Sotelo's assassination

• The assassination of Jose Calvo Sotelo in July 1936 gave general Emilio Mola, the military commander of Pamplona in northern Spain, the pretext to launch his coup.
• Sotelo was a reprisal for the murder of Jose Castillo, a prominent l/w member of the Assault Guard.
• His colleagues in the Assault Guard retaliated by targeting r/w figures. Their initial target was Gil Robles, but they were unable to locate him. Instead, they arrested and killed Sotelo.
• Sotelo's assassination had a variety of consequences, which led to the outbreak of civil war.
• Although the government was not directly involved in the murder, Gil Robles accused the government of ordering the assassination.
• The murder also convinced many of the m/c that the government should end. For many in the m/c Sotelo's murder was evidence that the government had either begun murdering its own citizens or had lost control of the country.
• Mola used these assassinations to begin his coup, claiming that the assassination was the first step of a communist plot to overthrow the government. Mola's claim was widely believed - leading figures on the left had been talking about revolution for some time.
• The murder convinced Franco to take part in the coup against the government.
• Military preparations for the coup had been going on in secret for months.
• Until Sotelo's assassination Franco was unsure whether he should join the plotters. Sotelo's assassination persuaded Franco to join the military rebels.
• Franco concluded that the republic was planning to kill leading figures on the right and therefore he joined the movement to overthrow the government.