Definition of Operation Gladio

The Europe that had emerged from the Second World War and was dealing with the Cold War was a Europe in fear, because it had suffered and knew that it could suffer again if the temperature it rose until it reached the boiling point.

Western governments, aware that at the beginning of the conflict, the Warsaw Pact had many possibilities to conquer Germany and much of Central Europe thanks to its extensive fleet of tanks, they thought of a way to organize guerrillas of resistance in the occupied territories, based on the great work that had been carried out by the resistance groups in the countries occupied by Germany during the Second War World.

The operation stay-behind (to stay behind), which would later be popularly known by the name of the Italian branch, Gladiolus (a type of sword used by the Romans), sought to create a network of resistance and guerrilla groups that would operate behind the lines of the Warsaw Pact in the occupied territories.

Their tasks would be the classic ones of any resistance organization in

territory busy: sabotage, assassinations, guerrilla actions, or gathering information from intelligence among other.

As long as there was no war or Soviet military occupation, its cells had to be dormant.

The organization was run by NATO (or NATO, depending on the acronym in English or Spanish), with secret agencies such as the British MI6 or the American CIA also involved.

Operation Gladio used far-right militants, leading to ultra violence and even political assassinations in countries like Italy, Spain or France.

The recruitment of members of the extreme right should not be strange to us: ultimately, it is likely that many did not even know what they were taking part in, besides that they were the staunch enemies of the communism, and the Western intelligence services were not so "fussy" since they had supported coups against democratic governments in certain countries to exchange them for regimes fascists.

In addition, the extreme right was organized, and its radical militants used to firearms, so It would save on training work, although in the end this choice would give many headaches, as we will see.

To prepare the action of these resistance commands, in the countries in which they would operate (and which included both NATO and neutral countries, as is the case in Austria and at that time in Spain -which would later become a member of the Atlantic Alliance-) arms depots were established clandestine.

The Gladio network would have begun to spread after the end of World War II, and would have been organized effectively from the 1950s.

Ordered by its commanders or started on its own by its members, the Gladio network dedicated itself to intimidating and discrediting the parties of the left in various countries.

The most affected was Italy; in 1964, the socialist ministers who were part of the government, left their posts after receiving personal death threats. It is said that the letters would have been made by members of Gladio, but it is unknown whether or not they were following instructions.

They were allegedly uncontrolled belonging to the same network that in 1968 set off a bomb in a Bank from Milan, murdering 16 people.

But Gladio's strongest blow in Italy might have been the murder, in 1978, of the first Christian Democrat minister Aldo Moro, when he was about to facilitate the Communist Party's access to the government. Unsatisfied with this decision, the administration American (who had supported the coup fascist of Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973) would have ordered the execution of Moro.

This theory would imply the infiltration of elements of Gladio in the Brigate Rosse (the terrorist group of the extreme left who kidnapped and murdered Moro), or the pressure directed to provoke the murder. It is surprising that during his captivity Moro was not tortured, on the contrary, he was treated well, with the subsequent murder of him, and it is significant that before propose the entry of the PCI into the government, exposed his plans in Washington, where he was told that under no circumstances should he let the communists enter his government.

Would the radical communists of the Red Brigades be against the entry of their more moderate colleagues in the government? And up to this point?

In Spain, another of the most affected countries, members of Gladio were responsible for the Atocha Massacre.

It was in 1977, in the middle of the Transition process, and it consisted of the murder of five labor lawyers from a Madrid office. An Italian member of the Gladio network took part in this terrorist attack.

France or Germany were countries in which Gladio also acted, although there are many doubts about which terrorist acts can be attributed to this network and which not, due to its secrecy.

As for the neutral countries, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Finland, they have also had Gladio infrastructure.

Finland, Sweden and Austria are “understandable cases, since they are on the route of penetration of the Soviet forces and the eastern bloc towards the west of Europe. In the case of Switzerland, traditionally neutral, it is only understood as taking advantage of the opportunity to cover all the possibilities.

Operation Gladio has been a secret known only to voices in the highest spheres until the 90s of the last century.

Several journalists have written on the subject since then, whether they are reports or books, but the responsible for the creation of this network have not assumed its existence, nor is it foreseeable that they will do so in the next years.

To find out everything that happened with Gladio, we will probably have to wait a few decades yet, until documents begin to be declassified.

The first public news of Gladio was given by far-right Italian terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra at his trial in 1984, although it was the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti who first spoke openly about Gladio in parliamentary.

From here on, the existence of the network has become the public domain, identifying it by the majority of public opinion, with the political assassinations and bombings, rather than with a clandestine army that would act as resistance in the event of a Soviet invasion from the west European.

Photo Fotolia: Konstiantyn Zapylaie

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