"It's one of those things I could never forget." "Your question actually moves me." "My father fell ill." "He went to Pamplona and they discovered that it was cancer." "So my father said to me, "My son "go and see uncle Pablo..." ""and he'll lend you the 5.000 pesetas he promised."" "He'd said to him, as was the village custom "If you need help, I'll be there for you."" "I went to ask uncle Pablo for the money." "Pablo said to me, "I don't have any." "Besides, I said it to your father "to try and cheer him up."" "He didn't give me the money." "But my father's illness dragged on." "He was in terrible pain." "He called me and said." ""My son "you have guts, kill me if you really love me."" ""I wouldn't want my worst enemies to suffer like this."" "He was in great pain." "It broke my heart... because it's frightening to see your father begging you to kill him so as not to suffer." "And all for a handful of pesetas." "You watch him dying in pain." "It obviously makes you willing to do anything." "I went to the savings bank." "The teller was a woman." "My intention was to kill her and take the money." "I couldn't do it." "If I had killed that woman I'm absolutely certain that my life would have been a total disaster." "CAFÉ "LES DEUX MAGOTS"." "PARIS. 9 JULY, 1980." "Everyone has his or her place." "I'll wait for the boss's order." "Let's go." "Police." "Don't move." "You're under arrest, don't move." "The man behind the gendarme is Lucio Urtubia." "After following him closely for months the French police eventually catch him." "More importantly they arrest him with conclusive evidence." "Among his possessions, they find a bunch of keys." "One of them belongs to the case seized." "When they open it they find it full of false traveller's cheques of the First National City Bank." "The police find it hard to believe that Lucio has put City Bank in a tight spot." "According to their investigations Lucio is a humble bricklayer and family man." "The fact that a man with practically no education who hardly went to school is able to forge almost perfect cheques according to the Bank's own experts the most perfect they'd ever seen seems remarkable to me." "When he was telling me about all this it started to fascinate me." "I began to listen more carefully." "There were things that I could relate to as an illiterate farmer." "I could put Lucio in my own position." "It seemed impossible to me that he could have done it." "Impossible that he was clever enough to do it." "How could such strength and talent..." "All the things I've learned about Lucio's life have fascinated me." "NAVARRE CHARACTER" "Navarre, mountain and lowlands, from the Pyrenees to the riverbanks offers us its marvellous countryside and the courageous character of its ancient people examples of simple, hard-working folk blessed with a gracious, sincere personality deeply attached to their traditions." "I'm fond of Navarre." "Why wouldn't I be?" "But I'd like it to be more revolutionary." "When the Spanish Civil War ended being from a poor, socialist family made you stick out." "I was lucky enough to be born very poor so I didn't have to make any effort to lose my respect for the Establishment." "The Church, private property, the State." "There were six of us in the family." "The others were all very different." "They all had different characters." "I don't know." "He was completely different to the rest." "Even as a little kid." "He was different." "He wasn't quarrelsome, but he could be annoying." "At 17." "Lucio was looking for adventure." "He wanted to leave Cascante so his brother took him to work in Valcarlos near the border with France." "He was immediately involved in contraband possibly his first underground job." "However, he had to give up contraband for the army." "He started his military service in Logroño." "Certain posts were more highly-valued than others." "One of them was canteen duty." "Lucio was persuasive and managed to work there." "He quickly struck up a friendship with two soldiers in the warehouse." "It was full of products... that could be sold for a god price on the black market." "Lucio and his friends knew this." "It wasn't hard to take products from the warehouse." "The real challenge... was to get them out of the barracks." "That was where Lucio came in." "The rubbish bins were the perfect hiding place." "Lucio was delighted." "He began to earn money." "But what he most enjoyed was being able to trick his superiors." "He sent us parcels and we sold them." "He sent us blankets, bots." "He sent cups." "Cheese." "Tinned sardines." "If he'd served in the army longer he would have ruined Logroño." "But all good things come to an end." "When they uncovered their business Luckily Lucio was on leave." "He knew he'd be severely punished if he went back." "Lucio decided not to return." "I'm a deserter." "I'm really pleased I did it." "I didn't want to end up serving that rabble." "All of those military men who took part in the war of 36 killing Republicans." "I'm increasingly proud of what I did in my life." "I stole, and I didn't hurt a soul." "Once again he crossed the border he Knew from his contraband days." "At that time, all roads led to Paris." "I always felt comfortable in Paris." "Now I've been here almost 50 years." "Coming to France back then was a step forward." "I didn't know a thing." "I was completely innocent." "This is where I discovered everything." "This bloody city has something that attracts us." "As if it were a magnet." "At that time Satur, his sister, lived in Paris." "She helped him to get work and sort out his papers." "At first, he worked anywhere." "But he ended up specialising as a bricklayer and tile layer." "They were terrible jobs." "For example the tile layers on the ground always worked in damp, wet conditions, on their Knees." "Lucio is tough." "But he's tough at work. too." "Not everybody has that physical strength." "Strength for work." "Lucio is hard-working." "Work has helped me throughout my whole life." "It has been god for making hiding places, helping others searching for and buying material." "For making friends and helping them." "For everything." "Work deemed the