A professional officer of the Spanish Army, he supported the
Republican government during the
Spanish Civil War. Before the war he was a lieutenant of
Carabineros of the
Second Spanish Republic stationed in
Irun. On 6 August 1936, following the
Coup, he was appointed civil governor of
Gipuzkoa. He took command of the
Republican forces during the later part of the
Campaign of Guipúzcoa after the capture of
Augusto Pérez Garmendia at
Oiartzun. In 1937 he was appointed secretary of security and joined the
Communist Party of Spain. He was also, among other things, responsible for the arrest of
Andreu Nin and because of this, was dismissed by the minister of the interior,
Julian Zugazagoitia; eventually being transferred to field command. In March 1939, he was the commander in charge of the III
Army Corps of the Army of the Centre and supported
Luis Barceló against the
National Defence Council (Consejo Nacional de Defensa) during what later became the
Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War. At the end of the war, he was captured by the
Nationalists, sentenced to death by a military tribunal and subsequently executed by firing squad in
Alicante,
Spain on 15 July 1939. ==President of Real Madrid==