2023-12-15 14:11:17
April 14, 1936 should have been a day of celebration, the fifth anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Republic. «Public buildings raised the tricolor flag. The trams were associated with the joy and appeared with banners […]. Everyone saluted with a clenched fist and showed great republican joy. The Paseo de la Castellana was filled and stands were erected for the official element. The new president of the Republic, Don Diego Martínez Barrio, arrived [elegido solo una semana antes y cesado un mes después], with its gala escort, and then the Government and the other authorities. “The usual precautions,” he said. ‘The Future Century’ in its afternoon edition.
However, as the same newspaper reported, everything went wrong before noon, as the procession passed along Madrid’s Gran Vía: «The troops and, finally, the Civil Guard paraded. Before, a firecracker exploded, causing alarm […]. We will only say, as a novelty of this parade, that on the sides of the troops and the Civil Guard, as if opening the street or framing them, were the socialist and communist youth, as well as their “pioneers” – as they call their children – and others. strategic elements of the social army, all singing the International, raising their fists and shouting the slogan “UHP” (Unite Proletarian Brothers).
As if it were a fortuitous warning, before the tragedy there was a small incident that spread panic among those attending the parade, as accustomed as they were in those days to street violence throughout Spain. «On the Paseo de la Castellana, an individual located behind the presidential tribune raised in front of Marqués de Riscal Street, threw a firecracker. The alarm was great, even greater when the news spread through Madrid, since in the first moments it was assured that it was a bomb. Some guards detained the author, who once at the Security Directorate found that he was in a state of drunkenness,” reported ‘El Siglo Futuro’.
Two months later, on June 16, the leader of the Spanish Catholic and conservative CEDA party, José María Gil-Robles, described in the Congress of Deputies the crisis that Spain was experiencing at that time. «Be disillusioned. A country can live in a monarchy or a republic, in a parliamentary system or in a presidential system, in a Soviet system or in fascism, but the only way it does not live is in anarchy. And Spain, today, unfortunately, lives in anarchy […]. We have to say today that we are witnessing the funeral of democracy,” he commented in his speech.
Paramilitary organizations
The entire chamber erupted in shouts, some of support, others of dissent. The situation in the country was, indeed, as serious as Gil-Robles pointed out due to the disorders caused by both the left and the right. To the acts of violence we must add that the political parties on both sides have been preparing their men to fight for weeks, instructing them in military formations. “Everyone on the streets” was the order of a series of political leaders. Neither the president of the Council of Ministers, Santiago Casares Quiroga, nor Gil-Robles, both representatives of groups that had been very prominent in the Second Republic, could now control events.
Following these slogans, on the day of the parade at 12:30, boos began from some members of the Unified Socialist Youth as the units of the Civil Guard passed along Gran Vía. This newly created youth organization grouped together young socialist and communist women. of the country, who were always uniformed. An unknown ensign named Anastasio de los Reyes and several of his companions who were attending the march as civilians confronted these young people, repeatedly shouting “Spain, Spain!”, according to the report by the newspaper ‘El Socialista’.
Suddenly, someone pulled out a gun and started shooting, hitting the aforementioned ensign, who was seriously wounded in the liver. Although he was rushed to a health center in one of the Military Health Corps’ own ambulances that participated in the parade, Anastasio de los Reyes brought in a body. The newspaper ‘Sun’ He assured that the civil guard died “as soon as he entered the Mint.” Two of his companions and other parade attendees, including several women and a child, were also injured. According to ‘Now’, the youngest of those injured by gunshot, 16 years old, named Benedicto Montes Miranda, also died the next day.
Time.news of the altercations at the burial of Anastasio de los Reyes ABC
From the fronts
The February general elections had already been a fight between two great alliances: the Popular Front and the National Front. The first was made up, in addition to the liberals of Casares Quiroga, the PSOE, the PCE and other groups of the working classes and the powerful union of the UGT. In the second, the CEDA of Gil-Robles, but also the monarchists, the agrarians, the large landowners, other right-wing parties and representatives of the Army, the Church and the bourgeoisie. It would be this second group that the murdered civil guard was related to.