most compulsory duty of all shall be the only exponent of the people's will." "Lucio considered himself a communist simply because he was against Franco." "But at work he had several run-ins with reps from the communist union CGT." "This attracted the attention of some Catalan colleagues." "During lunch they asked me "What is your opinion?" "Where do you stand politically?"" "I said, "I'm a communist"." "Then they all began to laugh." "They said. "You. a bloody communist?" "You're an anarchist."" "Then they explained what anarchy was." "He began to frequent the CNT, the anarchist union." "At that time it was a mixture of workers, intellectuals, artists, those in exile." "Lucio was impressed." "He told everyone in Cascante about what he was learning." "Anarchy: a series of doctrines followed by the anarchists." "A political movement that seeks to destroy authority and subvert social order." "I think it's good to destroy certain things." "By doing that you can build others in their place." "A country... ruled by a monarchy or a republic, parliamentary regimes." "A Soviet-style government or fascism." "But it can not live in a regime of anarchy." "People believe an anarchist is a violent terrorist." "And it is the complete opposite." "Initially an anarchist is a person who is god at heart." "He is a responsible individual." "He is responsible because he has an education, feelings. sentiments." "The complete opposite of what they tell us." "For me, anarchist ideology is the best." "It is unbeatable." "Whether we can put it in to practise is another matter." "There are contradictory things about the anarchists. to." "They disappointed me in many things." "If it means not having anything." "then I'm an anarchist." "We are used to obeying." "At school we obey the teacher." "the headmaster." "We obey our parents at home." "Then our wife." "In companies, the boss." "In the army, the lieutenant." "To envisage another society where relationships are different is not easy." "I think anarchy and life mean work. creation." "Many people have a lot of resources and are not creative." "They are wrapped up in themselves." "Life is creation, life is action." "What was he like when he first came to the CNT?" "A restless man." "He was trying to find himself." "He was looking for something that would urge the masses to rise up and oppose Franco." "Did he stand out from other people?" "Yes. in the sense that he wanted the union to be combative and to show that we weren't just a load of crap..." "Who knows." "with Francisco Sabaté..." "There was a question mark." "Sabaté was one of the most wanted men by the Franco regime." "In late 1958, "El Quico" turned up in Paris, fleeing from Franco." "But he was also wanted in France and needed a place to hide." "The CNT immediately thought of Lucio who wanted to collaborate and was not on police records." "For an uneducated kid like me, meeting somebody like El Quico was a sort of miracle." "He was a legendary anarchist among Spanish libertarians." "A type of myth." "El Quico stayed at Lucio's house." "They got along immediately." "Lucio was like a sponge and took in everything El Quico said." "Often certain meetings, certain conversations can completely change you." "There was probably a complicity between these two tough men." "Lucio probably latched on to this." "He was like a sort of father figure." "Every morning, when I have a shave I see my bushy eyebrows and hairy ears." "Quico had thick eyebrows and hairs sprouting from his ears." "He used to walk like a duck." "With his feet spread out." "He was a tremendously good person." "However, Spanish and French law did not share that opinion." "Prison awaited him in France." "In Spain, execution." "So El Quico decided to spend a few months in a French jail rather than be extradited to Spain." "But before he gave himself up he provided Lucio with arms to be used in case France decided to send him back to Spain." "We decided he should surrender." "He handed over the arms to me." "And I was involved in several robberies before Quico Sabaté left." "These guys are just interested in stories of guns and hold-ups!" "There's many a slip twixt cup and lip." "Lots of people decide... to cross a mountain when they see it, but they don't actually do it." "When they see that society is unfair and deserves no respect they don't make that move." "I don't know how much Sabaté may have influenced me to take part in certain things that people don't normally do." "I think the biggest crooks are banks." "All banks are protected by the State and by laws." "They are the real crooks." "¿Did they have weapons?" "Two carried guns and one had a machine gun." "Were you afraid?" "Be honest." "Yes, a little." "Some of our robberies didn't work out very well." "There were no victims, but quite a lot of violence." "Of course it's tough." "You have a gun and you're not a criminal." "I used to wet myself." "Imagine pointing a gun at a bank employee." "I never killed anybody." "But I could have done." "That is hard to deal with when it's all for money." "I wasn't made to rob banks." "We did it because there were no other bloody options." "It was the only means the anarchists had." "The anarchists didn't have businesses." "They didn't have deputies or ministers to fund them." "The anarchists often died during these hold-ups." "That was what made me change my mind about the robberies." "When El Quico was released he was surprised to see how much money his disciple had amassed." "Lucio wanted to send the money to those suffering from Franco's regime." "But he didn't know how." "El Quico gave him a series of addresses in Spain where he could deliver the money." "So Lucio travelled from Paris to the border by train." "Crossing the border was not a problem for him thanks to his contraband experience." "Back then. the border was quite another matter." "La Junquera border post in Spain is crossed every day by 8,000 cars and more than 30,000 people." "They come to spend their holidays drawn by the beauty. atmosphere, and peace and quiet of our country." "El Quico was not the same since his term in jail." "He desperately needed to return to Catalonia." "Lucio tried to convince him not to. but El Quico didn't listen." "Together with five friends, he decided to cross the border." "6 JANUARY. 