Luis Carrero Blanco
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Luís Carrero Blanco (March 4, 1903 – December 20, 1973) was a Spanish admiral and statesman.
He entered the Naval Academy in 1918 and participated in the Moroccan campaign of 1924-1926.
In July 1936, when the Spanish Civil War erupted, he 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. Blanco then served in the Nationalist navy. After the Nationalist victory and subsequent installation of Generalísimo Francisco Franco as military dictator (Caudillo) of Spain, 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. Blanco himself was a monarchist.
Becoming a minister from 1957, made vice-admiral in 1963 and admiral in 1966 he became vice-president of the council from 1967 to 1973.
He political career reached its zenith in June 1973 upon being named Prime Minister of Spain and made a top deputy to Franco.
Within about six months of being named prime minister, he was assassinated in Madrid by four Basque members of ETA, who carried out a bombing while he returned from mass in an armored car. ETA placed 1 ton of explosives in a tunnel they had excavated under the street, which was definitely more than enough to assassinate Carrero. The blast catapulted the vehicle over the church it was parked in front of, and it landed on the other side. Because of this, Spanish people joke that Carrero was the first Spaniard to the moon.
This assassination (dubbed Operación Ogro) was in retaliation for the mass execution of various political opponents by the regime including a large number of Basques and was widely applauded by the liberal sector. Since Carrero could have become the most powerful figure in Spain on Franco's death, his death forced the transition toward a democratic government in Spain.
References
- Julen Agirre; Operation Ogro: The Execution of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco; Quadrangle; ISBN 0812905520
External links
- BBC account of Luis Carrero Blanco assassination (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/20/newsid_2539000/2539129.stm)
| Preceded by: Francisco Franco | Prime Minister of Spain 1973 | Followed by: Carlos Arias Navarro |
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