Funeral notice for José Calvo Sotelo

On 13 July 1936, José Calvo Sotelo was assassinated in Madrid. His death marked the end of a series of violent killings that had occurred during the spring of 1936.

After the victory of the Popular Front in February 1936, pressures on the Republican government increased. The unions expected either an intensification of reforms or the triggering of a social revolution. From the right, monarchists, members of the CEDA, and the military sought to overthrow the government. While the unions called strike after strike, the right-wing groups—and especially the military—wove a network of conspiracies. This strategy of violence and pressure spread throughout the country, affecting both towns and cities. In five months, about 428 people died, nearly half of them as a result of interventions by the security forces.

July 1936 arrived amid this tense climate. In that torrid month, several assassinations further heated the political atmosphere. The trainer of the Socialist militias and lieutenant of the Assault Guard, José del Castillo, was murdered on 12 July. This triggered “the vendetta.” His comrades attempted to kidnap José María Gil Robles, but when they couldn’t find the CEDA leader, they went to José Calvo Sotelo’s home and, under false pretenses, took him away. The agents shot him twice in the back of the head inside the van where they were transporting him and abandoned his body at the entrance to the morgue at La Almudena cemetery.

The newspapers were full of photographs of Calvo Sotelo, murdered and lying on the ground. Obituaries and memorial notices denounced the cruelty of his murder while praising his career and how he had given his life for Spain. A martyr and a myth that became intertwined with the coup was born. Although his assassination helped sway the support of some politicians and won the sympathy of part of the population, the July 1936 rebellion was already underway and Calvo Sotelo himself has been involved. Yet the rebels’ mythology turned this crime into both an excuse and a justification for the coup, as if it hadn’t been planned long before.

The photographs of Calvo Sotelo’s funeral, with a crowd giving the raised arm salute, also dominated the front pages. A few days later, the coup broke out and, with its failure, the Spanish Civil War began.

FMP