1960" "A division of the civil guard on the French-Spanish border Killed a group of bandits and their leader the infamous Francisco Sabaté a renowned criminal known for his bloody, violent activities." "FRANCISCO SABATÉ LLOPART, "EL QUICO"." "ANARCHIST." "DIED FOR FREEDOM." "Quico's death was a tremendous blow to me." "I felt very alone." "It brought back memories of his father." "He stopped the bank robberies and focused on his work." "He continued to attend the CNT meetings but El Quico had taught him not to trust anybody." "Lucio began to operate on his own." "I was never in the CNT, my friends are the CNT." "I was never registered as a member." "Organisations are the same all over the place whether they are anarchists or what have you." "People want to be in charge." ""LA SANTÉ" PRISON." "PARIS, 1980." "After his arrest at the café "Les Deux Magots" Lucio is sent to jail." "He left a lot of loose ends and was worried." "Jail is absolutely suffocating." "You're locked up and you become anxious because you can't breathe." "You don't know what's going on." "You think things will turn out badly." "Meanwhile, the police look for evidence to implicate Lucio in the case of the forged cheques that were seized." "They especially need to find the printing plates." "They spend hours searching, but find no definitive clues." "I made hiding places under the bath tub..." "We didn't find the real hiding place..." "We had to find the hiding places in order to find the other one." "It was like Russian dolls." "It is clear that the plates still exist and are in full operation." "While Lucio is still in jail, cheques turn up in different places:" "Oslo, Brussels, Helsinki." "Europe is being swamped by forged City Bank cheques and the police feel increasingly helpless." "What worried everyone, both the police and City Bank was that despite Lucio's arrest and he was considered to be head of the whole operation the traffic did not stop." "And that was intriguing." "Interpol provides an essential clue." "A Georges Corquelle is arrested in Amsterdam doing business with forged City Bank cheques." "Corquelle owns a printer's in Paris." "The police search the building and show photos to a neighbour." "The neighbour recognises Lucio immediately." "She has seen him frequenting the printer's." "Lucio will need help to get out of this one." "I defended Lucio in the traveller's cheques" trial." "He had been arrested and when he told me about the false traveller's cheques it confirmed my opinion about him." "The cheques were not for him." "I realised it was a political venture I'd even say it was a bit crazy." "The idea was to forge cheques and put them into circulation with the aim of destabilising the regime." "I demanded my freedom." "I was innocent." "Even if I wasn't innocent they had no right to keep me in prison." "I had as much right to be free as the Pope." "I would have given my life for the Cuban Revolution." "I thought Bautista was a crook." "As bad as they come." "So anything that meant fighting him was god." "I stated categorically that we are not communists." "Quite categorically." "If I had to choose today I'd think about it, because Fidel is really the Devil incarnate." "In the early 60s.." "certain Spanish Marxists frequented the Cuban embassy in Paris." "Lucio became good friends with the Cuban ambassador." "He also made the acquaintance of the anarchist forger L. Cerrada." "Thanks to him Lucio had access to high-quality forged dollars." "It was easier to forge the dollar than other jobs we had done." "The hard part is the paper." "You can either tell or you can't, do you understand?" "And it was the perfect country to forge money." "Lucio went to the Cuban embassy with dollars and a proposal." "He would provide the plates and Cuba would produce the notes." "Together they could devalue the dollar." "Cuba had the opportunity to produce as many tonnes as it wanted." "They had militants all over the world." "banks all over the world.... ...and lots of popular support to flood the market with dollars." "Europe became the centre of operations for Cuba." "I didn't know what they would propose." "They suggested I meet El Che." "I don't believe it at all." "I don't believe it at all!" "Even if he got down on his knees." "He must have dreamt it." "I know him and checked the story out." "It's absolutely true." "El Che travelled extensively then as Finance Minister." "Taking advantage of a visit to Paris... the Cuban embassy set up a meeting with the leader in Orly Airport." "Lucio was like a madman when he went there." "He was desperate to make a proposal of some sort." "To a certain extent, El Che liked that sort of person." "I've never had complexes." "Never." "He put forward a series of points that El Che was sceptical about." "He didn't show much interest." "He took the notes, looked at them and put them away." "He'd decide what to do in Cuba." "He'd make proposals." "How did you get on with him?" "Badly." "I didn't like him." "He was cold." "I didn't see that passion and zest he might have shown towards me." "A few months later, El Che rejected the proposal." "He didn't think the plan would devalue the dollar." "It was like a flea biting an elephant." "For Lucio it was let down, but at least it enabled him to see the potential the forged notes might have." "1968." "MONTH OF MAY." ""Come to the meeting of the Federation of Revolutionary Students"" "May '68 in Paris was like an outburst of freedom." "I remember that time because it was when I met Anne." "She was a pretty girl from a good catholic family." "French, well-educated." "Middle class." "The complete opposite of me." "But I think my passion is what really fired her." "To begin with, I didn't fancy a relationship but Lucio has a certain way and when he wants something, whatever it takes..." "He wrote a very provocative note saying that..." "We were in the middle of May 68, he knew how to hit the target." "He said he didn't want to go out with me because I was middle class..." "That really caught my attention." "To