Luis Carrero Blanco

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Monument to Luis Carrero Blanco in Santoña (Cantabria, Spain) by Juan de Ávalos

Luis Carrero Blanco (March 4, 1903, Santoña, Cantabria – December 20, 1973, Madrid, Spain) was a Spanish admiral and statesman. He briefly served as Prime Minister of Spain and was thought to be the likely successor to Francisco Franco. His death may have facilitated Spain's move to democracy since Franco died without an ideologically similar successor ^[1].

1 Biography
2 1973 assassination
3 1978 reprisal assassination of Argala
4 References
5 Bibliography
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Luis Carrero Blanco entered the Escuela Naval Militar, the Spanish Naval Academy, in 1918 and participated in the Moroccan campaign of 1924-1926.

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 of 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 a 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 the chief patron of the powerful Catholic pressure group, Opus Dei, within the Franco government.

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 and Opus Dei, 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 in June 1973 upon being named 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.

[edit] 1973 assassination

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 an armored Mercedes. ETA placed 80-100kg of explosives in a tunnel they had excavated under the street. The blast catapulted the vehicle over the church in front of which it had been parked, and it landed on a second floor balcony on the other side. The violence of the explosion led to a joke, still repeated, in which Carrero Blanco is referred to as "the first Spanish astronaut".

In their manifesto, justifying the execution, 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 [...]". ^[2]

This assassination, dubbed Operación Ogro, 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.

In his first speech to the Cortes on February 12, 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.

[edit] 1978 reprisal assassination of Argala

One of the ETA members 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 Marine (including one member of the SECED 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 Bocccardo 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 the ETA Carrero Blanco's schedule and itinerary. According to Leonidas, former member of the Spanish Army who participated to the bombing against Argala, "the explosives came from a North-American 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" (alias Pedro Martínez) who provided the explosives. Argala's assassination was reinvidicated by the Batallón Vasco Español (BVE). However, according to Leonidas, "BVE, ATE or "Triple A" are only sigles", conveniently used according to each situation ^[1].

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b «Yo maté al asesino de Carrero Blanco», El Mundo, December 21, 2003 (Spanish) (English account of El Mundo article)
^ "En la siguiente declaración uno de los militantes del commando Txikía respondía a la pregunta de por qué se había ejecutado a Carrero Blanco: “La ejecución en sí tenía un alcance y unos objetivos clarísimos. A partir de 1951 Carrero ocupó prácticamente la jefatura del Gobierno en el Régimen. Carrero simbolizaba mejor que nadie la figura del «franquismo puro» y sin ligarse totalmente a ninguna de las tendencias franquistas, solapadamente trataba de empujar al Opus Dei al poder. Hombre sin escrúpulos montó concienzudamente su propio Estado dentro del Estado: creó una red de informadores dentro de los Ministerios, del Ejército, de la Falange y aún dentro del Opus Dei. Su policía logró meterse en todo el aparato franquista. Así fue convirtiéndose en el elemento clave del sistema y en una pieza fundamental del juego político de la oligarquía. Por otra parte llegó a ser insustituible por su experiencia y capacidad de maniobra y porque nadie lograba como él mantener el equilibrio interno del franquismo […]".