Jose
Calvo Sotelo was
born in Spain in 1893. He grew up in Saragossa
where he became active in politics and eventually became secretary
to the conservative politician Antonio Maura.
When Miguel
Primo de Rivera became military dictator of Spain he appointed
Calvo Sotelo as his finance minister. When Primo de Rivera fell from
power, Calvo Sotelo was forced to go into exile.
Calvo Sotelo was able to
return home after he was amnestied in 1934. He soon became one of
the most important right-wing political figures in the country. Influenced
by the growth of fascism in Germany
and Italy, Calvo Sotelo put forward totalitarian
answers to Spain's problems.
In 1935 Calvo Sotelo unsuccessfully
tried to gain control of the Falange Española
from José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
After the victory of the Popular Front
in February 1936, Calvo Sotelo was a harsh critic of the new government.
On 12th July, 1936, José
Castillo a lieutenant in the Assault Guards
and an active member of the Socialist Party
was murdered by a Falangist gang in Madrid.
The following day a group of Castillo's friends took revenge by murdering
Jose
Calvo Sotelo.
This event resulted in a military uprising led by Emilio
Mola,
Francisco
Franco and José
Sanjurjo
and heralded the start of the Spanish Civil
War.
(1)
Manchester
Guardian (14th July, 1936)
The mutilated body of Senor Calvo Sotelo, the leader of the small
Monarchist party, was found in the River Manzanares at Madrid today.
The murder is believed to be in revenge for the murder last night
of Lieutenant Jose de Castillo, a chief of
police with anti-Fascist tendencies.
That murder in turn was
announced as a reprisal for earlier murders by the other side. One
of the worst of the series was the murder of Socialists as they were
leaving their headquarters
by Fascists waiting in a motor-car.
Senor Sotelo was considered
by the Right and the Left as
the only possible serious future leader of the Fascist party
in Spain. He was a strong and clever man, aged about 42, a lawyer,
an economist, and a member of the Cortes, and was Minister of Finance
in the Government of Primo de Rivera.
In the Cortes he had been
speaking strongly against political murders and against the leniency
of the Government towards murders committed by the Left. He was arrested
by the police this morning, and so his friends had considered
him safe from assassination, for the son of Primo de Rivera, the titular
leader of the Fascists, whose life had also been
threatened, has been safe in prison for some time.
(2)
Manchester
Guardian (15th July, 1936)
It is known definitely that the murder of Sotelo was carried out by
members of the police force in revenge for the killing
of Police Lieutenant de Castillo by Fascist gunmen on Sunday night.
The man who is alleged to have been in charge of the 'execution squad'
that murdered Senor Sotelo was a personal friend of the murdered policeman
and had sworn to avenge him if he were killed.
Contrary to last night's
announcement that four lieutenants and one captain of police had been
arrested for the crime,
the Government now states that no arrests have been made yet. Two
Madrid evening papers of Conservative-Catholic tendencies have been
suppressed indefinitely for printing uncensored reports of yesterday's
murder.
(3)
Luis
Bolin, Spain, the Vital Years (1967)
Calvo Sotelo had been Finance Minister under Primo de Rivera, and
his competence in the field of economics and administrative procedure
was unique. He was as much at ease when balancing the budget as when
drafting municipal and provincial statutes comparable to the best
in any land. The Republic foolishly banished him from Spain. He settled
down quietly in Paris, and for two years devoted himself intensely
to the study of political science and its practice. Elected to the
Cortes by an overwhelming vote in November 1933, he became leader
of the right-wing opposition in Parliament, and the parliamentary
immunity he supposedly
enjoyed allowed him to attend meetings, make
speeches and participate actively in the nation's political life.
I saw him repeatedly in
Paris, and again when he returned to Madrid. At first dour and uncompromising,
when one broke through his guard he unleashed his thoughts in a torrent
of words - as a public speaker he could sweep his audience off its
feet - and dazzled his listeners
with the depth and clarity of his vision and the firmness of the grounds
on which he based it. Calvo Sotelo was only forty-three, ten years
older than Jose Antonio, when the Premier of a Popular Front Government
had him taken from his wife and children and murdered at
midnight in a street in Madrid.
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