It happened 90 years ago now. A coup d’état against Republic was about to start in Oviedo in November 1934. The historian tells it Eduardo González Callejaprofessor of the Carlos III Universityin a recently published book “1934. “Involution and revolution in the Second Republic” (Akal2024). Dissatisfied with the president’s “indulgence” Niceto Alcalá Zamora and the right-wing Republicans towards the leaders of the general strike of October 1934monarchist soldiers, Falangists and other far-right elements began to conspire with the ashes of the revolution still hot to take up arms against a Republic that they already considered amortized.
On October 18, the Army of the Republic put down the last pockets of resistance in Asturiasout of control since the 5th. In the rest of the country the revolutionary strike had already ended and the subsequent repression of the movement led by a part of the PSOE and the UGTopened up for the most radical right the possibility of moving from a liberal Republic to some type of more authoritarian regime, in line with the different models existing at that time in Europe.
That was the plan of almost the entire CEDAthe Confederation of Autonomous Rightsalthough there was no consensus regarding the rhythms and depth of this authoritarian turn. Faced with the more institutional and gradualist strategy of its leader, José María Gil Robleswhich was betting on some type of constitutional reform, another sector of the right was already thinking about resorting to military means, the dictatorship and the return of the Bourbons from exile.
González Calleja points out that the trigger for the coup preparations was the pardon of President Alcalá Zamora to Joan Ricart, Federic Escofet and Enric Perezresponsible for Security of the Generalitatsoldiers close to CKD. Sentenced to death in a Military Court of Saragossa for joining revolutionary movement in CataloniaAlcalá Zamora would exert all his pressure to prevent his execution. Angry with the president’s attitude, the most reactionary military would begin to pull strings against a Republic that, even with a right-wing government, once again imposed limits on them. González Calleja thus points to early contacts between the general Juan Yague and the general Jose Sanjurjoexiled in Portugalso that he would lead a military uprising against Alcalá Zamora.
Sanjurjo, a far-right soldier trained in the colonial wars in North Africa, had led a failed statement in August 1932 against the government of the Republic, at that time in the hands of a coalition of center-left socialists and republicans. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he would be released after the victory of the right in the elections of November 1933. From the Portuguese exile in the spa city of EstorilSanjurjo would continue conspiring against the Republic and in permanent contact with the most ultra sectors of the Army and Spanish politics.
A small plane would travel to Estoril to pick up Sanjurjo and take him to Ovied
The plan, Calleja says, would consist of a small plane piloted by the aviator Juan Antonio Ansaldo will travel to the coastal town, in the vicinity of Lisbonto pick up Sanjurjo and take him to Oviedo. There, in the Asturian capital, the general would lead the troops sent north to repress the October revolution. Let’s think that in Asturias there were at that time 15,000 soldiers and 3,000 law enforcement agents, an abundant contingent with which to leave for Madrid, where it was expected that more soldiers would join the coup movement. With the unions and labor parties banned, their press and premises closed, and their leaders and cadres imprisoned, it could be expected that the resistance of the left to this “march on Madrid” would be weak.
José Antonio Primo de Rivera It was also connected to the coup plots of an Army that, in the words of the British correspondent, Henry Buckley He had had the real power of the country in his hands since October “and now that the revolt had been put down he was not willing to let it go.” The Falange leader would go to Asturias between the end of October and the beginning of November to give several rallies and warm up the atmosphere for a military uprising.
Primo de Rivera, Calleja explains, was aware of his weakness in emulating the Italian fascists, and that is why he needed an alliance with a part of the Army to reach a power that not even in his wildest dreams could he dare to conquer by his own means. Provoking the military was therefore strategic in the Falangist plan towards the conquest of the State.
On November 1, 1934, the CEDA ministers left the Radical Party Government in protest at the commutation of 21 of the 23 death sentences handed down by military courts to participants in the events of October 1934. Despite This rudeness, the leadership of the CEDA would not abandon parliamentarism, just as its most exalted bases and the most radical sectors of the coalition wanted. On November 17, Primo de Rivera, a deputy thanks to a pact between the Falange and the monarchists, contacted Sanjurjo to find out if he was willing to fly to Oviedo and lead a “national movement.” A movement that, for the co-founder of Spanish fascism, had to go beyond simple monarchical restoration, incorporating “non-rightist people, conquered to socialism, unionism, and anarchism, thanks to the immense force of the patriotic.”
Finally, the Asturian plot would be abandoned, despite the insistence of the Falangists and other right-wing sectors. Two men would play a key role in stopping the different coup plans designed in the fall of 1934. A politician, José María Gil Robles, in favor of an authoritarian turn, but without breaking with parliamentarism, and a soldier, Francisco Franco. His recommendation: wait.
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