José Enrique Varela

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José Enrique Varela Iglesias (born in San Fernando, Cadiz, Spain, April 17, 1891 - died in Tangier, Spanish Morocco, March 24, 1951) was a Spanish military commander and an important figure in the Spanish Civil War.

Varela started his military career as an enlisted man and fought in the colonial wars in the Rif for three years starting in 1909. He rose to the rank of sergeant and then enrolled in infantry school in Spain and graduated as a lieutenant.

Returning to Morocco, he distinguished himself in action and King Alfonso XIII awarded him the Honored Cross of San Fernando, Spain's highest military award, on two separate occasions. He rose to the rank of captain by merit and participated in several campaigns in the Morocco war, the principal one being the joint Franco-Spanish amphibious landing at Alhucemas in 1925. This landing altered the course of the Morocco War and hastened its end. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and to colonel at the end of the war.^[1]

With the coming of the Republic, he participated in the abortive José Sanjurjo uprising in 1932 for which he was imprisoned. He was released and joined the Carlists and organized the militia or the paramilitary units of the Carlists, the Requetés, into the formidable military organization that it became in the Spanish Civil War. Disguised as a priest, Uncle Pepe, he traveled along the Pyrenean villages organizing the people and readying them for war.^[2] He actively participated in the planning for the rising that started the Spanish Civil War. In April, 1936, the government found out about his plotting and imprisoned him.^[3]

He was jail in Cadiz during when the rising started, but was released on July 18, and helped secure Cadiz for the insurrection.^[4] He participated in many of the campaigns of the War including, Seville, Cordova, Malaga, Extremadura, Tagus Valley, Alcázar, Madrid, Jarama, Brunete, Teruel and the Ebro. At the end of the war he was a major general and became minister of war in the post-war Franco Government.

In 1942 tension rose between the Carlists and the Falange. After the Falange attacked the Carlists during a religious ceremony at the Basilica of Begoña in Bilbao, killing several people, he resigned his office. In 1946, Franco appointed him high commissioner in Tetuan, Morocco where he remained until his death.^[5]Franco granted Varela a marquisate after he died.^[6]

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