2023-04-20 01:04:27
The first nail in the coffin was raised by the Second Republic. In mid-March 1936, with the embers of violence crackling alive in the Spanish streets, Manuel Azaña outlawed the Falange and orchestrated a series of raids in which he himself was imprisoned. Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. The founder of the party was accused of “violation of the government closure of the Nicasio Gallego premises”; an excuse like any other to arrest him. He never tasted the honey of freedom again. His relief in the front line was taken by the second national head of FE de las JONS, Federico Manuel Hedilla Larreyuntil then in the north.
The Cantabrian did not know what he was getting into. Since he was elected to lead the party’s Interim Command Board in September he has been caught between two waters. On the one hand, those who wanted to win the Civil War in the heat of the insurgents and under the sole command of Francisco Franco; on the other, those who yearned for the Falange to consolidate itself as an autonomous force and promote, in the medium term, a national-syndicalist state similar to that of the distant German neighbor. The successor of ‘The absent’, as Primo de Rivera began to be known, he was one of the latter. And that, although he didn’t know it yet, was going to cost him two death sentences in the long run.
Anger in the Falange
Franco was no fool, and used to send trial balloons. In one breath, rumors began to spread of a possible unification of all the forces of the rebellious side; Hedilla was reluctant, but the tide was difficult to stem. To settle the issue, the Cantabrian convened an extraordinary council with the aim of electing a national leader with the ability to make decisions autonomously. At least, or so he argued, “until the indisputable national leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, returns to his post.” A fallacy, since he was already known in the groups that the Republic had shot him that same November 20 in the Provincial Prison of Alicante.
Each side made a move in that macabre game of tricksters. And those who dealt the first blow were the acolytes of agustin aznar. The Spanish historian narrates Julio Gil Pecharromán In the biography on Hedilla written for the Royal Academy of History that this group went ahead and, four days before the extraordinary council, staged its particular coup d’état: «On the 16th, a group of commanders, led by Rafael Garceranlaunched a coup to remove Hedilla and replace him with a triumvirate made up of Agustín Aznar, Sancho Davila and Jose Moreno». They accused him of treason, of being illiterate and of being soft.
And the truth is that Hedilla had little of a rude leader. Tremulus as a branch, he retired to his winter quarters and asked for advice… from Franco! And this one, cuckoo, encouraged him to fight and promised him the leadership of the party that would be born after unification. That led to the foreseeable: a bloodbath. In the following hours, a shooting took place at the pension where Dávila slept in the purest ‘far west’ style. There was one death per side. And immediately afterwards, another maelstrom of shots at the home of a high-ranking FAITH of the JONS. The leader of the insurgents that went like a glove to further weaken the party. Determined, he ordered the arrest of those who had risen up against Primo de Rivera’s successor, now more absent than ever.
Manuel Hedilla
Hedilla’s life was a carousel of emotions. She brought the national council forward to April 18. There he was finally chosen as National Head of the Falange and successor to Primo de Rivera. Although he did not last long in office. A day later, Franco landed what had been suspected for weeks and announced on the radio the content of the now famous Unification Decree: «An efficient government action, which fulfills being that of the new Spanish State, born on the other hand under the sign of the unity and greatness of the Homeland, demands that the individual and collective action of all Spaniards be subordinated to their common destiny”.
In this way, what, in the words of the Falange leaders, was the greatest betrayal of Francisco Franco was perpetrated. With a stroke of the pen, the man from Ferrol unified FE de las JONS and Carlism in a single party: FET and the JONS, or Traditionalist Spanish Falange and the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista. Thus, in addition to merging two groups of disparate ideas and different motivations, he rose as the sole command and pushed the most unruly bosses into the background. In turn, and clever as he was, he raised to the chair a new dome sympathetic to his cause. Many birds fell with one stone.
start the betrayal
The heart of the Falange, on the other hand, was not a haven of peace. Hedilla had a position in the new party within reach, but in front of him there were hundreds of opponents who refused to unify. Pilar Primo de Rivera herself, sister of the founder, asked him to reject the appointment: «In the name of José Antonio, do not accept it in any way. Don’t accept!” The list of faithful multiplied, and some characters such as Colonel Juan Yagüe pledged to fight for him when the time came: “Now, more than ever, at your command!” In the end, the Cantabrian felt sufficiently supported to decline the proposal and send a telegram to the provincial chiefs so that they would only follow his orders.
