Los Errantes () was a Spanish anarchist militant group, which carried out a series of bank robberies in Latin America during the 1920s. Exiled from Spain by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso moved to Cuba, where they organised trade unions and participated in strike actions. After assassinating one of their employers, they fled the country to Mexico, where they were joined by Gregorio Jover and carried out robberies to finance the activities of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT). They then carried out a bank robbery in Valparaíso before heading on to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. As the Argentine anarchist movement was divided over the issue of robberies and assassinations, the group held off for some months. After a series of botched robberies of train stations by Spanish men in Buenos Aires, the group's identities were provided to the Argentine police. They then carried out a bank robbery in San Martín, before escaping the continent back to Europe.
In Paris, Los Errantes plotted the assassination of Spanish King Alfonso XIII, but they were arrested before they could carry it out. Following a trial, extradition proceedings were initiated against them by the Argentine government, with the backing of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. Defence campaigns in France and Argentina ultimately resulted in the French government passing a new extradition law, which set terms for the fulfilment of extradition requests. Under these terms, with the Argentine government facing social unrest and the French government facing removal, Los Errantes were released.
Background During the early 1920s, the rising influence of organised anarcho-syndicalism in Spain, and an internal conflict within the Spanish government over the conduct of the Rif War, had provoked the preparation of a military coup by General Miguel Primo de Rivera. To resist the coming coup, the anarchist group Los Solidarios planned to rob a branch of the Bank of Spain in Xixón and use the money to purchase weaponry. On 1 September 1923, the group made off with 650,000 pesetas. Some of their members took the money to Bilbao, where they purchased rifles, while others hid out in the mountains. When the latter group's position was attacked by the Civil Guard, some managed to escape, while others were arrested or killed.
Following the 1923 Spanish coup d'état and the establishment of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the group broke some of its members out of prison and dispatched its two most wanted members – Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso – to Paris. In the French capital, they used the remaining funds from the Xixón heist to establish a publishing house. In March 1924, the dictatorship arrested and killed a number of the group's members, including participants in the Xixón heist. Domingo Ascaso managed to escape to France, where he plotted an insurrection to overthrow the dictatorship. After the defeat of the attempted insurrection in November 1924, many Spanish anarchist militants fled into exile in Latin America. Seeking to gain support for further revolutionary actions against the dictatorship, in December 1924, Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso set off to the Americas.
Cuba After a brief stop in New York, Ascaso and Durruti went to Havana. At the time, the Republic of Cuba was ruled by the United States-backed government of Gerardo Machado, which had overseen a deterioration of living conditions for the working class. The two Spaniards stayed at the home of a young Cuban anarchist, but quickly came to disagree on issues of strategy. Cuban anarchists largely focused on education and opposed the revolutionary tactics of the Spanish anarchists; their host warned them that they would be expelled or imprisoned if they attempted any agitation. The two insisted that, while propaganda was important, it needed to be accompanied by direct action and strong organisation. They were not deterred by the pessimism of the Cuban anarchists. Inspired by the Cuban War of Independence, they hoped to see Cuba achieve economic independence from American capitalism.
Ascaso and Durruti found jobs as dockworkers and were quickly exposed to the poor living and working conditions of the trade. Having been disappointed by their union representatives and the suppression of past strike actions, Cuban dockers had become fatalistic about their situation. The two responded that the workers were right to distrust their union leaders, but cautioned against individual rebellion. They instead called for the creation of a rank-and-file trade union, which could drive collective action towards the fulfilment of their demands. Using plain language, they communicated the need for self-organisation without hierarchy, an idea which soon took hold. Before long, the dockworkers had formed a union and federated it together with unions in the tobacco and food industries. But their union organising also drew the attention of the police, forcing Ascaso and Durruti to leave Havana.
The two were guided to Santa Clara Province, where they found new jobs harvesting sugarcane on an estate near Palmira and Cruces. Not long after their arrived, the estate owner reduced the workers' wages, provoking a sitdown strike. But the strike was swiftly broken up, its leaders arrested and severely beaten by foremen, and the workers were forced to return to work. Durruti and Ascaso decided to take revenge against the estate owner. He was discovered dead the following morning. His body was full of stab wounds and had a note pinned to it, attributing the murder to Los Errantes (). By the time the police began their search, Ascaso and Durruti were already in Camagüey Province. Newspapers reported that Los Errantes were a Spanish gang and alleged that they had already executed half a dozen employers for mistreating their workers. The police carried out mass raids, beat peasants and burned down houses, in an attempt to intimidate anyone that may have sympathised with Los Errantes. As the search continued, the murder of a foreman in Holguín Province was attributed to Los Errantes, which made the police unsure about the location of the culprits and intimidated employers into fortifying their estates.
