Education
Straight from school, he joined the General Military Academy on July 28, 1928, and was later commissioned into the cavalry.
Straight from school, he joined the General Military Academy on July 28, 1928, and was later commissioned into the cavalry.
In the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 he became renowned as a cavalry commander of great bravery in charge of a unit of Requetes and squadrons of the Numancia Regiment, seeing service on the battlefronts of Aragon, Somosierra and Catalonia.
After the war he took several courses in tank warfare but did not neglect his love of horses, serving for a time as riding instructor. He was posted to northern Spain with a light armoured cavalry regiment at Villaviciosa, 25 miles north-east of Oviedo. Then he served with another light armoured cavalry regiment at Alcantara, 170 miles west of Madrid. He was promoted Chief of General Staff at Melilla on the North African coast.
On his return to Spain he became an instructor in tactics first at the army’s Higher School and then at the Staff College. He was promoted Chief of the first section of the General Staff after taking a course in higher military studies for national defence, and being awarded a diploma from the General Staff of the Navy.
Promoted general on February 21, 1969, he was appointed Governor-General two years later and then became Divisional General on January 7, 1972.
One of Spain’s most decorated generals, who runs the Sahara territory with the panache of a 19th-century pro-consul. A cavalryman who has kept himself right up to date with advanced training in tanks and armoured cars. A staff officer highly talented as an instructor, planner and coordinator of operations by the three services. He made his mark as chairman of various inter-ministerial commissions while on the General Staff. Basically an outdoor man who still enjoys horse-riding and regrets his teaching days at riding school are over.