José Calvo Sotelo

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José Calvo Sotelo (Tui, Pontevedra Province, 6 May 1893—Madrid, 13 July 1936) was a Spanish political figure prior to and during the Second Spanish Republic. His murder by a unit of the urban police force known as the Assault Guards and several socialist (PSOE/UGT) activists, just the day after a harsh confrontation in Parliament with socialist (PSOE) and communist (PCE) ministers of the Popular Front, aroused strong suspicions of a government involvement in the crime and contributed greatly to precipitate the Spanish Civil War.

An economist and jurist, he was secretary of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of the Ateneo Mercantil de Madrid and a university professor of the Universidad Central. He was a member of Antonio Maura Montaner's Conservative Party. He first served as an administrative officer in the Ministry of Grace and Justice. In 1919, he was chosen as a deputy to the Cortes for the district of O Carballiño, in Ourense, and in 1922 he was made civil governor of Valencia.

When Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator of Spain in 1924 he appointed Calvo Sotelo as finance minister in 1925. Calvo Sotelo was forced into exile when the Republic was proclaimed (1931), but returned to Spain when he was amnestied in May 1934, becoming then a deputy for Renovación Española. He soon became one of the most important right-wing political figures in the country. Calvo Sotelo unsuccessfully attempted to gain control of the Falange Española from José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1935. Calvo Sotelo was harshly critical of the Republican government after the electoral victory of the leftist Popular Front in February 1936. He was the Leader of the Opposition at the time of his assassination.

[edit] Assassination

In the first hours of the next day, 13 July 1936, members of the Assault Guards, Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas, PSOE, UGT and the captain of Civil Guard Fernando Condés, went to Calvo Sotelo's house, took him in front of his wife and children, showing a fake arrest warrant, and later killed him with clubs, knives and gun shots^[1] in a police truck. His body was later dropped at the entrance of one of the city's cemeteries. According to all later investigations, the perpetrator of the murder was a socialist gunman, Luis Cuenca, who was known as bodyguard of the PSOE leader Indalecio Prieto.

In the days following, the Spanish Government undertook a routine investigation that never reached any conclusion. This only accelerated the preparations for a military revolt that was being developed since the electoral triumph of the Popular Front in the month of February. These preparations lead to the uprising of the Army of Africa in Melilla on 17 July 1936 that, under the assumed command of Generals Emilio Mola, Francisco Franco, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano and José Sanjurjo, marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. It is unlikely that General Francisco Franco (and, with him, the Army of Africa) would have joined the military uprising had Calvo Sotelo not been assassinated.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza y Gómez de Valugera. José Calvo Sotelo. Barcelona, Ariel, 2004. ISBN 84-344-6718-6
• Luis Romero - Por qué y cómo mataron a Calvo Sotelo. Planeta. Barcelona. 1982. ISBN 84-320-5678-2
• Ian Gibson. La noche en que mataron a Calvo Sotelo. Plaza & Janés. Barcelona. 1986 ISBN 84-01-45061-6
• Paul Preston. Franco, Caudillo de España. Mondadori. 1994. ISBN 84-397-0241-8