1936 Carlist coup attempt
The scheme, named Plan de los Tres Frentes, envisioned some 25,000 armed requeté volunteers advancing from Navarre, Maestrazgo and Extremadura towards Madrid, combined with an attempt to seize key governmental buildings by Madrid-based conspirators.
The scheme of a Carlist-only insurgence did not enjoy unanimous support within the CT; it was undermined by a competitive plan of a joint Carlist-military coup, promoted mostly by the local Navarrese executive.
Since the 1830s the country was multiple times rocked by Carlist attempts to topple the ruling regime, and its principal means when striving for power has usually been a rifle, not a ballot paper.
Its paramilitary branch, Requeté, was developed with defensive strategy in mind and its immediate objectives amounted to protecting religious premises or party rallies, even though some might have been contemplating unspecified subversive schemes in the future.
At times single highly positioned individuals might have joined right-wing plots and could have pledged requetés' participation in insurgent action – like in case of the 1932 Sanjurjada – but the official CT executive preferred to stay away from rebellious conspiracy plans.
[3] The same year he set up Junta Técnica Militar (JTM), an auxiliary body composed of retired army officers;[4] its purpose was to co-ordinate Carlist preparations for future violent action, whatever shape it would assume: a coup, a move to suppress an unfolding revolution, or self-defense against crackdown by state security.
[6] The results of the February 1936 elections, Frente Popular rule and radical left-wing turn of the government convinced the Carlist executive that imminent revolution was behind the corner, and that the time for action has arrived.
In the early 1930s CT tried to turn it into sort of a party militia, but with rather poor results; the branch consisted of no more than few thousand young males in groups scattered across some cities, mostly in Catalonia and Levante.
However, since 1932 the organisation underwent major change; apart from increased recruitment, it re-focused on smaller towns and villages, moved its centre of gravity to Navarre, got re-structured in paramilitary terms, and its members were undergoing weekend countryside trainings in infantry tactics and usage of firearms.
[11] One major problem of the organisation was that it remained dramatically short of competent NCOs and there were few professional officers involved, usually these forced to early retirement during the Azaña reform.
Another issue of major concern became weapons, so far reduced mostly to privately owned hunting rifles, old units stockpiled from earlier violent attempts, and firearms obtained by smuggling from abroad or procured illegally in Spain.
[15] In contrast to urban-oriented action groups "primarily accustomed to street fighting and pistolerismo", maintained by other parties,[16] Requeté became a "genuine citizen army" capable of performing small-scale tactical military operations.
[17] On February 22, 1936, barely a week after elections which produced the victory of Frente Popular, the Navarrese requetés were put on state of "permanent war-readiness"; one scholar lines it up as a first step towards insurrection,[18] but another claims it might have been a defensive measure, adopted in anticipation of post-electoral unrest.
It is not clear whether the Junta has ever met in corpore; many of its members lived elsewhere, e.g. Zamanillo left his native Santander but he settled in the Navarrese border town of Elizondo, some 30 km from Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
It is known that Enrique Varela and Manuel Fernández Pérez, involved in the military plot, were "colaboradores de la CT" and most likely informed Carlist command about at least some developments.
Rapid and violent nightly takeover of municipalities in 3 focos of rebellion was to follow; units of some 250 men each were to depose local authorities, cut communications, seize weapons from Guardia Civil or army depots and recruit new volunteers.
The plan involved 3 generals (Muslera, Sanjurjo, Villegas) a group of colonels (Varela, Serrador, Baselga, González Aguilar, Rada) and majors (Utrilla, Díaz Prieto, Díez Conde, Enrile, Onrubia Anguiano, Redondo, Rodríguez, Velarde de Santander), plus a number of junior officers.
Pamplonese requeté sub-units practiced infantry tactics in the Navarrese countryside,[52] though unclear as specifically in relation to Plan de los Tres Frentes.
[54] Arms procurement was specifically entrusted to Sección de Armas y Transportes of JTM; the unit was headed by Don Javier, who because of his financial status and links to various French legitimist and other right-wing networks was relatively well positioned when it comes to purchase of firearms.
[56] Some weapons were procured internally; Agustín Tellería from the local Gipuzkoan bourgeoisie arranged a hoax which sent 17 cases of rifles and pistols, manufactured in the Eibar plant,[57] to a bogus Bilbao company instead of the original customer in Belgium.
Having taken advantage of his position, in March he arranged manufacturing of some 300 (other sources mention 100)[60] Guardia Civil uniforms in a local Zaragoza company; its management was misled into believing they were dealing with an official governmental order.
[61] In either April or early May complete uniforms including tricorns and leather equipment were delivered to a hidden Carlist depot in Madrid; the plan was to use them when attempting to take control of ministerial and army buildings during the rising.
[64] Their assumption was that according to the best case scenario the army would join the unfolding rebellion; other option was that it would adopt benevolent neutrality, allowing a "March on Rome" in the Spanish version,[65] or would get divided.
Though he agreed to preside over "Provisional Government for the Restoration of Monarchy",[68] in mid-May he started to treat Mola as his representative and suggested to Fal to commence direct talks with him in Pamplona.
Following few weeks of investigation Tellería ended up behind bars,[75] even though links leading from him to Carlist conspiracy command were not uncovered; some Madrid conspirators involved, like González de Gregorio and Heliodoro Tella, fled abroad.
[76] In early June Directór General de Seguridad, José Alonso Mallol, raided military and other premises in Pamplona; the conspirators were warned beforehand and no evidence of wrongdoing was found, but the requeté commander in Navarre, Utrilla, was detained anyway.
[79] Another author underlines that in early June Fal Conde still preferred a Carlist "putch desencadenado en Madrid" and tended to accept an alliance with military only if a Carlist-only coup proves impossible.
Carlist hopes about recognition on part of Portugal or Italy and speculations that French cavalry might at one point intervene against Frente Popular are quoted as samples of grotesque and ludicrous misjudgment.
[93] It is noted that insurgency was conceived in 19-century terms, assuming that most population would remain indifferent; in fact, the Spanish society of the mid-1930s was highly mobilized and early months of the Civil War demonstrated that left-wing militias were capable of defeating even the regular army, let alone right-wing paramilitary.
By undertaking independent talks with Mola they effectively opened an alternative insurgency path; in early June 1936 it relegated a Carlist-only rising into a secondary option and eventually resulted in Comunión Tradicionalista accessing the military conspiracy as a junior partner.
