Spanish politician prior to and during the Second Spanish Republic. His murder by a unit of the urban police force known as the Assault Guard and several socialist (PSOE/UGT) activists (including the bodyguard of Indalecio Prieto), just the day after a harsh confrontation in Parliament with Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Communist Party of Spain (PCE) ministers of the Popular Front, aroused strong suspicions of a government involvement in the crime and contributed greatly to precipitate the Spanish Civil War, which was being prepared since February, the month of the electoral triumph of the Popular Front.
José del Castillo was killed by falangists at 10 pm on 12 July, in the first hours of 13 July a group of Assault Guards and other leftist militiamen led by civil guard Fernando Condés went to Calvo Sotelo’s house in a revenge mission, arrested him and later killed him with gunshots in a police truck. His body was later dropped at the entrance of one of the city’s cemeteries. According to all later investigations, the perpetrator of the murder was a socialist gunman, Luis Cuenca, who was known as the bodyguard of PSOE leader Indalecio Prieto.
In the days following, the Spanish Government undertook a routine investigation that never reached any conclusion. This only accelerated the preparations for a military revolt that was being developed since the electoral triumph of the Popular Front in the month of February. These preparations led to the uprising of the Army of Africa in Melilla on 17 July 1936 that, under the assumed command of Generals Emilio Mola, Francisco Franco, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano and José Sanjurjo, marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
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