say those things one must be really in love." "We took refuge in a cinema during one of the demos." "The police beat us when we came out." "They hit Anne quite hard." "She was limping and could barely walk." "She was in a bad way." "That Sunday she went to see her parents." "Her parents had a small plumbing business." "During the meal Anne said to her father..." ""Your business isn't yours anymore, it belongs to the workers." ""You have to let it run itself."" ""What does that mean?" he asked." ""Just what I'm saying."" ""The company belongs to everyone, you must make it...." ""...available to the workers."" ""Didn't the cops beat you enough?" he replied." "PRINTER"S" "May '68 was a time of great euphoria." "Much of it was short-lived." "Lucio's ideas gained more impetus and he set up a printer's to support various revolutionary causes together with several friends." "The initial idea was the create political leaflets. posters anti-establishment and anarchist advertising for several countries." "We didn't realise then but a simple pamphlet was a sacred thing in Spain." "The day came when I said to certain friends there..." ""Wouldn't it be easy to forge the Spanish ID card..." ""...and help save lots of lives?"" "They laughed because the Spanish ID card was terribly difficult to forge." "The Spanish ID card was a complex blend of seven colours." "The most difficult part was separating them." "Lucio went to a well-known anarchist printer's in Paris and explained his idea." "Despite initial reluctance the printer's ended up taking on the job." "The ID was only the first in a series of documents." "The documents were used to hire cars. rent flats and open bank accounts anywhere." "It paved the way for us." "It's a document that means risking your life." "your freedom so you try and copy it as best you can." "A passport is the most important document." "The main driving force is freedom." "It enables you to travel a Spaniard can leave the country and go somewhere he's not known and live a new life." "That was the aim." "particularly for refugees and those who were persecuted." "One of the hardest things to copy was actually quite simple." "The passports have rounded edges." "We had to import a small machine from America." "Once the pages of the passport are printed they had to be sewn with a very tight sort of stitch and I was in charge of that process." "Above all, those documents were used to enable people to lead safe lives." "A Columbian arrives, goes out on the street. enters the metro and the police ask him for his ID." "The Columbian shows them his ID." ""What is your name?" "José Luis."" "And the man walks off calmly." "He goes to a bank and wants to open an account." "If he shows his ID, he can open it." "To cross a border, the passport has to look real." "If not. you risk your freedom." "Even if it's not completely perfect some documents are easier to forge than others." "You have to be more careful with ID cards." "To apply for ID cards in France, for example you wouldn't submit forged Spanish ones." "This was for renting. for stealing, for lying." "It wasn't for fooling the police." "You can't fol the police." "THE WEDDING" "Well, anarchists don't marry." "They live together." "but they don't marry." "He was the one who wanted to marry." "True. it's a contradiction." "It also caught my attention." "Did nobody ask why you married if you were an anarchist?" "I can do whatever I want." "That's why I'm an anarchist." "Because I can do what I want." "My daughter looked like a little beetroot." "She was completely red." "I think he really wanted to have kids." "From when Juliette was really little, he was a very caring father." "He knew how to combine his work." "his militant activities and his responsibilities as a father." "Lucio got the Kid mixed up in problems with the police." "He'd ask the kid to Keep a look out for them." "My house was a haven to them." "Sometimes my methods have been questioned but I did everything I could for my daughter." "In jail or out of jail. working I gave my daughter everything." "Yes. surprisingly well." "He would get up very early because building work usually starts early so he would leave first thing in the morning." "Usually at about four or five in the afternoon he'd start his activities as a militant anarchist and work on..." "until late at night." "They started working at the printer's at night." "They had to be very discreet." "That was why only the person who opened the door knew what was going on." "Sometimes even the owner didn't know." "My job consisted of ensuring there was no trace of our work in any of the presses." "No marks on the roller or signs of printing on the rubber." "No signs of paper that was printed because that could be disastrous." "I didn't even trust the people who were with me." "There could be an informer." "Passers-by might stop because of the noise." "A printing press at night?" "So we had to be very discreet." "However. the risk did not stop them." "In view of the success the Spanish ID cards had they began forging documents from other countries." "We forged and replaced Italian ID cards." "We forged and replaced Spanish ID cards." "The idea was to take the place of the government." "We could say that back then we replaced the governments." "Many revolutionary groups benefited from these documents." "Italian, Basque, Catalan, Spanish South American, Bolivian, Tupac Amaru." "Argentinian..." "The documents were delivered by hand." "Afterwards, they did whatever they wanted." "It's great to know that you can give 30-40 IDs to somebody and they can then be used for hundreds of things." "I've helped lots of people without knowing them." "I won't meet the thousands of people who used the documents and ID cards that were produced in France." "I knew a couple." "Crooks and criminals also definitely used them." "...A whole cargo found in Ivry, Val-de-Marne consisting of 5,000 driving licenses 5,000 IDs made from filigree paper with official stamps." "A lucrative business." "because a forged driving license can cost up to 3,000 francs." "Those who had money, paid." "Those who didn't. didn't pay." "If we had