José Enrique Varela
José Enrique Varela Iglesias (born April 17, 1891 in San Fernando in the province of Cádiz , † March 24, 1951 in Tangier , Morocco ) was a Spanish general and high commissioner of Spanish Morocco .
Career
The son of a noncommissioned officer family he suggested in 1909 that always he strives for a military career in the infantry and was 1,910 out of turn to corporal promoted. In 1912 he came to the Military Academy of Toledo , where he distinguished himself through above-average performance and which he left in 1915 as a lieutenant . In the uprisings in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco , Varela , who had risen to lieutenant , twice received the highest Spanish award for personal bravery, the Cruz Laureada de San Fernando . Because of his achievements, he was promoted to captain . On October 6, 1924, Varela, who had been observing the use of chemical weapons in the Rif War as a combat observer , took command of the Harka de Abdelmalek after the Sherif Abdelmalek had been killed in battle, and made a group of 900 war-experienced men out of them two infantry Tabores and one mounted Mía divided. On September 8, 1925, his Harka de Varela storms the Rif republic contaminated with mustard gas (Lost) near Al-Hoceima . By 1927 he rose to lieutenant colonel and received the Medalla Militar . Towards the end of the 1920s he studied the organization of the infantry there in Germany, France and Switzerland. The Second Spanish Republic saw him as a colonel at the head of a regiment of the Infantería de Marina . He was removed from this position and imprisoned in 1932 after the failed military coup by General Sanjurjo . Although he had not participated in the coup himself, his friendship with General Sanjurjo was his undoing. During his imprisonment, he met the Carlist leader Manuel Fal Conde and helped train the Carlist for a civil war that was already looming . In 1934 he was acquitted of his involvement in the attempted coup d'état Sanjurjo and came to the war school in Madrid , where he was promoted to brigadier general. Varela, who remained an avowed monarchist throughout his life , could never make friends with the republic and was ready to participate in another military coup after the bloody riots against the nobility and clergy following the election victory of the Frente Popular . He therefore joined the putschists around General Francisco Franco .
Varela in the Spanish Civil War
In the first days of the Spanish Civil War , Varela led the coup in Cádiz , later in Seville and throughout western and northern Andalusia . In September 1936, Varela was responsible for the massacre of Republican soldiers and the civilian population when Toledo was captured. War correspondents were not permitted during the last attack on the city. Instead, the siege of the Alcázar of Toledo was reworked all the more extensively by the fascist propaganda . At the end of 1936 he fought off Madrid in the Battle of the Jarama , and later successfully defended Segovia and Brunete against republican attacks. Elevated to division general , he led the operations to recapture Teruel in northeastern Spain in 1937/38 and remained on this front with his army corps until the end of the war.
Army Minister
In 1939 Varela was appointed Minister of the Army, as such he worked to ensure that Spain remained neutral during World War II. It became apparent that he was one of the 30 generals who were paid by Juan March for this, which led to his resignation in 1942.
High Commissioner in Spanish Morocco
From March 4, 1945 to March 24, 1951, José Varela was appointed High Commissioner for Spanish Morocco by Francisco Franco . Varela was known for his brutality. While Franco was courting the Arab League , Varela tried to get the nationalists out of the Moroccans. He banned public gatherings and prevented those suspected of being nationalists from going to the Rif Mountains . Anyone who was picked up on the way there was punished across the board: the punishment was public, they were flogged with a rope that the owner of the Hotel Faro always kept ready in a salt solution. Local tribal farmers did not punish them like this for fear of their reactions. They were foreigners on whom they made their examples: people who came from Melilla or Tetuan , who they identified by wearing jackets or having their hair cut in European style; either those who did not shave their heads or did not wear a fez , or those who wore a "nationalist fez" believed to be part of the nationalist Istiqlal party. To Varela's resentment, Franco Sidi Mohammed allowed a trip to the Spanish protectorate. His procession was cheered all along the route and the caliph declared in a welcoming speech in Asilah : “Morocco is a nation and has only one ruler. ... The Moroccans in the Spanish zone show their loyalty to their Majesty Mohammed V (Morocco) , the commander of the faithful and sole leader of Morocco. "
In 1951 Varela died of leukemia in Morocco . He was posthumously promoted to Capitán General , the highest military rank in Spain.
Individual evidence
- ^ Sebastian Balfour Deadly Embrace: Morocco and the Road to the Spanish Civil War , Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 349, p. 195
- ^ Hugh Thomas : The Spanish Civil War , New York 2001, p. 399
- ^ CR Pennell Morocco Since 1830: A History C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, p. 271.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Varela, José Enrique |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | José Enrique Varela Iglesias |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 17, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Fernando (Spain) |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 24, 1951 |
| Place of death | Tangier , Morocco |