Ascaso and Durruti realised they would not be able to stay in Cuba. They went to Havana, where they rented a cutter, which they used to hijack a fishing vessel. They forced the skipper to take the boat into the sea, where they demanded the boat be sailed to Mexico.
Mexico
Los Errantes disembarked at Yucatán, where they paid the Cuban sailors for their trouble. They were immediately noticed by officers of the Mexican Treasury, who suspected them of being smugglers. They were arrested and taken towards Progreso, but on the way Durruti bribed the agents for their release and directions to Veracruz. They were greeted there by a Mexican anarchist, who brought them to Mexico City. There they met Rafael Quintero, the leader of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT). Quintero secured them a place to stay at the CGT's publishing house, and after he informed them of their financial difficulties in sustaining their publication, the two immediately donated 40 pesos. They were saddened to hear about the struggles of the Mexican anarcho-syndicalist movement, which was only being kept alive by the legacy of the Revolution; most Mexican anarcho-syndicalists had either died or joined the government.
In March 1925, Los Errantes were joined in Mexico by Alejandro Ascaso and Gregorio Jover. At Quintero's suggestion, they found residence at a farm in Tecomán, where they linked up with the local anarchist group. In April 1925, the group robbed a fabric factory and donated the money to the CGT, which used it to sustain its publication and to establish rationalist schools. Mexican police soon began searching for Los Errantes, so they decided to leave the country. Having been living in a luxury hotel, registered under the assumed identity of a wealthy Peruvian mine owner named "Mendoza", they packed their bags and left without paying the bill.
Chile By May 1925, Los Errantes had sold most of their belongings to finance their trip to Cuba. But as the country was still not safe for them, they only stayed there briefly. After robbing a bank in Havana, they immediately set sail on a steamship to Valparaíso, in Chile. They arrived in the city on 9 June 1925, and spent the subsequent month working as handymen. At the boarding house where they stayed, they were often heard speaking openly about their plans to finance the revolutionary movement against the Spanish monarchy.
On 16 July 1925, Los Errantes robbed a branch of the Bank of Chile, taking 46,923 Chilean pesos and escaping in a car. According to a police report, they shot a bank employee that attempted to stop their car from leaving. While Durruti, the Ascaso brothers and Jover remained in Chile, their accomplice Antonio Rodríguez took the money back to Spain to finance the underground movement against the dictatorship. The rest of Los Errantes continued working in the city until August 1925, when they departed for Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Argentina By the time Los Errantes arrived in Argentina, police from three different countries were already trying to catch them. They visited the offices of the anarchist newspaper and were greeted by its editor Donato Antonio Rizo, who informed them of how the Argentine anarchist movement had split over how to respond to state terrorism. In order to avoid aggravating the schism within the Argentine anarchist movement, Los Errantes decided to refrain from carrying out any violent attacks or robberies and instead sought dialogue with both factions. Los Errantes already knew Spanish anarchists that were living in the city, including Diego Abad de Santillán and , who both wrote for , which took a middle position between illegalism and reformism. Rizo had also told them about the militant anarchists Severino di Giovanni and Miguel Arcángel Roscigna, who were both supported by La Antorcha. Using their contacts, they were able to find jobs: Durruti worked in the docks, Francisco Ascaso worked as a cook and Jover assembled cabinets; Alejandro Ascaso himself left the city. For the following months, they lived mostly unassuming lives.
On the night of 18 October 1925, there was an armed robbery against an Anglo Tramway station in the neighbourhood of Palermo. The money had been put in the safe and the keys to it were with the boss, who had already left by the time the robbers arrived. They ended up leaving with only a small bag of coins, amounting to 38 pesos, and got away in their car. The Capital Police were confused by reports of the gunmen having Spanish accents, as they were unaware of anyone that met the description. Knowing the robbers had gotten away with so little, they awaited their next heist. Just after midnight, on 17 November 1925, robbers with Spanish accents held up a ticket-seller at the Primera Junta station in Caballito. After they grabbed a wooden box and headed towards the exit, the seller shouted for help and one of the robbers responded by shooting his gun into the air. A police officer heard the commotion and intercepted the robbers with his gun drawn, but the lookouts saw the officer first and shot him twice, killing him. When they tried to get away, their car failed to start, forcing them to get out and run. They ultimately discovered that the wooden box had no money in it.