Luis Carrero Blanco
Encyclopedia
Don
Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero Blanco, Grandee of Spain (4 March 1904 – 20 December 1973) was a Spanish
admiral
and long-time confidant of dictator Francisco Franco
.
, the Spanish naval academy, in 1918 and participated in the Rif War
of 1924–1926.
In 1929 he married María del Carmen Pichot y Villa, by whom he had four children.
In July 1936, when the Spanish Civil War
erupted, Carrero Blanco found himself behind the coalescing Republican
line. Taking refuge in the embassy of Mexico
and later that of France
, he was able to sneak across the front and reach the Nationalist side in June 1937. Carrero Blanco then served in the Nationalist navy. After the Nationalist victory and subsequent installation of Generalísimo Francisco Franco as military dictator (Caudillo
) of Spain, Carrero Blanco became one of his closest collaborators as well as chief of naval operations. He was said to be in opposition to Spain entering World War II
on the side of the Axis powers, a notably different political position compared to some other Falangists
. Carrero Blanco himself was a monarchist
. Devoted to the Roman Catholic Church
, he was close to Opus Dei
.
With the infusion of American capital in the 1950s, the Franco regime's Falangist policies were liberalized, without relaxing authoritarian control. The Falange syndicalists resisted the economic opening of the regime to capitalistic influences, while the technocrats
of Opus Dei "de-emphasized the role of the syndicates and favored increased competition as a means of achieving rapid economic growth. The technocrats prevailed, and members of Opus Dei assumed significant posts in Franco's 1957 cabinet" (U.S. Library of Congress). Carrero Blanco, without explicitly supporting political liberalization, aspired to economic integration with European markets. Carrero Blanco became a minister in Franco's regime in 1957.
Carrero Blanco was made vice-admiral (1963) and admiral in 1966; he held the post of vice-president of the state council from 1967 to 1973.
His political career reached its zenith on 8 June 1973 upon being named the Prime Minister of Spain
and made a top deputy to Franco. It seemed as though it was only a matter of time before he would succeed the ailing dictator.
Within about six months of being named prime minister, Carrero Blanco was assassinated in Madrid
by four Basque
members of ETA
, who carried out a bombing while he returned from Mass in a Dodge 3700. ETA placed 80–100 kg of explosives in a tunnel they had excavated under the street. The blast catapulted the vehicle over the Jesuit monastery in front of which it had run, and it landed on a second floor balcony on the other side.
In their manifesto, justifying the murder, ETA wrote:
This assassination, dubbed Operación Ogro
("Operation Ogre"), was in retaliation for the execution of five political opponents by the regime (including some members of ETA) and was applauded by many opponents of the Francoist government. Since Carrero Blanco could have become the most powerful figure in Spain upon Franco's passing, his death was instrumental in the transition toward a democratic government in that country.
The former ETA member now turned anti-nationalist author Jon Juaristi
contends that ETA's goal with this particular killing was not democratization but a spiral of violence as an attempt to fully destabilize Spain, increase Franco's repression against Basque nationalism and subsequently put the average citizen in the Basque country in the situation where they would have had to accept the lesser evil
in the form of ETA's reaction against Franco's unleashed repression.
In his first speech to the Cortes on 12 February 1974, Carrero Blanco's successor, the new prime minister Carlos Arias Navarro
, promised liberalizing reforms including the right to form political associations. Though he was denounced by hardliners within the regime, the transition had begun.
secret service, another one of the Servicio de Inteligencia Naval and the other belonging to the Alto Estado Mayor), which received assistance from former OAS member Jean-Pierre Cherid, former Triple A Argentine member José María Boccardo and Italian neofascist Mario Ricci, member of Avanguardia Nazionale. Argala, as the ETA member was known, was the only one who could identify the mysterious man who handed up to ETA Carrero Blanco's schedule and itinerary. According to Leonidas, a former member of the Spanish Army who participated to the bombing against Argala, "The explosives came from a US
base. I don't remember with exactitude if it was from Torrejón or Rota
, but I do know that the Americans did not know what for they would be used. It was a personal favor they made to Pedro el Marino" (aka Pedro Martínez) who provided the explosives. Argala's assassination was claimed by the Batallón Vasco Español
(BVE). However, according to Leonidas, "BVE, ATE
or "Triple A" are only labels of convenience used by the same group.
Don (honorific)
Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...
Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero Blanco, Grandee of Spain (4 March 1904 – 20 December 1973) was a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
and long-time confidant of dictator Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
.
