Osvaldo Capable

Oswaldo Fernando de la Caridad Capaz Montes —sometimes written Osvaldo Capaz— (Old Town of Nuevitas (Cuba), March 17, 1894-Madrid, 23 August 1936) was a Spanish soldier, known for belonging to the group of so-called "Africanists". As a colonel he became famous in 1934 for his effective occupation of Ifni. At the beginning of the civil war, he was assassinated in the massacre at the Modelo prison in Madrid.

Biography

Military career

He entered the Toledo Military Infantry Academy in 1910. He spent most of his career in the Infantry Corps in Morocco. Captain of the indigenous Police in 1922, he actively participated in the Rif War and was fluent in the Arabic language. His most significant action was carried out, already as a commander, during the summer of 1926. On a mission entrusted by General Goded, chief of High Commissioner Sanjurjo's General Staff was entrusted with subduing a whole series of cabils in the Gómara region, disarming them and naming indigenous authorities addicted to Spanish colonial power.

Commanding an indigenous harka of about a thousand men and supported by the Spanish navy and air force, in two months he subdued ten Kabyles and confiscated almost 3,000 rifles, entering Chefchaouen on August 10, 1926. This march would give him a reputation as a brilliant military leader and, above all, as possessing great political qualities -since most of the submissions of the Kabyles had not been produced by force, although some scholars affirm that, rather than methods political, those applied by Capaz consisted purely and simply of bribes—, which would later earn him several positions in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco. Promoted first to lieutenant colonel and later to colonel, he took part in pacification operations in the area, later being appointed delegate of Indigenous Affairs of the High Commission of Spain in Morocco in 1927, establishing an effective system of control of the Riffian Kabyles through the Military Intervention Service. He remained in this position until 1931, when, after the advent of the Republic, he was dismissed by the new high commissioner Luciano López Ferrer, for opposing Capaz to the reduction of Military Interventions foreseen by the high commissioner.

After his dismissal, Manuel Azaña appointed him to a command in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with the position of colonel. With the radical government of Lerroux, Capaz returned to Morocco, again as a delegate for Indigenous Affairs. That year, the government decided to occupy the Ifni territory, nominally under Spanish sovereignty. Capaz was assigned to Cabo Juby, where he studied the possibilities of occupation of the Ifni territory, and made contact with the tribes of the area. On April 6, 1934, he landed in Ifni, taking effective possession of its capital, Sidi Ifni, and the rest of the territory—again bribing the caids of the area's tribes. Once the occupation was officially carried out, he was appointed civil and military governor of Ifni. That year he was promoted to general on August 29, 1934, highlighting his prestige in the positions held in his last job. He was nominated for the Naval Merit Cross and had other important decorations. Likewise, the name of Puerto Capaz was given to the place known as Punta de Pescadores, on the coast of Gómara.

Civil War

In 1936 he was commanding general of Ceuta. It is probable that he was involved in the July 1936 uprising against the government of the Republic, which gave rise to the civil war, but he tried not to show his involvement prematurely, for which he arranged a trip to Madrid for the dates of the uprising, thus avoiding taking an explicit position. However, in Madrid, he was arrested by militiamen and interned in the Modelo Prison in Madrid. On August 22, after the prison was occupied by a large group of anarchist militiamen, they selected a group of right-wing soldiers and politicians who were shot on the night of August 22-23.

While Stanley Payne describes him as a «moderate military man, with republican tendencies», María Rosa de Madariaga describes him as clearly «Africanist».

Work

He wrote a book that Pedro Baños cites (This is how the world is dominated, Planeta, 2018) with the title Modalidades de la guerra de montaña en Marocco published in 1931 where talks about the psychology of combatants in the protectorate.