Luis
Barceló
was born in
Spain in 1896. A member of the Communist
Party (PCE), he took command of the infantry battalion in the
Ministry of War on
the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
Promoted to lieutenant
colonel he led the Republican
Army at Boadilla,
Corunna Road, Guadalajara and Segovia. By 1938 he was commander
of the First Corps of the Army of the Centre.
In February, 1939,
Juan
Negrin
promoted communist leaders such as Antonio
Cordon, Juan
Modesto and
Enrique Lister to senior posts in the army.
Segismundo
Casado,
commander of the Republican Army
of the Centre,
now became convinced that Negrin was planning a communist coup. On
4th March, Casedo, with the support of the socialist leader, Julián
Besteiro and disillusioned anarchist leaders, established an anti-Negrin
National Defence Junta.
On 6th March
José
Miaja in Madrid
joined the rebellion
by ordering the arrests of Communists
in the city. Juan
Negrin ,
about to leave for France, ordered Barceló
to try and regain control of the capital. His troops entered Madrid
and there was fierce fighting for several days in the city. Anarchists
troops led by Cipriano Mera, managed to defeat
the First Corps and Barceló was captured and executed.
The narrative text on this website
is copyright. This means that any school which copies the site for
local use onto a school cache is in breach of copyright. If your school
wishes to copy the site in this way, there is a tariff of charges.
Please contact Spartacus Educational spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
for details.
Last updated; 10th April, 2002
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
