Paladin Group (fascist organization)

The Paladin Group (

private security contractor, the group's purpose was to recruit and operate security contractors

The French

Lobster Magazine describes it as a "small international squad of commandos

History

The Paladin Group was created in 1970 in the

war criminals out of Allied Europe to Spain, South America and other friendly destinations so they could avoid prosecution for war crimes. Skorzeny himself resided after the war in Spain

, protected by the Spanish government.

Skorzeny envisioned the Paladin Group as "an international directorship of strategic assault personnel [that would] straddle the watershed between paramilitary operations carried out by troops in uniforms and the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents".[1]

In addition to recruiting many former SS members, the Group also recruited from the ranks of various right-wing and nationalist organizations, including the French Nationalist

Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance

death squad, however, this was never confirmed.

The Paladin Group was also allegedly allied with a number of other right-wing governments, including

Zurich, Switzerland.^[2]

The Soviet propaganda outlet

TASS alleged that Paladin was involved in training US Green Berets for Vietnam missions during the 1960s.^{[citation needed}

]

Von Schubert became the head of the Paladin Group after Otto Skorzeny’s death in 1975.

Following Francisco Franco’s death in 1975

Otto Skorzeny died the same year as Francisco Franco, whose death on November 20, 1975 led to the

National Socialists, formerly supported by the Francoist regime ceased to be welcome in the new regime and fled to South America, in particular to Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, and Argentina, where the return of Perón after a 20-year exile in Spain had seen the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre

.