money." "we bought presses, cars." "We sent money to pay for lawyers." "We did what we could." "But nobody did it to earn a wage." "The cause was stronger than all that." "Why did I help?" "I believe that what is needed in a society such as this are people with a fighting spirit." "Whether I agree or not with other organisations is another matter." "I don't agree with Killing." "But if there are people who there's no need for me to say who..." "Anyway, there are people who shouldn't have been born." "For example, I think it would be OK if Franco had been aborted." "A person who does not react violently at times is not normal as far as I'm concerned." "If you're walking down the street and somebody insults you it's normal to defend yourself." "But you shouldn't Kill a person." "On 2 March, 1974 the young anarchist Salvador Puig Antich was executed in Spain." "Two months later... an anarchist group went into action to ensure it didn't happen again." "MANAGER OF BANCO DE BILBAO KIDNAPPED IN PARIS." "ANARCHIST GROUP ALLEGEDLY RESPONSIBLE" "An obscure movement." "GARI the lnternationalist Revolutionary Armed Group states that in exchange for the release of political prisoners in Spain." "Mr. Suárez will be freed." "At first, it was a media ploy to make public opinion and European governments aware so they would exercise pressure to bring an end to executions using the garrotte." "FIRST NEWS ABOUT BALTASAR SUÁREZ" "I'll ask you to do something a bit unusual." "Do everything possible to get me out of this situation." "SUÁREZ, FREE" "Mr. Suárez is relaxing at home with his family in Neuilly, after being kidnapped for 20 days." "Did they treat you well?" "Physically speaking. yes." "Do you Know who they were?" "No, not at all." "Not at all." "One of the Spanish rebels who organised the kidnapping was arrested this morning, but police have still not confirmed it." "The Urtubias were among the first of the seven people arrested." "It was the first time Lucio's name appeared in the media." "They accused me of sending a French newspaper to Barcelona containing a message about delivering the ransom." "There were protests in France demanding their release." "A democratic country such as France could not be seen to cooperate with Franco's dying regime." "Thus they were eventually released on parole." "The French judge in charge of the case created an international investigative commission." "He requested the police, the Guardia Civil to continue investigating the case." "The Guardia Civil used the Commission." "they distorted it arresting and torturing anti-Franco militants." "This is something French law cannot tolerate and quickly leads to the release of people who should not have been jailed." "Lucio began to feel that he was being watched." "He had to be careful." "He decided to rent two garages under his sister's apartment." "The police thought he was just visiting Satur but Lucio went downstairs from his sister's flat and was able to access his secret warehouse." "I didn't suspect a thing, but my husband ran into him when he was leaving the parking lot." ""Your brother is up to his old tricks," he said." "We didn't know he'd rented them." "My brother never used to go down there." "I didn't know what was there, but it was best not to go down." "Lucio was churning out material." "He needed a place to hide forging plates. false documents and even weapons." "What do you think the arms were for?" "I'd like you to tell me." "I can't." "They were thrown into the Seine." "End of story." "If that convinces you, great." "How can I tell you if I gave them to somebody to kill another person?" ""LA SANTÉ" PRISON." "PARIS, 1980." "Lucio has been in jail four months and things are getting complicated." "Seven years later. a date is set for the kidnapping trial." "The hearing will be in two months and Lucio is the only one in jail for another reason." "So the prosecution counsel could use the argument..." ""Yes. they say the Suárez case was political, but look "there is a famous forger among them "a common criminal in jail for a very serious crime."" "It was detrimental." "That was why it was essential to release Lucio." "The aim was to ensure the pre-trial lasted more than six months." "Why?" "Because if the judge didn't conclude the proceedings after six months he had to free Lucio Urtubia." "But Judge Francine Caron does not make it easy for him." "The final pre-trial report must be submitted within a period of six months." "This means that Lucio will not be released before the B. Suárez trial." "EXPERT"S REPORT" "They only have one option." "Submit a plea report and gain more time that way." "The lawyers study the report and detect certain irregularities regarding the evidence from Amsterdam." "Just before the six-month deadline is up Dumas submits a counter-report setting out these irregularities." "The judge falls into the trap." "He had to renew the arrest warrant within six months and he didn't." "She went white." ""You wouldn't do this to me, would you?"" ""Yes, madam, I would, your procedure is cancelled."" "She began pacing up and down and in the end said, "Yes, it's obvious."" "We left at around six or seven in the afternoon and he was free half an hour later." "Although the case was still open, he was free." "The Paris courthouses become Lucio's second home." "They release him on January 10, but he can't relax because the Suárez trial begins in ten days." "In Spain, those who were accused in the same case had received amnesty from the ruling government." "It was a totally anachronistic affair." "politically absurd." "It was senseless." "Spain had changed, France had changed." "The French press actually referred to it as the last trial of the Franco regime." "The main reason for this trial are the upcoming elections in France." "The extreme right criticise Giscard d"Estaing for being too soft on groups that do not respect the law." "It was therefore a way of avoiding these attacks." "During the hearing Lucio's main fear is that the jury sides more with the extreme right's view." "However, this does not occur." "After a ten-day trial, they are all acquitted." ""Lucio Urtubia, innocent in this case."" "What