Santoña Agreement

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The Santoña Agreement or Pact of Santoña is an agreement signed in the town of Guriezo, near Santoña, Cantabria the August 24th, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, between politicians close to the Basque Nationalist Party (BNP), fighting with the Republican Side, and Italian forces fighting with the Francoist side.

During the Battle of Santander, the Francoist troops pierced through the Republican defence lines. The Republican troops, including the Basque army, retreated to the west in an unorderly fashion, with numerous desertions.

After the fall of Bilbao, practically all Basque territory had fallen into Franco's hands. Juan de Ajuriaguerra, then president of the Biscay Regional Council of the BNP, negotiated with the Italian army command a surrender agreement. The BNP offered to surrender the Basque army in exchange of its prisoners being treated as POWs under Italian commandment, and BNP members being allowed to go to exile in several British ships.

The Basque army, formed by Basque nationalists, Socialists and Communists, and fighting under the direction of Basque president José Antonio Aguirre, met at Santoña, and surrendered to the Italian forces on August 24th.

When news of the agreement arrived to his headquarters, Franco cancelled the agreement and ordered the immediate jailing in Santoña's El Dueso prison of the 22,000 Basque soldiers captured. Three months later, around half of them had been freed, the other half remained in prison, and 510 were sentenced to death, a lower reprisal level than registered elsewhere.

The agreement was carried out by the BNP behind the Republican government's back. For this reason, it is also known as the Santoña Treason. The term can also be interpreted as a treason by Franco.

[edit] See also


[edit] Bibliography

  • Cándano, Xuan. El pacto de Santoña (1937): La rendición del nacionalismo vasco al fascismo (Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros, 2006) ISBN 84-9734-456-1 (Spanish)
  • Granja Sáinz, J.L. de la Entre el pacto de San Sebastián y el de Santoña (1930-1937) (Madrid: Historia 16, 1998). 271 (Spanish)
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