Biography
Luis Carrero Blanco entered the Escuela Naval MilitarEscuela Naval Militar
The Escuela Naval Militar de Oficiales at Marín, Pontevedra, in north-western Spain, is the Spanish institution in charge of training the Spanish Navy's officer class, as well as other naval personnel. It has been established here since 1943, when it was moved from its previous location at San...
, the Spanish naval academy, in 1918 and participated in the Rif War
Rif War
The Rif War, also called the Second Moroccan War, was fought between Spain and the Moroccan Rif Berbers.-Rifian forces:...
of 1924–1926.
In 1929 he married María del Carmen Pichot y Villa, by whom he had four children.
In July 1936, when the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
erupted, Carrero Blanco found himself behind the coalescing Republican
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
line. Taking refuge in the embassy of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and later that of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, he was able to sneak across the front and reach the Nationalist side in June 1937. Carrero Blanco then served in the Nationalist navy. After the Nationalist victory and subsequent installation of Generalísimo Francisco Franco as military dictator (Caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
) of Spain, Carrero Blanco became one of his closest collaborators as well as chief of naval operations. He was said to be in opposition to Spain entering World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on the side of the Axis powers, a notably different political position compared to some other Falangists
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
. Carrero Blanco himself was a monarchist
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
. Devoted to the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, he was close to Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
.
With the infusion of American capital in the 1950s, the Franco regime's Falangist policies were liberalized, without relaxing authoritarian control. The Falange syndicalists resisted the economic opening of the regime to capitalistic influences, while the technocrats
Technocracy (bureaucratic)
Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...
of Opus Dei "de-emphasized the role of the syndicates and favored increased competition as a means of achieving rapid economic growth. The technocrats prevailed, and members of Opus Dei assumed significant posts in Franco's 1957 cabinet" (U.S. Library of Congress). Carrero Blanco, without explicitly supporting political liberalization, aspired to economic integration with European markets. Carrero Blanco became a minister in Franco's regime in 1957.
Carrero Blanco was made vice-admiral (1963) and admiral in 1966; he held the post of vice-president of the state council from 1967 to 1973.
His political career reached its zenith on 8 June 1973 upon being named the Prime Minister of Spain
Prime Minister of Spain
The President of the Government of Spain , sometimes known in English as the Prime Minister of Spain, is the head of Government of Spain. The current office is established under the Constitution of 1978...
and made a top deputy to Franco. It seemed as though it was only a matter of time before he would succeed the ailing dictator.
Assassination
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
by four Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
members of ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
, who carried out a bombing while he returned from Mass in a Dodge 3700. ETA placed 80–100 kg of explosives in a tunnel they had excavated under the street. The blast catapulted the vehicle over the Jesuit monastery in front of which it had run, and it landed on a second floor balcony on the other side.
In their manifesto, justifying the murder, ETA wrote:
"The execution in itself had an order and some clear objectives. From the beginning of 1951 Carrero Blanco practically occupied the government headquarters in the regime. Carrero Blanco symbolized better than anyone else the figure of "pure Francoism" and without totally linking himself to any of the Francoist tendencies, he covertly attempted to push Opus Dei into power. A man without scruples conscientiously mounted his own State within the State: he created a network of informers within the Ministries, in the Army, in the Falange, and also in Opus Dei. His police managed to put themselves into all the Francoist apparatus. Thus he made himself the key element of the system and a fundamental piece of the oligarchy's political game. On the other hand, he came to be irreplaceable for his experience and capacity to maneuver and because nobody managed as he did to maintain the internal equilibrium of Francoism [...]".
This assassination, dubbed Operación Ogro
Operación Ogro
Operación Ogro was the name given by ETA to the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco the Prime Minister of Spain in 1973...
("Operation Ogre"), was in retaliation for the execution of five political opponents by the regime (including some members of ETA) and was applauded by many opponents of the Francoist government. Since Carrero Blanco could have become the most powerful figure in Spain upon Franco's passing, his death was instrumental in the transition toward a democratic government in that country.
The former ETA member now turned anti-nationalist author Jon Juaristi
Jon Juaristi
Jon Juaristi Linacero is a Spanish poet, essayist and translator in Spanish and Basque, as well as a self-confessed former ETA militant...
contends that ETA's goal with this particular killing was not democratization but a spiral of violence as an attempt to fully destabilize Spain, increase Franco's repression against Basque nationalism and subsequently put the average citizen in the Basque country in the situation where they would have had to accept the lesser evil
Lesser of two evils principle
The lesser evil or lesser of two evils principle is the idea in politics and political science that of two bad choices, one isn't as bad as the other, and should be chosen over the one that is a greater threat....
in the form of ETA's reaction against Franco's unleashed repression.
