Emilio Mola
| Emilio Mola | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) |
el Director (The Director) |
| Born |
9 June 1887 Placetas, Cuba, Kingdom of Spain |
| Died | 3 June 1937 (aged 49) Alcocero, Burgos, Francoist Spain |
| Buried at |
Pamplona Cemetery (1937–1961) Valley of the Fallen (1961–present) (40°38′31″N 4°09′19″W / 40.641944°N 4.155278°W) |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of Spain (1904–1931) Spanish Republic (1931–1932, 1933–1936) Francoist Spain (1936–1937)
|
| Service/branch | Spanish Army |
| Years of service | 1904–1932 1933–1937 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Commands held | Military Governor of Navarre Commander of the Army of the North |
| Battles/wars |
Rif War Spanish Civil War |
| Awards | |
Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain (9 June 1887 – 3 June 1937) was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He was a veteran of the African wars where he rose to prominence serving with the Regulars. He led the military uprising that culminated in the Spanish Civil War.
He coined the term "fifth column".
Mola was born in Placetas, Cuba, at that time an overseas Spanish province, where his father, an army officer, was stationed. The Cuban War of Independence split his family; while his father served in the Spanish forces, his maternal uncle Leoncio Vidal was a leading revolutionary fighter. In Spain, he enrolled in the Infantry Academy of Toledo in 1907. He served in Spain's colonial war in Morocco where he received the Military Medal, and became an authority on military affairs. By 1927 he was a Brigadier-general.
Mola was made Director-General of Security in 1930, the last man to hold this post under Alfonso XIII. This was a political post and his conservative views made him unpopular with opposition liberal and socialist politicians. When the left-wing Popular Front government was elected in February 1936 Mola was made military governor of Pamplona in Navarre, which the government regarded as a backwater. But the area was a center of Carlist activity and Mola himself secretly collaborated with the movement. He worked with elements of the right-wing Spanish Military Union and by the end of April 1936 was acknowledged as its leader in north-central Spain.
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Wikipedia