part did you play in the Kidnapping?" "I had no part in it." "No part in it." "That was something the police said." "I don't have to tell anybody if I was involved or not." "They arrested me, and after a two-week trial we were all acquitted because there was insufficient evidence." "So I won't tell you now what my role was." "How could I say I was the one who grabbed him, drove him in the car, and led him to the room?" "Besides, kidnappings are something that a person never forgives." "The fact it was against Franco worked very much in his favour." "The best years of my life were the ones fighting Franco." "I wouldn't wish the Franco regime on anyone but experiencing that injustice was like a privilege for me." "Your attention. please here is the president." "Carlos Arias Navarro." "Spaniards..." "Franco's death meant the greatest enemy was also dead." "Lucio should have slowed down." "but he did not." "Democracy in Spain would need some time to take root, besides South America son became ripe for lost causes." "NOVEMBER 1977" ""ELS JOGLARS" ARRESTED" "FOR PERFORMING "LATORNA"" "...And ends with a scene in which all the members of the court are completely drunk." "Those in power during Franco's regime were still active and unwilling to let a group of comics make fun of them." "So despite street protests "Els Joglars" were sentenced to prison." "A theatre actor suddenly becomes a man of action." "The playwright Boadella escaped from hospital." "Police sources believe he has fled to France." "Boadella's documents were prepared here." "It was outrageous for Spain and France to go and play football in Argentina while thousands of people were going missing there." "And you have four simple guys like us trying to intervene." ""Argentina: strange attack against Hidalgo."" ""Mysterious assault on Michel Hidalgo."" "An anonymous caller claimed responsibility and drew attention to France's hypocrisy... by selling military material to Argentina." "At that time, Dumas had diplomatic relations with Spain." "He requested Lucio's help in various affairs." "Kidnappings and other conflicts caused problems in Spain." "NOVEMBER 1979" "UCD MINISTER JAVIER RUPEREZ KIDNAPPED" "Javier Ruperez has been kidnapped by an ETA terrorist cell." "I immediately thought of Lucio "How can I contact certain circles out of my reach?"" "It was an amazing way of getting in touch with people I couldn't reach directly." "FEBRUARY 1981." "THREE DIPLOMATS KIDNAPPED" "I spoke to Lucio a lot but I didn't ask him questions." "Despite everything, he was hardworking." "He was a bricklayer." "He never missed work." "He always focussed on his work." "He didn't earn a living from other things his job was his living, and he centred on that." "They couldn't arrest him for that." "Two days after he was acquitted from the Suárez case Lucio went back to work as a bricklayer." "He feels calm even though he knows they could call him about the City Bank case." "As if that was not enough new problems son crop up." "A Saharan is arrested in Paris in possession of several forged passports." "During the interrogation the man confesses that the person who gave him the documents is a bricklayer he met in jail who has a red van and a lawyer called Roland Dumas." "The judge orders Lucio to appear in court." "I sent him a letter saying I wouldn't appear because the holidays were coming up, everyone was away and I wasn't guilty of any serious crime that might have led to me being jailed for several months." "Thus in July 81 Lucio obtains a false ID and disappears in Paris without a trace." "He has lots to think about and plenty of time in which to do it." "You read, you wait expecting that things calm down." "They mustn't catch you when they catch the others." "If they arrest you at the same time you don't know what the other guy will say." "It's best to let time go by and wait and see what he says." "Lucio is tremendously instinctive." "He knows how to react quickly." "He believes that everything is possible and if you want it badly enough, you can make it happen." "This is what most fascinates people about Lucio." "Most people don't think it's possible, but Lucio does." "By using the documents Lucio and his colleagues make forgery a source of direct financing." "They started by printing forged wage slips." "Some companies send wage slips via post enclosing a cheque." "So Lucio decided to create imaginary workers." "He produced false documents." "Together with the wage slips." "he went to the banks or post offices ...to cash the cheque." "Thanks to these companies, he made his first tidy sum." "But if he were going to rob Lucio Knew only too well who his first victims would be." "Banks are a bunch of crooks." "They exploit you and take your money." "Anyone who works in a bank will tell you that." "You have to attack them." "Spanish banks were the first victims." "Their infrastructure meant you could buy a real cheque book ...using forged ID." "Spanish banks' traveller's cheques ...were like football tickets, they were easy to copy." "You give them good money, they give you crap, paper." "That was what it was about." "By using the real cheque book they made copies repeating the series numbers they had." "This way, they produced many cheques with the same series number." "When you went to cash it, the teller checked the list." "There were lists of traveller's cheques that were lost or stolen." "If they were on the list." "they didn't pay you." "But since they were cheques that weren't on any list the teller paid you." "Afterwards, they had their processing system." "The Banco de Bilabo would send it to the central office in Spain and those cheques built up." "As the cheques built up they discovered that several had the same numbers." "But it was already too late." "FORGING" "Spanish cheques could not be exchanged just anywhere." "Something was needed to make them payable all over the world." "What could have been better than US banks?" "Their traveller's cheques were harder to copy than the dollar itself but that was what motivated them." "They began to forge City Bank cheques." "It was and is the world's biggest bank." "It was not easy to