Jose Enrique Varela

José Enrique Varela Iglesias (San Fernando, April 17, 1891-Tangier, International Zone of Tangier; March 24, 1951) was a Spanish soldier, known for his role during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.

A veteran of the African campaigns, he would be awarded the Laureate Cross of San Fernando twice—being one of the few Spanish soldiers to have such a distinction. Involved in the conspiracies against the Second Republic, after the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the rebel forces and would come to command several military units, playing a relevant role during the war.

After the establishment of the Franco Dictatorship, Varela, who achieved the generalship, was appointed Minister of the Army. He maintained this position until the so-called crisis of August 1942, which led to his departure from the government, although Franco would later appoint him high commissioner of Spain in Morocco, a position he would hold until his death in 1951. He would be posthumously awarded the noble title. of Marquis of Varela de San Fernando, a title that was suppressed after the approval of the Democratic Memory Law.

Biography

Beginnings and military career

José Enrique Varela Iglesias was born in the Cadiz city of San Fernando on April 17, 1891. His father, Juan Varela Pérez, was chief sergeant of the band of the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment.

At the age of 18 he joined the same regiment as his father as a cornet and in 1912, already with the rank of sergeant, he entered the Infantry Academy, obtaining the office of second lieutenant in 1915 from King Alfonso XIII..

Upon leaving the Academy he was assigned to the regular forces of Melilla with the job of lieutenant; There he twice obtained the highest Spanish military decoration, the Laureate Cross of San Fernando. The first in the Muires and Ruman cave combats (Larache), on September 20, 1920. The second in combat on the Abdama plateau (Kabyla Beni Aros) May 12, 1921. If the award of the award It is exceptional, since it is reserved for very distinguished value, the granting of two of them is a rarity to the point that there is only evidence of five other "bilaureate" military personnel: the field marshal, José Rentero Soriano, Generals Sanjurjo and Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, Captain Miguel Rodríguez Bescansa and Captain Pablo Arredondo Acuña, although the latter two received the second laureate posthumously. In 1922 he was named Gentleman of the Chamber with the exercise of King Alfonso XIII. He is promoted to captain for war merits and participates in various war campaigns, among which the landing of Al Hoceima (1925) stands out, which modifies the course of the colonial war and begins the rapid process that will lead to its conclusion.

In February 1926 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel for war merits, he was assigned to Ceuta and received the Individual Military Medal. In April 1929, after the end of the war, he was promoted to colonel for war events and campaign operations, along with Fernando Capaz Montes and Commander Miguel López Bravo.

Second Republic

After the proclamation of the Republic he continued in the army. In August 1932 he took part in the "Sanjurjada", the coup d'état led by General José Sanjurjo. Varela was the designated leader of the uprising in Cádiz. The rebellion in the capital of Cádiz, however, was a failure and Varela would be arrested. Imprisoned by the republican authorities, he shared prison with the Carlists Manuel Delgado and Luis Redondo - also involved in the "Sanjurjada"—. Later transferred to the Guadalajara prison with Luis Redondo, he also maintained contact with Carlists such as Manuel Fal Conde and read books by Carlist ideologues; As a consequence of all this, he would have ended up adhering to Carlism. After the failed coup and his subsequent arrest, Varela accused the Republic of having surrendered to the communists, mixing in his speech religious sacrifice and military (a rhetoric that would make fortune years later during the 1936 uprising), going so far as to compare Sanjurjo's imprisonment with the persecution of Jesus Christ.

After his release from prison, although he resisted leading a Carlist uprising - as some traditionalist leaders proposed - he did agree to supervise the training of the Requetés militias, going so far as to make several clandestine trips to Navarra under the alias of "Don Pepe." By the spring of 1936 the requeté had a force of 30,000 volunteers. In parallel to these activities, Varela continued his career in the army. On October 31, 1935, when José María Gil-Robles was Minister of War and General Franco was head of the Central General Staff, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

Varela, who maintained contact with the Spanish Military Union (UME) and would end up becoming a key figure in this anti-republican organization, participated in several conspiracies against the Republic. In January 1936 he attended a meeting at the home of General Emilio Barrera in which it was agreed to carry out a coup d'état on dates close to the February general elections. A few weeks later, on March 8, he attended another meeting together to several generals in which it was decided to launch a coup against the Popular Front government; During it, Varela was especially "vehement" and in favor of "a coup of audacity and courage." This coup was scheduled to take place on April 20, leaving Varela in charge of taking over the Ministry of War in Madrid. At the last minute, however, the action was aborted. The republican government was aware of these plans, so Varela was exiled to Cádiz.

Spanish civil war

On July 17, when the military garrison of Melilla rose up, the government gave orders for General Varela to remain in custody in the castle of Santa Catalina. However, when the military conspirators launched the uprising in Cádiz, Varela was released. Thus, at the beginning of the uprising (July 18, 1936), Varela, together with José López Pinto and with the help of reinforcements from Morocco, occupied the capital of Cadiz, after a general strike that seemed to have won the city for the workers. The repression in the province of Cádiz by the rebel side, commanded in the area by General Varela, claimed thousands of victims, with Varela himself stating in August 1936 that "in Cádiz we will not leave a Republican or anyone who smells left alive."