It was the last thing he did in freedom. On April 25, he was arrested and placed before a summary court martial. Hedilla was charged with contempt of the Unification Decree, treason and inducing rebellion due to the altercations that occurred days before. According to Jesús Palacios in ‘Las cartas de Franco’, the instructor in the first process went so far as to affirm –and it was not a small thing– that the Falange leader had concocted a plan to assault the Salamanca Headquarters, finish off all those present with a gas blow and proclaim himself generalissimo of the armies. In the second, they accused him of maintaining political relations with the socialist Indalecio Prieto.
Anything was worth it to get him out of the way. In the end, he was sentenced to two death sentences. The pleas were useless. On June 9, 1937, the Supreme Court of Military Justice ratified the sentence. The situation was desperate. In the midst of that madness, and through the mediation of Serrano Suñer, Nicolás Franco –brother of the Caudillo– and the German embassy, the same mother of the Cantabrian gave Franco a letter written by Hedilla with an emotional request for grace. It was the last bullet before falling in charge of a firing squad.
The letter of mercy
My respected General.
I take the liberty of addressing Your Excellency after my mother, naturally anguished, has obtained permission from Don Nicolás who, chivalrously and deferentially, has received it.
I, my general, do not allow myself, due to patriotism or indiscipline, to discuss the determinations of Justice, even if they affect my life and although this life has been judged so many times in the service of the country and of the National Crusade that YOU lead.
But I beg Your Excellency to allow me at this moment to affirm my allegiance to you and offer you, as I have loyally offered you so many times, the most vehement cooperation in the common work in which we are all committed, although I will only have days or hours left for it. of life. I could have been clumsy, but I have never been a traitor. I have been able to make a mistake in a personal determination and I have not been able to correctly measure its scope. Do you think, General, that if I had imagined that this determination would sometimes cause me to be described as a traitor to Your Excellency, with whom such cordial friendship has united me, or to my Country, to which I am used to offering so much, I would have preferred death.
Human justice, by condemning me to death twice, has not done me as much moral damage as by qualifying my acts of rebellion or treason at this time and against Your Excellency Against this qualification my conscience and my history, lived before the Movement in cooperation, rebel Your Excellency, on as many occasions as Your Excellency, did me the honor of requesting me, except for the last one in which, due to surely erroneous criteria and without calculating the havoc that my refusal could cause, I did not do so. And since human justice has been implacable with me and has not taken into account a single precedent, I can only trust in Divine Justice. And God gives this justice to those who govern the peoples and, because they are strong, can exercise it with more generosity. This is the case of Your Excellency, whom I demand in the name of our old friendship to exercise that prerogative of clemency and magnanimity.
Manuel Hedilla (X) presiding over a parade in Burgos, shortly before his arrest. To his right, the provincial chief José Andino
A Caudillo is never stronger, my general, than when he exercises clemency. He sees he has just exercised it, to the astonishment of the world, with those who have made arms against Spain. I, and those who are on trial or sentenced with me, have offered our country a thousand times over our blood, our youth, our impetus. No one will be able to prove a single one of the serious accusations under which we are condemned. Acts of good faith, or at most inexperience or recklessness, have been given a criminal interpretation. For what there is error in it is for what I come to ask Your Excellency for the clemency exercised by the sources of spirit and arm.
[…] Arm raised, I remain at your service, with the anticipation of my gratitude. Go Spain!
Manuel Hedilla.
It was a surprise, but Franco took pity on Hedilla and commuted his two death sentences to three decades in prison. In part, it was much better than making him a martyr. During his years behind bars, the politician was considered the legitimate leader of FE de las JONS for sectors critical of Francoism. He passed through Las Palmas between 1937 and 1941; and, from there, to Mallorca until 1946. Once released, he assumed a low profile until his death. For him, the militancy was over.
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