obtain the definitive printing plates." "City Bank had made great efforts to avoid being tricked." "Unlike other experts, he probably didn't think about how he could make an exact copy so that the notes would be the best." "They were the best." "Fist National City Bank plates helped fund the network without resorting to hold-ups." "All that was needed was to buy genuine traveller's cheques duplicate a given number of copies and exchange them all over Europe." "I was the boss." "I made the cheques." "distributed and cashed them." "The distribution network for the cheques was made up of members of various subversive groups." "ETA, Tupac Amaru, Red Brigade." "Even common criminals." "It's one thing to make the notes, quite another to distribute them." "You need an apparatus and lots of people able to cash millions in just one day." "They knew they were facing a tough opponent." "They spread out in various European capitals in twos to avoid being followed." "Lucio was the first to try it out." "If everything went well he would make a call to give the green light to the others." "That way, on the same day and at the same time... several European banks received cheques with the same number." "The person waiting outside... collected the money and watched in case there were problems." "When you handle a lot of money, rumours start to circulate." "I worked like a slave and didn't get a penny." "Why not?" "Who Kept that money?" "It went where it was meant to go." "It wasn't to pay whores, drinks or nightlife." "It went where it was meant to go." "I handled the money the way I wanted." "The way I wanted." "Of all the people I met, that I worked with Italians, Tupac Amarus, Argentineans, Basques Acción Directa, GARI nobody ever got rich." "Nobody." "You could eat out in a restaurant now and again or buy trousers, but that was all." "They divided it in three parts." "A third for him. or for whoever carried out the operation and he kept another third for the cause and another for prisoners." "Those who were in jail." "He's a person who doesn't keep the money for himself." "It's for a cause, and that's unusual." "You usually think of yourself first." "In July 1980, Lucio was about to make his biggest mistake." "Despite the distribution network the stock of cheques was increasingly large and he needed another way of cashing them." "The solution came in the form of Toni Sarra a young man who he had met." "Toni said he Knew somebody who would buy them at 30%." "There's no torrent like greed." "Straight away I thought it was a serious contact." "We arranged to meet an American in Le Grand Hotel." "They met up with the American and a friend several days in a row." "Lucio didn't trust him and wanted to make sure." "Sometimes I hid and watched them." "I never caught him out." "The day came to negotiate the deal." "The exchange was to take place in Les Deux Magots." "I went with my friend." "We sat outside for breakfast." "Lucio didn't suspect that the American was an infiltrator." "The French police had set a trap for him." "The police might get it wrong 9 times out of 10. but you can't." "If you get it wrong just once, you're finished." "1981." "A YEAR AND A HALF AFTER THE ARREST" "Lucio is still in jail a year and a half later." "He went from being locked up in La Santé to an apartment on the Rue Rémé." "But Michat does not give up in his efforts to clarify ...the case of the forged passports." "However, his attention is drawn to the letter Lucio sent him before fleeing." "A fugitive does not normally bother to give explanations." "Fargart tries to take advantage of this fact." "He began selling the image of Lucio to the judge." "The judge was really interested." "He was very curious to meet Lucio because he had received that letter and had talked to me... and was very interested in knowing who he really was." "At the same time... the police pull out all the stops to find Lucio." "They recorded Lucio with microphones, they watched him opened his letters..." "All the time." "They used informers..." "That existed, too." "Their efforts pay off." "On 9 October, 1981, Lucio's hiding comes to an end." "At last Michat meets the bricklayer." "The judge notices that Lucio does not try and apologise." "He has strong convictions." "Judges are trained to deal with common criminals." "People who always try to defend themselves, who lie." "But he seems much more honest, he tells the truth." "The judges..." ""Who is this guy?" "Why is he telling me this?" ""Why does he trust me?"" "I think that helped Lucio a lot." "Lucio's arrest led to a rapport between them." "There was a certain sympathy between Michat and Lucio." "Lady luck shines on Lucio once again." "He is assigned a judge who is sympathetic to his cause." "In addition, Lucio has a full-time job and a family to look after so he is released." "But Judge Caron is not quite as sympathetic." "A few days after his release a letter arrives indicating the date for the traveller's cheque hearing." "Things do not look good." "Only an influential person could get him out of this one." "Lucio starts pulling strings until he reaches Louis Joannet the French Prime Minister's adviser." "A bricklayer may be a bricklayer but he can have friends in high places." "Joannet's reply is ambiguous, but it is Lucio's only hope." "In the meantime City Bank continues to receive false traveller's cheques." "It seemed it would stop once Lucio had been arrested." "But that was not the case." "For City Bank it was like a currency used all over the world." "Suddenly they discovered it was not in Paris but all over Europe where this currency could be exchanged with no trouble because nobody could tell the difference." "It just made things worse." "City Bank central office begins to receive..." "Tourists suddenly find their money is worthless." "Their holidays are ruined." "We've lost our money." "Forget it. it's no use." "Excuse me!" "A bank relies on its customers" trust." "The banking system and customers began to mistrust City Bank." "That's a tragedy for a bank." "It can close down, go bankrupt." "City Bank was thus under enormous pressure." "It was not surprising that City Bank went to