« De bandolero à secuestrador : mutation criminelle, répression policière et enjeux politiques (1869-1871) »

International audienceAfter 1850, the bandoleros of Andalucía ceased to be considered as generous and popular outlaws. With the appearance of railway travel, they became loathsome criminals, holding people for ransom and eventually killing their victims if not paid. In the early 1870, J. Zugasti is promoted gobernador civil of the Cordoba province, by the liberal government of General Prim, a place where the bandolerismo has evolved into a criminal organization, involving bandits as well as leading citizens. Using innovating methods of investigation, the prefect Zugasti succeeded to lower criminality, but still failed to end definitively the collusions between bandits and caciques. In May 1870, the rapt of the Bonells, two British subjects from Gibraltar, made the headlines and put in hazard the international credibility of the Prim’s government. J. Zugasti, with the help of the prefect A. Machado, manage to free the Bonnells, safe and sound, whereas their abductors are killed by the Civil Guard in their attempt to arrest them. With this case and the severe repression that followed, the bandolerismo became a key point for the conservators, led by A. Canovas del Castillo, in their political opposition to the liberal government