October 30 that the Civil Guard had “killed” them. According to information from the database of the City Council of San Sebastián, all three were Palencians (Spain) and had worked in the maki group of the local town of Barruelo: Villegas was from Barruelo de Santullande and was 32 years old; Katiuska was from Guardo and was 30 years old and Matías was from Braños and was 42 years old.

The Ione Zuloaga Muxika of the Aranzadi Science Society received in 2023 in Zestoa 1936-1959 that the macis fleeing Reinosa (Cantabria, Spain) and the Zestoa’s Francisca Uranga Odriozola and the Azpeitia’s Jose Eizagirre Amenabar took refuge in the Port house, at the request of another friend of Eizagirre Ategungo, who reports for another report. It was Ascension Abad who was in charge of taking the makis there, but when he left them in San Sebastián at midnight and was returning home, he was arrested by the Civil Guard in Mataporquera (Cantabria) and taken to the police station to testify.

Zuloaga says that he probably declared himself under torture and was later taken to San Sebastián to point to the house where the maquis were hiding: “At about six o’clock in the morning, the Porta house in San Sebastián was the scene of a huge uproar. The people woke up. In that house there were not only the guerrillas, but also Francisca Uranga, José Eizagirre and their children of 7, 9 and 11 years.” Zuloaga, who received testimony from his daughter Milagros Eizagirre at work, says, referring to the official version: “Milagros Eizagirre remembered how one of those guerrillas committed suicide in front of his mother. After that, Francisca Uranga fell stunned to the ground.” This testimony confirms, in part, the official version of the time, but considering the way the Civil Guard behaves, it is not possible to conclude that all three committed suicide; in fact, in the files of the website of Aranzadi on the victims of San Sebastian, the Civil Guard appears as the author of the three murders. Both Uranga and Eizagirre were arrested after the events and were held in Ondarreta prison until 1952.

Around the bridge in 1948

The three rivers were not the only macis that passed through San Sebastián. Just the following year, on November 16, 1948, the Civil Guard killed another fleeing from Asturias to the Basque Country in the Zubieta area: Alfredo Bárcena García, known as El Peque or El Chaval and who had been in the Cristino Brigade. He was executed without trial.

Aranzadi received testimonies in this regard in Urnieta 1936-1945 and Lasarte-Oria 1936-1948; in the latter, for example, Angelita Hozueta Perurena recounted what happened: “I was about 15 years old and I was working at Brunet that day. From the neighborhood a person appeared running and disappeared heading towards the hippodrome. The Civil Guard was after him. Then, as we left work, we heard gunshots. Apparently, he was killed on the road to Bugati [...]. There was a cabin where he hid until he was captured.” Angelita said that the civil guards placed the body in the town hall of Lasarte for the public to see.

Forgotten in the past

The first three were buried in the cemetery of Polloé and the last in Lasartoa, but they are missing. After the remodeling of the cemeteries, they will probably be in general, nameless skeletons, like the anarchists Antonio López and Diego Franco who were shot in the Caminos in 1947 and many others, nameless, forgotten. Meanwhile, others have a mausoleum that is filled with flowers every year in the same Polloen, although its meaning has changed.