court with the aim of making the bricklayer pay dearly." "The defence council wants to save time and delay the trial." "The meeting between Lucio and Joannet was not in vane." "The judge had made his move." "Louis began to check certain things to find out if the money actually reached the Latin American movements." "He used his own contacts to verify it." "He came to the conclusion that it was true." "It wasn't a common swindle..." "Lucio didn't trick people and fill his own pockets it was definitely a political thing." "This judge, who had a post in the government of the time spoke to City Bank's lawyer saying that he thought it was detrimental for France that he had to stop, he couldn't go on like that and that there was still traffic despite the arrests and perhaps the solution was for City Bank to negotiate with Lucio. who everyone thought was the ringleader." "Walter Wriston's team in New York was throwing up its hands in horror." "Their pride had been damaged." "Besides. there was more than enough evidence to punish Lucio." "City Bank wants its garrotte." "However, they finally decide to negotiate." "Regardless of the evidence they have the printing plates have still not turned up and this means Lucio has lots of power." "During the hearing. two English- speaking men say hello to Lucio." "Fargart later explains that one is Jeffrey Hogart City Bank's head of security." "They came because they wanted to negotiate." "I asked them how... if they were demanding hundreds and thousands of dollars?" "He told me we had to negotiate." "So I agreed to do it." "The atmosphere was notably tense in the boardroom." "Lucio wanted to say hello to the Head of Security." "But the Head was very English, very dignified a former Scotland Yard policeman he said, "I don't know why I should shake your hand."" "He spoke very god French, but with an English accent." ""I don't see why I should shake the hand of a crook like you."" "I stood up and swore." ""Jesus Christ, I'm no crook!"" ""But you, with your dollars, just corrupt the whole world..." ""...and cause all the wars." "You're the real crooks."" "I was swearing... but I was also speaking my mind." "I don't know if they understood but I was speaking from the heart." "I told them that I would give them what we had but in exchange they would give us what we asked for." "It was quite a reasonable request." "We didn't have much money." ""If you give us money..." ""..." "I promise to stop the whole operation." ""And if not..." ""you can arrest me and do whatever you like, but they'll carry on."" "City Bank didn't Know a thing!" "However many people they arrested, there were still false cheques." "They arrested a person, but it carried on." "And it spread to other countries." "It could last a long time." "And City Bank did not have time on its side." "The best solution was for the traffic to stop." "That was City Bank's top priority." "The huge US bank ended up accepting Lucio's conditions." "They trusted me." "It was a positive move to stop everything." "The whole thing had caused problems." "Lucio prepares to surrender his best weapon and feels vulnerable." "Seen from a distance, it was something quite terrifying." "We met the day before he had to hand over the material to record him explaining who was involved." "We recorded it all in case something happened to him." "It was clear it couldn't be Lucio or one of his group who delivered the plates or the remaining cheques." "It was to dangerous." "It could only be the lawyer." "It was decided I would go and look for the material in the left-luggage of a station." "I put it in my car, started driving to the meeting place, a hotel on the Champs Elysees." "I was anxious to get rid of the material." "Every time the lights turned red I was dying for them to turn green quickly." "I arrived at the hotel where the City Bank rep was waiting in a room." "I made the delivery." "Like in a cop movie." "It was amazing, like in a film." "I was handing over false cheques, printing plates." "When they had checked it the City Bank man handed me a large sum in French banknotes." "And I left." "I carried the money to my car." "That's where the City Bank story ends." "Some claim that some of those notes went missing." "I know a lot of people think my brother is loaded." "I know they do." "But that's because they don't know him." "He's told me stuff about money, people." "If he were to tell others, all hell would break lose." "I think what Lucio says is reasonable." "Because of the way different people work." "Those who were loaded Know full well where that money ended up." "At a friend's house in the country Lucio burns his past as a forger." "It is part of his commitment." "At just 50 he is forced to change a lifestyle he has lead for 30 years." "He still has his job as a bricklayer." "He decides to think big and sets up a cooperative along with other friends." "The cooperative was made up of close friends I truly love but they were revolutionaries." "Now that's one thing but being a bricklayer is another." "The cop folded." "I immediately founded a company." "It's in Lucio's nature to be an entrepreneur so setting up a company comes naturally to him." "His project is everyday life that doesn't mean he hasn't behaved like a real anarchist." "There is a certain dichotomy between his ideas and the political affiliation it involves and everyday life." "Maybe that was how it was." "Life is so complex." "Who will pave the way?" "The guy who lays the paving stones?" "He was a god bricklayer." "perhaps better than the rest." "Instead of earning a thousand francs, he earned two thousand." ""In 1996." "Lucio bought a derelict building..." ""...on the Rue des Cascades in the Belleville neighbourhood." ""He refurbished it, turning it into a non-profit venue..." ""...where all sorts of cultural activities are organised..." ""...related to anarchism and anti-establishment movements."" ""He named it The Louise Michel Centre..." ""...in homage to the historical leader of the Paris Communes." ""Lucio lives just about the Centre." ""If he is at home, he always leaves the door open..." ""...so that anyone who wants can pop in to see him.""