Rafael Sánchez Mazas

He was given a short leave on the occasion of the birth of his fourth son, but he failed to report back and instead took up political asylum at the Chilean Embassy in Madrid.

Confined in the prison-ship Uruguay until 24 January 1939, he was taken for execution with about fifty other inmates to the Monastery of Santa Maria del Collell in Girona.

The execution was carried out on 30 January, but as the squad fired at the prisoners Sánchez Mazas leapt out of the group and escaped into the forest.

As one of the camisas viejas (literally "old shirts", referring to Falangists from before the Civil War), Sánchez Mazas was appointed to Francisco Franco's cabinet of 8 August 1939 as a minister without portfolio and vice-president of the Junta Política.

His addition of nationalist rhetoric to a politically delicate situation earned him a severe dressing down from Franco's brother-in-law and fellow minister, Ramón Serrano Suñer, who later claimed to have been so angry that he tried to punch Sánchez Mazas in the face.