The Axis secret service in America

In 1943, U.S. intelligence, through the writer Allan Chase, published the book Falange: The Axis Secret Army in the Americas. Based on thousands of secret documents, it revealed the involvement of prominent figures in Spanish-speaking countries and the Philippines in support of the uprising. Chase claimed that the Spanish colony in Puerto Rico contributed more to the rebel military forces than any other in Spanish America.

Spanish businessmen in Puerto Rico had invested in a variety of industries: banking, media, wholesale and retail trade, hotels, restaurants, sugar corporations, rum distilleries, and the cultivation, roasting, and export of coffee. Dionisio Trigo Marcos, leader of the business community, head of the Spanish Falange in Puerto Rico, and direct representative of General Francisco Franco, led the pro-rebel propaganda campaign in the media. No fewer than 150 Spanish businessmen purchased ads in the newspaper El Mundo, in Avance—the monthly magazine of the Spanish Falange in Puerto Rico—and in other magazines such as Los Quijotes and Cara al sol, all of which supported the uprising.

Despite the U.S. embargo on sending war material to Spain, and with the financial backing of a hundred Spanish businesses, Trigo orchestrated the fundraising and purchase of weapons and chemical products to be sent to the rebels. The consul general of the Republic in Puerto Rico, Jacinto Ventosa, denounced the shipment of Mauser rifles, ammunition, airplanes, specialized vehicles, hand grenades, and gunpowder during 1936.

The Spanish colony sent large quantities of tobacco and coffee, but Trigo personally delivered the monetary donations to General Franco. The first donations included $5,000 (equivalent to $115,000 today) from his personal estate and another $10,000 on behalf of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce. In March 1937, Luis Ariño Cenzano—Spain’s consul general in Puerto Rico in 1933, told the Heraldo de Aragón and El Mundo that Puerto Rico was “leading” in shipments, exceeding $137,000. In November of that same year, El Faro de Vigo raised the total to $400,000 in cash, $100,000 for the purchase of a small airplane, $4,000 for national subscriptions, and $25,000 in medicines. The total amount of contributions for the first 16 months of the war reached $529,000, equivalent to $11.6 million today—an impressive sum considering that Puerto Rico had a population of 1.5 million, of which only 3,500 were Spaniards.

TTR/JAOC