Aginter Press

Aginter Press, also known as Central Order and Tradition (Ordem Central e Tradição), was a covert anti-communist organization operating under the guise of a press agency. It was established in September 1966 in Lisbon, Portugal, during António de Oliveira Salazar’s authoritarian Estado Novo regime and operated until 1974.

Origins

Aginter Press was founded by Yves Guérin-Sérac, a French former army officer, paratrooper, and member of the Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS), a French paramilitary group that opposed Algerian independence in the early 1960s. After the OAS’s defeat and the Évian Accords (1962), which granted Algeria independence, Guérin-Sérac fled France to avoid prosecution. He found refuge in Portugal, a country with a staunchly anti-communist government under Salazar, which provided a favorable environment for his activities.

Guérin-Sérac created Aginter Press. The organization was modeled as a press agency to mask its true purpose: conducting covert operations, including sabotage, assassinations, and psychological warfare. Its motto, “Our fight is an aspect of the total struggle against communism,” reflected its ideological drive.

Structure and Operations

Aginter Press was headquartered in Lisbon and operated as a front for a network of "anti-communist" operatives, including former OAS members, and mercenaries from across Europe. It was allegedly supported by Portuguese authorities, particularly the PIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado), Portugal’s secret police, and possibly received funding or logistical support from Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA.

Activities

• Training in Covert Operations: Aginter Press ran training programs in sabotage, bomb-making, assassination techniques, and infiltration. Its operatives were taught to pose as journalists to gain access to sensitive areas or information.

• Support for Colonial Wars: Aginter Press was active in Portugal’s African colonies (Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau), where it supported colonial forces against independence movements. It conducted operations to destabilize anti-colonial groups, often in coordination with Portuguese military and intelligence.

• Involvement in the “Strategy of Tension”: Aginter Press is strongly linked to Italy’s “strategy of tension,” a campaign of terrorist attacks in the late 1960s and early 1970s aimed at creating fear and justifying authoritarian measures. The most notable incident was the Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan on December 12, 1969, which killed 17 people and injured 88. Italian investigations later pointed to Aginter Press operatives, including Guérin-Sérac and his associate Stefano Delle Chiaie, as potential collaborators with Italian neo-fascists in this and other attacks. The goal was to blame "leftist" groups, thereby discrediting communism and strengthening fascist governments.

• International Operations: Aginter Press extended its reach beyond Europe and Africa, reportedly operating in Latin America and other regions to counter leftist insurgencies. It collaborated with other groups and regimes, leveraging its network to conduct espionage and sabotage.

Key Figures

• Yves Guérin-Sérac: The founder and ideological leader, Guérin-Sérac was a skilled organizer who used his OAS experience to build Aginter Press into a sophisticated covert network. His writings emphasized a global crusade against communism, blending Catholic traditionalism with militant anti-Marxism.

• Stefano Delle Chiaie: An Italian neo-fascist and Aginter operative, Delle Chiaie was implicated in several terrorist acts, including the Piazza Fontana bombing. He worked closely with Guérin-Sérac and later fled to Spain and Latin America to evade justice.

• PIDE and Portuguese Authorities: The Estado Novo regime provided a safe haven for Aginter Press, allowing it to operate with relative impunity. PIDE’s involvement ensured protection and resources for the group’s activities.

Decline and Dissolution

Aginter Press’s operations came to an abrupt halt following Portugal’s Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974. The revolution, led by leftist military officers, overthrew the Estado Novo regime and established a democratic government. The new authorities dismantled PIDE and cracked down on far-right organizations, forcing Aginter Press to cease operations in Portugal. Its headquarters were raided, and documents exposing its activities were seized, though many details remained classified or incomplete.

After 1974, Guérin-Sérac and other key figures fled Portugal. Guérin-Sérac reportedly moved to Spain, where he continued far-right activities under Franco’s regime, while others, like Delle Chiaie, sought refuge in Latin American dictatorships. The dissolution of Aginter Press marked the end of its formal structure, but its operatives and networks continued to influence far-right movements in Europe and beyond.

