[News] Lucio, The Good Bandit: Reflections of an Anarchist

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Lucio, The Good Bandit: Reflections of an Anarchist

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1393/32/

Written by Marie Trigona
Wednesday, 23 July 2008

Source: <http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1332/1/>Toward Freedom

Lucio Urtubia could be described as a modern day 
Robin Hood, a man who stole from the rich to give 
to the poor. Lucio, a 76-year old Spanish 
anarchist and retired bricklayer carried out bank 
robberies, forgeries and endless actions against 
capitalism. His actions helped to fund liberation 
movements in Europe, the US and Latin America.

Outspoken and charismatic, Lucio speaks like a 
true anarchist. When asked what it means to be an 
anarchist, Lucio refutes the misperception of the 
terrorist, "The anarchist is a person who is good 
at heart, responsible." Yet he makes no apologies 
for the need to destroy the current social order, 
"it’s good to destroy certain things, because you 
build things to replace them."

Lucio has old friends in the Southern Cone. Funds 
from the forgery operatives helped hundreds from 
revolutionary organizations exile and finance 
clandestine actions against the bloody 
dictatorships which disappeared ten thousands of 
activists, students and workers during the 1970's 
throughout Latin America. In Uruguay, funds from 
falsified Citibank travelers’ checks funded the 
guerilla group Tupamaros, in the US the Black 
Panthers and other revolutionary groups throughout Europe.

During his recent visit to South America, Lucio 
stayed at the worker run BAUEN Hotel in 
Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires. He was 
astounded by the accomplishments of the workers 
without bosses. At the BAUEN hotel, workers are 
putting into practice workers autogestíon or 
self-management. Self-management has been a 
mainstay of anarchist thought since the birth of 
capitalism. Rather than authority – obey 
relationship between capitalists and workers, 
self-management implies that workers put into 
practice an egalitarian system in which people 
collectively decide, produce and control their 
own destinies for the benefit of the community. 
But for such a system to work, participants have 
to be hard working and responsible, one of the 
most important attributes a man or woman should 
have according to Lucio. "The anarchist movement 
was built by workers. Without work we can’t talk 
about self-management, to put self-management 
into practice we need to know how to do things, 
to work. It’s easy to be bohemian."

Lucio explains that his anarchism is based in his 
poor childhood in fascist Spain. "My anarchist 
origins are rooted in my experience growing up in 
a poor family. My father was leftist, had gone to 
jail because he wanted the automony of the Basque 
country. For me that’s not revolution, I’m not 
nationalist. With nationalism humanity has 
committed a lot of mistakes. When my father got 
out of jail he became a socialist. We suffered a 
lot. I went to look for bread and the baker 
wouldn’t give it to me, because we didn’t have 
money. For me poverty enriched me, I didn’t have 
to make any effort to lose respect for the 
establishment, the Church, private property and the State."

In Spain, fascism persevered 30 years after the 
end of World War II. Hundreds were placed in jail 
for resisting the Franco dictatorship. 
Anthropologists have estimated that from the 
onset of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 to 
Franco’s death in November 1975, Franco's 
Nationalists killed between 75,000 and 150,000 supporters of the Republic.

Lucio exiled to France where he discovered 
anarchism. He had deserted the nationalist army 
and escaped to France. Paris in the 1960’s was a 
bourgeoning city for anarchist intellectuals, 
organizers and guerillas in exile. It was there 
that Lucio met members from the 
anarcho-syndicalist trade union, Confederación 
Nacional de Trabajo (CNT). He was anxious to participate.

During his early years in France, Lucio met 
Francisco Sabate, the legendary anarchist and 
guerilla extraordinaire. At this time Sabate, 
otherwise known by his nickname "El Quico" was 
the most sought after anarchist by the Franco 
regime. French police were also looking for 
Sabate, who led resistance against Franquismo. 
"When I met Quico, I was participating in the 
Juventud Libertarias. They asked me if I could 
help Sabate, me an ignorant, I didn’t know who he 
was." Sabate used Lucio’s house as a hide out. 
The young Lucio, listened to Sabate’s tales of 
direct action and absorbed whatever wisdom he had 
to offer, like methods for sniffing out 
infiltrators. "I met guerillas that put me on the 
road to direct action and expropriations. Sabate 
taught me to lose respect for private property."

It was then that Lucio began participating in 
bank robberies. "There are no bigger crooks than 
the banks," says Lucio in the defense of 
expropriation. "[This was the] only means the 
anarchist had, without funding from industry or 
government representatives to fund them. The 
money was sent to those suffering from Franco’s 
regime." Student organizations and worker 
organizations received the funds to carry out 
grass roots organizing. In other cases the money 
was used for the guerilla actions against 
Franco’s regime, such as campaigns for the 
release of political prisoners in the nationalist jails.

To save the lives of exiles, Lucio thought of a 
master plan to falsify passports so Spanish 
nationals could travel. "Passports for a refugee 
means being able to escape the country and lead 
safe lives elsewhere," he explains. Not only in 
Europe but in the US and South America, 
dissidents used false ID’s to lead their lives and direct actions.

In 1977, Lucio’s group began forging checks as a 
direct form to finance resistance. Lucio was 
essentially the "boss" of the operation­he made, 
distributed and cashed the checks. The checks 
were harder to falsify than counterfeit bills. 
Lucio thought they should target the largest 
banking institution in the world, National City 
Bank. The distribution of the checks went to 
different subversive groups who used the funds to 
finance solidarity actions. Lucio explains that 
"no one got rich" from the checks. Most of the 
funds went to the cause. All over Europe, these 
checks with the same code number were cashed at the same time.

Lucio’s master plan cost City Bank tens of 
millions of dollars in forged travelers’ checks. 
But many say a much larger sum was expropriated. 
City Bank was at the mercy of the forger, who had 
cost so much that the bank had to suspend 
travelers checks, ruining the holiday for 
thousands of tourists. At the time, people did 
not use check cards or credit cards. Lucio was 
arrested in 1980 and found with a suitcase full 
of the forged checks. In the meantime during 
Lucio’s arrest, Citibank continued to receive false travelers’ checks.

Citbank became worried. Representatives from the 
bank agreed to negotiate. Lucio would be released 
if he handed over the printing plates for the 
forged checks. The exchange was made, and Lucio 
became a legend for his mastermind plan. Although 
his life as a forger ended at 50-years-of-age, 
his life as an anarchist continued.

Lucio had always worked as a bricklayer. "What’s 
helped me the most is my work, Anarchists were 
always workers." Lucio–bricklayer, anarchist, 
forger and expropriator has left a legacy like 
his predecessors. "People like Loise Michel, 
Sabate, Durruti, all the expropriators taught me 
how to expropriate, but not for personal gain, 
but how to use those riches for change." At 
76-years-of-age he does not apologize for his 
actions. "I’ve expropriated, which according to 
the Christian religion is a sin. For me 
expropriations are necessary. As the 
revolutionaries say, robbing and expropriation is 
a revolutionary act as long as one doesn’t benefit from it."

Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and 
filmmaker based in Argentina. Lucio is one of the 
most fascinating people she has met in her 
experience interviewing people. She can be 
reached at <mailto:mtrigona at msn.com>mtrigona at msn.com





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