After gathering enough African troops, at the beginning of August Varela launched an offensive with the intention of establishing communications between Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba and Granada. At the head of a Moroccan tabor, made up of about 400 troops, Varela managed crossed Andalusia and headed to Granada. Antequera fell on August 12, followed by the towns of Loja and Archidona. Finally, the threat that loomed over the capital of Granada ended when in the middle of the month Varela's forces managed to unite the city with the rest of the rebellious area. That meant the geographical isolation of the province of Malaga. However, his forces did not head towards the capital of Malaga and, instead, marched to Córdoba to reinforce the local garrison. This meant that Varela assumed control of the rebellious columns operating in the Córdoba province.

Upon their arrival in Córdoba, the rebel forces managed to stop a Republican offensive that sought to conquer the city, inflicting a severe defeat. The operations of the "Varela" column extended during the months of August and September, with its troops also participating in repression work in the rear. At the beginning of September its forces returned to the south, to the Malaga sector; The historic town of Ronda fell on September 16, causing a massive flight of civilians towards Malaga.

On September 24, 1936, he replaced Yagüe in command of the troops that, after having advanced through Extremadura and the Tajo valley, prepared to liberate the Alcázar of Toledo (where it resisted after seventy days of siege, surrounded by militiamen of the Republic, Colonel José Moscardó). Before the end of 1936 he intervened in the battles that took place in Madrid and its surroundings (Ciudad Universitaria). The failure in taking Madrid meant the lengthening of the war, so Varela was appointed to other commands. On March 10, 1937, he was appointed commander of the "Ávila" division. Varela took part in numerous subsequent battles (Jarama, Brunete), as well as those of Teruel, Aragón and Levante. He ends the civil war as a division general and is named Minister of the Army in the first government of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

The Franco dictatorship

In 1940 he was named knight grand cross of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.

Since 1940 he was bribed along with other Francoist generals by Great Britain to influence the Caudillo and prevent Spain from entering the Second World War. Churchill authorized a total of 20 million dollars at the time (equivalent to about 331 million today) for bribes that were granted for periods of six months until the end of 1942, since from then on the Franco regime had already turned towards the Allies. From this amount, General Varela, Minister of the Army, collected 2 million dollars at the time.

From August 1939 to 1942 he was Minister of the Army. He created the Army Polytechnic School for Armament and Construction Engineers, the Guard Regiment of the Head of State, the Military Historical Museum, the University Militia and the Barracks Boards. At the same time, he reestablished the General Military Academy and founded the Provisional Officers Transformation Academy.

On August 16, 1942, in a religious ceremony organized by the Carlists in front of the Begoña basilica in Bilbao and presided over by Varela, a group of Falangists caused a bloody incident when one of them threw two bombs into the crowd. The first did not explode, but the other injured almost a hundred attendees. The authorship was awarded to Juan José Domínguez Muñoz of the Spanish University Union (SEU). The incident was classified as an attempted assassination of the Minister of the Army and revealed the separation between him and the Falange.^{[citation required]}

The names of German diplomats in Spain were found in Domínguez's agenda, and following his death, Hitler decorated him with the German Eagle Cross, which gave rise to the possible involvement of this country in the matter. As a result of this event, Varela wrote a letter of resignation to General Franco in which he complained about the Falangist tone of his last speeches, adding that he would only continue in his position if a series of conditions were met, which were the punishment of those responsible. and instigators and the formation of a government "of authority to rectify the errors of the past"; This seemed to mean a cabinet in which monarchists dominated. Domínguez is shot, and on September 2, Franco, after trying to retain him, accepts his resignation and dismisses Galarza, Minister of the Interior. As a compensatory measure, on September 3, he also dismissed his brother-in-law, Ramón Serrano Suñer, as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

As a result of the surrender of Italy, Varela along with other generals of the civil war, such as Kindelán, Orgaz, Solchaga and Saliquet, signed a letter to Franco that was delivered to him by Varela himself in which it was said that The time had come to provide Spain with a state regime under the monarchical form.

In March 1945 he was appointed high commissioner of Spain in Morocco.

According to Paul Preston, "Varela was a harsh reactionary, related to the Carlists, but having twice received the Grand Laureate Cross of San Fernando, the most important Spanish military decoration, for showing courage in the face of the enemy, He enjoyed enormous authority within the Armed Forces. However, even when Varela was Minister of the Army, General Franco made sure that he was monitored, appointing his close confidant Camilo Alonso Vega to the position of undersecretary of the Ministry of the Army.

Posthumous events

After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title of Captain General of the Army, as well as the Marquis of Varela de San Fernando.

He was one of the thirty-five senior officials of the Franco regime accused post-mortem in a summary conducted by Judge Baltasar Garzón, for alleged crimes of illegal detention and crimes against humanity committed during the Spanish civil war and during the first Francoism. According to Garzón, he could not be prosecuted when his death was confirmed, which occurred 57 years before the indictment. This controversial case led to Garzón himself being charged with prevarication and the Supreme Court ruled that Garzón had erred in investigating the case.

An equestrian statue of General Varela in San Fernando (Cádiz), which dated from 1948, was removed at 7:00 in the morning on February 1, 2022. The removal was decided in 2016, " justifying the decision with the effective compliance of Law 52/2007 (popularly known as the Historical Memory Law)".

Honorary distinctions

• Predilect Son of the Province of Cadiz (1951)