Legacy and Investigations

Aginter Press’s activities came to light primarily through investigations in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in Italy, where parliamentary inquiries and trials into the “strategy of tension” uncovered its role in terrorist attacks. Documents discovered after the Carnation Revolution provided further evidence of its operations, though some archives were reportedly destroyed or suppressed. The group’s links to Western intelligence agencies remain a subject of debate, with allegations of CIA or NATO involvement in the context of Cold War "anti-communist" operations, such as Operation Gladio, a NATO stay-behind network.

Aginter Press is remembered as a key player in Cold War-era covert warfare, embodying the extreme measures taken by groups and their state sponsors to counter communism. Its history highlights the complex interplay of ideology, state power, and terrorism during this period.

Connection to Operation Gladio

Aginter Press, a covert anti-communist organization operating as a pseudo-press agency in Lisbon from 1966 to 1974, had significant ties to Operation Gladio, a NATO-backed “stay-behind” network designed to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War. Both shared the goal of combating communism through clandestine means, including sabotage and terrorism. Aginter Press, led by Yves Guérin-Sérac, was deeply involved in Italy’s “strategy of tension,” orchestrating attacks like the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing to destabilize leftist movements, a tactic aligned with Gladio’s objectives. Italian investigations, particularly after Gladio’s 1990 exposure, linked Aginter operatives, such as Stefano Delle Chiaie, to neo-fascist groups collaborating with Gladio’s Italian units, coordinated by military intelligence (SID). Aginter’s training in explosives and infiltration mirrored Gladio’s paramilitary programs, and both reportedly accessed NATO-supported arms caches. Allegations of CIA funding connect the two, though direct evidence is limited. Portuguese PIDE archives and Italian trials suggest Aginter acted as a Gladio subcontractor, especially in Italy, where their actions fueled political instability. After Portugal’s 1974 Carnation Revolution dismantled Aginter, its operatives dispersed to Gladio-friendly regions like Spain.

From Paul Williams book Operation Gladio

"chairman Gualtieri sent the report back to the prime minister (in Italy), saying that the revelation of its contents would violate "a breach of NATO security." A censored report was delivered several days later and made public. The censored report said that a secret army known as Gladio had been set up on Italian soil by the CIA at the start of the Cold War. The army was well armed with "portable arms, ammunition, explosives, hand grenades, knives and daggers, 60 mm mortars, several 57 mm recoilless rifles, sniper rifles, radio transmitters, binoculars and various tools."

Its arsenals were concealed in 139 hiding places throughout the country, including forests, meadows, cemeteries, and churches. Several cases of weapons, the report noted, had gone missing. The news of the covert operation captured headlines for weeks throughout Italy and Western Europe, as magistrates, parliamentarians, academics, and journalists began to uncover more and more information about stay-behind forces that had been funded by the CIA to thwart the spread of Communism.

In different countries, investigators discovered, the armies were known by different code names, including "Absalon" in Denmark, "Aginter Press" in Portugal, "SDRA" in Belgium, "ROC" in Norway, and "I&O" in the Netherlands. In each country, investigators learned, leading government officials-prime ministers, presidents, defense ministers, and interior ministers-worked in close corroboration with the CIA to address every incursion of Communism within their borders.

But the most alarming finding for those who dug into the Gladio story was that the secret armies had been used to mount terror attacks that could be blamed on the Communists in order to discredit left-wing political parties at the voting polls. These attacks, the researchers learned, were intended to create maximum fear. They ranged from bomb massacres in trains and marketplaces to violent coups that toppled governments. As more and more revelations came to light, US and British officials refused to confirm or deny what the press alleged to be "the best kept secret."

Sources

Information on Aginter Press is drawn from historical accounts, declassified documents, and investigations available up to my knowledge cutoff. Key sources include Italian parliamentary reports on the “strategy of tension,” Portuguese archives post-1974, and scholarly works on Cold War covert operations. For further details, you may refer to:

• Italian judicial and parliamentary records on the Piazza Fontana bombing. • Portuguese historical accounts of the Estado Novo and PIDE activities.

• Books like NATO’s Secret Armies by Daniele Ganser, which discuss related covert networks (with caution for speculative claims).