Fifty years ago today, we founded the UMD: the military against Franco

It was founded by eleven captains and commanders of the Catalan garrison and one from Madrid, in a meeting promoted by the commander of the time. Julio Busquets. There, documents were prepared, such as the ideology, with civil and military objectives, and other documents that formed the basis of this organization.

The Democratic Military Union was born.

Union because we were colleagues. Military because it was our faith. Democratic because we felt like citizens and not subjects.

In Madrid, on December 28, 1974, after the Second Assembly, I met my brother Guillermo Reinlein and Captain Enrique Lopez Love in a bar in Madrid. They told me: “We’ve been talking about the same thing for 48 hours. Either you sign up now and we’ll have a few drinks and we’ll tell you later or tomorrow, or you’ll beat us up.”

Many Spaniards, after the Portuguese of April 25, when the dictatorship of Salazar by the military, they wondered if there were no captains in Spain ready to defend democracy. And there were.

Before the Portuguese Carnation Revolution There were already army officers in Catalonia with democratic convictions who met in Barcelona. April 25 did not make them democrats, but it did push them to create an organization. And that is what they did. An ideology and several documents were prepared that began to configure the documentary base of the UMD.

From that moment on, the organization dedicated itself to launching documents, recruiting new members and connecting with the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with opposition political leaders, from the far left to the social democracy of Francisco Fernández Ordonez who would later join UCD.

It was a time of great activity and with the military secret services on our tail. Some, like SECED, created with White Carrerowho were watching and observing us. Others, like the army’s military information service, headed by the then colonel Saenz de Tejada (he would become chief of staff of the PSOE) harassed us and looked for evidence to prosecute us.

As early as the beginning of 1975, in July, senior military officers met in the office of the Minister of the Army. And they even considered that a Civil Guard commando would attend one of our meetings already detected, assassinate us and plant false evidence. of our relations with ETA, GRAPO and, these truths, with the Portuguese MFA, which will help us much later.

“A second meeting was agreed between the UMD and the then Prince Juan Carlos, which would never take place even though it was known that Franco’s illness was terminal.”

On July 29, arrests began in Madrid and Pontevedra. Nine officers were killed, then two more and three in Barcelona, ​​whose charges against them were dropped so as not to give the impression that the organization was spreading to other territories. It was also said at the time that the then Prince of Spain, Juan Carlos I, had intervened.

A few months later, and already in prison, the prince, thanks to Duke of Arioncontacted members of the UMD board of directors. He asked for the organization’s support in case Juan Carlos accepted the interim of the head of state and so that if Franc wanted to return, he would refuse and assert his authority. A second meeting was agreed, which never took place because it was learned that the dictator’s illness was irreversible.

But during the arrests of July 29, one escaped: the captain Jose Ignacio Dominguezwho would be an extraordinary spokesperson for the UMD abroad to compensate for the slander that the secret services of Saenz de Tejada poured on the accused. They were ridiculed by saying that our women were “dangerous students.”

The War Council, held in Hoyo de Manzanares on March 9 and 10, 1975, was a farce. There were no procedural guarantees, no civil defenders (those of the 23-F had them with the same regulations) and no consideration of certain evidence. Some military personnel, who we later learned were secret service personnel, began to insult like crazy.. “No politics, let them tear off their stars!”

“All the attempts of some deputies to obtain the recognition of the UMD have come up against the roll of the absolute majority of the PP or the fear of some socialist ministers”

The policy was to defend freedom and play the role of the most dangerous weapon. We were sentenced to 42 years and 6 months in prison for conspiracy to commit military rebellion. The BBC’s English correspondent in Spain opened his report by saying: “Nine commanders and officers of the Spanish army have been sentenced to more than 42 years in prison for defending conservative ideas.”

After that, persecution and oblivion began. Persecution by the military command of all democratic officers and non-commissioned officers, whether or not they came from the UMD. And I forgot the democratic governments even after the dissolution of the UMD on June 27, 1977, after the first free elections.

There was also an oversight on the part of the political parties. They agreed not to include the UMD military in the amnesty of the fall of 1977 due to military pressure. Eleven years later, a “decaffeinated” extension of this amnesty allowed the expelled to reintegrate the armies, but without the possibility of a destination, “invited” to settle in the temporary reserve.

All the personal attempts of some deputies to obtain recognition of the UMD military have come up against the roll of the absolute majority of the PP or the fear of some socialist ministers of achieving it. Until 2009 and 2010.

Carme Chacón and the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero prepared an official document of the Council of Ministers and published in the BOE in which the work of the UMD was recognized. In February 2010, the minister awarded decorations to the fourteen defendants of the UMD.

It must be appreciated, without a doubt. But it must also be noted that 35 years have passed. They didn’t hurry much.

*** Fernando Reinlein is a journalist and military man expelled from the army for belonging to the UMD.