The Catalan People's Army (, EPOCA), known by its members as , was a

Catalan nationalist Catalan nationalism promotes the idea that the Catalan people form a distinct nation and national identity. A related term is Catalanism (, ), which is more related to regionalism and tends to have a wider meaning, most people who define themsel ...

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

group which existed during the 1970s.

History

The group was founded in 1969, as a breakaway group of the

National Front of Catalonia The National Front of Catalonia ( Catalan: ''Front Nacional de Catalunya'', FNC) was a Catalan nationalist party which was active between 1940 and 1990. The FNC was created in 1940 by former members of the Estat Català and the Catalan Nationali ...

. Jaume Martínez Vendrell, the leader of the military wing of the National Front, became its commander. EPOCA trained its militants in urban warfare techniques, smuggling in weaponry from

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The group came to prominence through a number of

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

s, committed by attaching pressure-triggered bombs to the bodies of their victims, demanding ransoms, and when they weren't received, leaving the bombs to explode, killing their victims in the process. In this way, the group assassinated in 1977 the industrialist and chemical tycoon José María Bultó, and in 1978 the ex-mayor of Barcelona, Joaquín Viola, along with his wife. By 1979, the group had become inactive in comparison with many other contemporary groups. Following discussions with paramilitaries from

Terra Lliure Terra Lliure (, "Free Land"), sometimes referred to as TLL, was a far-left, Marxist-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Catalan nationalism, separatist paramilitary group active in Catalonia, Spain. Formed in 1978, the group carried out hundreds of att ...

, the groups decided to merge. This led to many of the better-trained EPOCA militants joining Terra Lliure.

Trials and justice

Seven people were arrested in connection with the killings of Bultó and the Violas. Two of them were tried in 1980; one was acquitted entirely, whilst Martínez Vendrell, the other, was sentenced to a year and three months in prison, although this was not directly related to the assassinations. However, he had already served this time awaiting trial, so was immediately released. The remaining five were tried in 1982, saying at the time that they "learned of the assassination through the newspapers and television". A number of additional arrests were made towards the end of 1980 in connection with the construction of the bombs that were used in the killings.

References

{{Authority control Catalan nationalism Secessionist organizations in Europe Politics of Catalonia 1969 establishments in Spain

History

Trials and justice

See also

References