He was one of three military leaders (the other two were Francisco Franco and Carlos Masquelet Lacaci) who were present at the meeting of Eduardo López Ochoa with the Ministers of War (Diego Hidalgo) and the Interior (Eloy Vaquero Cantillo) which organized the suppression of the insurrection in Asturias in 1934.

[2] He left his wife and two daughters in Badajoz and they were captured by the rebels after the conquest of the city by Colonel Juan Yagüe.

The revolution had reached Madrid and its influence was felt in a sub-committee in the Ministry made up of Lieutenant Colonel Hernández Saravia, commanders Hidalgo de Cisneros, Chirlandas and Mezquita, captains Cordón, Núñez Mazas and Freire and Lieutenant Martin Blazquez.

In the Cabinet he opposed the planned invasion of Majorca by Captain Alberto Bayo (that was subsequently carried out on August 16, 1936 and turn out to be a failure), arguing for the need to use the forces to defend Madrid in the Zaragoza and Huesca sieges in the almost defenceless Aragon front.

Affected by the shooting of his brother by the anarchist militias and the imprisonment of his wife and daughters by rebels, he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be admitted to the Leganes psychiatric hospital.