In his first speech to the Cortes on 12 February 1974, Carrero Blanco's successor, the new prime minister Carlos Arias Navarro
Carlos Arias Navarro
Don Carlos Arias-Navarro, 1st Marquis of Arias-Navarro, Grandee of Spain, born Carlos Arias y Navarro was one of the best known Spanish politicians during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco....
, promised liberalizing reforms including the right to form political associations. Though he was denounced by hardliners within the regime, the transition had begun.
Reprisal
One of the members of the ETA cell who had assassinated Carrero Blanco was himself assassinated by a car bomb in the south of France on December 21, 1978 by a Spanish far-right group organized from inside the Navy (including one member of the CESIDCeSID
The Centre for Free Elections and Democracy is a non-governmental, non-profit organization in the Republic of Serbia founded in 1997. The organization deals with election monitoring in Serbia and the parallel counting up of the votes...
secret service, another one of the Servicio de Inteligencia Naval and the other belonging to the Alto Estado Mayor), which received assistance from former OAS member Jean-Pierre Cherid, former Triple A Argentine member José María Boccardo and Italian neofascist Mario Ricci, member of Avanguardia Nazionale. Argala, as the ETA member was known, was the only one who could identify the mysterious man who handed up to ETA Carrero Blanco's schedule and itinerary. According to Leonidas, a former member of the Spanish Army who participated to the bombing against Argala, "The explosives came from a US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
base. I don't remember with exactitude if it was from Torrejón or Rota
Rota, Spain
-External references:*, official website * On-line since 1999! News, premiere information, pictures, weather, etc. Into Spanish, English... ****- External links :...
, but I do know that the Americans did not know what for they would be used. It was a personal favor they made to Pedro el Marino" (aka Pedro Martínez) who provided the explosives. Argala's assassination was claimed by the Batallón Vasco Español
Batallón Vasco Español
The Batallón Vasco Español was a Spanish Basque right-wing paramilitary group active from 1975 to 1981, primarily in French Basque Country.The BVE employed violence mainly against Basque separatist groups....
(BVE). However, according to Leonidas, "BVE, ATE
Ate
Atë or Aite a Greek word for "ruin, folly, delusion", is the action performed by the hero, usually because of hubris, that leads to his or her death or downfall. There is also a goddess by that name in Greek mythology, a personification of the same.In Homer's Iliad she is called eldest daughter...
or "Triple A" are only labels of convenience used by the same group.
Descendants
He and his wife had five children:- Doña María del Carmen Carrero-Blanco y Pichot
- Doña Angelines Carrero-Blanco y Pichot:
- María Schoendorff y Carrero-Blanco
- Don Guillermo Carrero-Blanco y Pichot
- Don Luis Carrero-Blanco y Pichot (b. CartagenaCartagena, SpainCartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
, 28 March 1930), 2nd Duke of Carrero-Blanco Grandee of Spain, married on 21 December 1960 María de las Mercedes Martín-Artajo y Saracho (b. MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 9 June 1936), and had descendants:- Don Luis Carrero-Blanco y Martín-Artajo (b. CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, 13 October 1961) - Don Carlos Carrero-Blanco y Martín-Artajo (b. MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 28 July 1963) - Don Pablo Carrero-Blanco y Martín-Artajo (b. MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 5 January 1967) - Don Alberto Carrero-Blanco y Martín-Artajo (b. CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, 12 May 1968) - Doña Lucía Carrero-Blanco y Martín-Artajo (b. CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, 4 August 1971)
- Don Luis Carrero-Blanco y Martín-Artajo (b. Cádiz
- Don José Enrique Carrero-Blanco y Pichot (b. Palma de Mallorca, 1 May 1939), married on 9 March 1969 María Victoria Martínez-Hombre Capellán (b. OviedoOviedoOviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
, 25 May 1945), and had descendants:- Don Luis Carrero-Blanco Martínez (b. CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, 4 January 1974) - Don Julio Carrero-Blanco Martínez-Hombre (b. CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, 25 July 1977) - Don José Enrique Carrero-Blanco Martínez-Hombre (b. CartagenaCartagena, SpainCartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
, 9 June 1981)
- Don Luis Carrero-Blanco Martínez (b. Cádiz