It can be said, therefore, that the two fronts were already formed before the Civil War began. All that was needed was for someone to light the fuse. In most history books it is usually said that the murders of Lieutenant José Castillo (July 12) and the former Minister of Finance José Calvo Sotelo (July 13) were responsible, but they tend to forget about Anastasio de los Reyes, whose The death caused serious disturbances throughout the capital that were also covered in the press.
‘El Sol’ told it like this: «After the events, several young people belonging to the Popular Front, forming a demonstration, walked through several streets cheering for the Republic. A demonstration made up of fascist elements also formed on Serrano Street. This gave rise to commotions, races and scares, especially on Villanueva Street, where a group of protesters tried to surround a couple of guards. The arrival of other forces prevented the purpose. About thirty arrests were made.
The place where the obituary of Anastasio de los Reyes was, which was censored by the ABC Republic
ABC Censorship
The news of the murder of De los Reyes in the heart of Madrid put the republican authorities on alert due to the possible consequences it could have in that environment. In particular, they were concerned about the foreseeable protests during his funeral and decided to avoid mass attendance, so they opted to silence the press as much as possible and censored the obituary that was published the next day on ABC. They refused to hand the body over to their eldest son and decided to transfer it directly from the Judicial Depot on Santa Isabel Street to the Almudena Cemetery during the night and without ceremonies.
Outraged, the son went to the Civil Guard Automobile Park, where his father was serving, to inform his colleagues and bosses. All of them moved in uniform and at full speed to the warehouse. After many protests, they managed to have the lifeless body handed over to his descendant. The general director of the Civil Guard, General Sebastián Pozas, quickly came to prevent it under the orders of the Republican Government, but on the way, at the height of the Paseo de la Castellana, the companions of the deceased refused to return him despite the requirements of his superior.
The body of the victim was transferred to the barracks of the Civil Guard of Fine Arts, in the current National Museum of Natural Sciences, where the burning chapel was installed. The censorship of the obituary on ABC, however, had the opposite effect, as many sympathizers went to said barracks to find out the time of the funeral. In the early hours of the morning of April 16, the place was already packed with citizens and political personalities such as Gil Robles and the former Minister of Finance José Calvo Sotelo, both leaders of the two main parties of the parliamentary right.
The Almudena
Around 3:00 p.m., and disobeying the Government, several hundred people formed the funeral procession. The journey to the Almudena cemetery, however, was anything but calm and emotional, as the car with the body of Anastasio de los Reyes was attacked with pistols and machine guns at various points, with the consequent armed response from the opponents. . Several people were seriously injured, one of whom died several days later.
ABC, this time, told what happened in detail the next day: «At the moment when the procession was going to break the march, an individual who was among the crowd took a gun out of his pocket. The action was observed by several people, who pounced on the stranger with the intention of attacking him. Police and security guards managed to prevent him from being beaten by the crowd. […]. In these first riots, a state of excitement and alarm spread among those attending the event and there were scares and races, as a result of which some people were injured.
Between new confrontations and the attempt by the funeral procession to take the coffin to the doors of Congress, where a parliamentary session was being held, the van with the remains finally arrived at the Almudena cemetery at the express wish of his family. Meanwhile, several vans from the Assault Guard, under the orders of Lieutenant José del Castillo, broke up the demonstrations, for which he did not hesitate to order the use of weapons. Although the figures were never completely clear, it is estimated that, during the incidents, six people in the procession died and around thirty were injured. Among the first, Andrés Sáenz de Heredia, 24 years old, cousin of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
These deaths in that prewar environment are usually overlooked in reports about the causes or incidents that led us to the Civil War. These articles usually focus on the murder of Lieutenant Castillo on July 12, 1936 and that of Calvo Sotelo a day later. The first left his house on Augusto Figueroa Street in Madrid to begin his service and was shot by four men. The Falange had pointed this out after the Incidents of the burial of Anastasio de los Reyes. The second was kidnapped from his house by several assault guards and PSOE militants with a false arrest warrant. The truck in which they arrived was supposed to go to the police station, but after driving about two hundred meters, the politician was shot twice in the back of the head. The Civil War began five days later.
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