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Gonzalo de Aguilera Munro | |
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| Born | 26 December 1886 |
| Died | 15 May 1965(1965-05-15) (aged 78) |
| Allegiance |  Nationalist faction |
| Branch | Spanish Army |
| Rank | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Conflicts | Spanish Civil War |
Gonzalo de Aguilera Munro, 11th Conde de Alba de Yeltes (26 December 1886 – 15 May 1965) was aSpanish aristocrat and military officer who served with thenationalist faction of theSpanish Army during theSpanish Civil War. He served as thepress officer forGeneralFrancisco Franco andGeneralEmilio Mola. He inherited the title ofEl XIConde de Alba de Yeltes [es] (English: The 11thCount ofAlba de Yeltes) in 1919.
Gonzalo de Aguilera Munro was born in Madrid on 26 December 1886, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Agustín Aguilera y Gamboa, 10thConde de Alba de Yeltes, an officer in the Spanish Cavalry. His mother, Mary Munro, wasScottish. He was educated inEngland, first atWimbledon College and then atStonyhurst College, aJesuitpublic school inLancashire where his father had been a pupil.[1]
It is alleged that Gonzalo carried out many atrocities during the Spanish Civil War.[2]: 3, 10, 103–104, 148 At the outbreak of the war, according to his own account, the Conde de Alba de Yeltes lined up the labourers on his estate and shot six of them as a lesson to the others.[3]
As the press officer of the nationalist faction during theSpanish Civil War, de Alba de Yeltes worked withwar correspondents covering the war, includingSefton Delmer,Arnold Lunn andHubert Renfro Knickerbocker.[4] In this capacity, he openly articulated and defended theWhite Terror against the entireworking class, as in theseclassicidal statements he made to journalistJohn T. Whitaker:[5]
We have to kill, kill, you know? They are like animals, you know, and we cannot expect them to get rid of the virus of Bolshevism. After all, rats and lice are the carriers of the plague. Now I hope you understand what we mean by the regeneration of Spain... Our program consists... of exterminating one third of the male population of Spain. That would cleanse the country and get rid of the proletariat. And it is also economically convenient. There will be no more unemployment in Spain, do you understand?
He also told the American reporterHubert R. Knickerbocker:[6]
We are going to execute fifty thousand people in Madrid. And it doesn’t matter where [President]Azaña and [Prime Minister]Largo Caballero or the rest of them try to escape to, because even if it takes us years hunting them down around the entire world, we’ll catch them and kill every last one of them... What you fail to understand is that any stupid democrat, or whatever they want to call themselves, blindly serves the goals of the red revolution. All democrats are slaves of Bolshevism.Hitler is the only one who knows how to recognize a Red when he sees one... We must destroy the brood of red schools that the so-calledRepublic set up to teach slaves to rebel. The masses only need to read enough to understand orders. We must restore the authority of theChurch. The slaves need it to teach them how to behave... It’s deplorable that women vote. No one should vote, least of all women... In our state, people will have the freedom to keep their mouths shut.
After the war, he broke ties with the Franco regime when he made it clear to the dictator that he had fought for the monarchy and expected the king to return.[citation needed] He retired to his large estate inSalamanca, where he continued writing and annotating every book in his extensive library.
As he got older, theConde seemed to suffer increasingly from mental instability. On 26 August 1964, he shot dead his two adult sons Gonzalo and Agustín in the family mansion nearSalamanca, aged 47 and 39.[2]: 527 He was subsequently incarcerated in an asylum in Salamanca, where he died the following year, having never stood trial for this murder.[2]: 527–528 [7] As a result, his title of Count of Alba de Yeltes was passed directly to his granddaughter, Marianela de la Trinidad de Aguilera y Lodeiro.
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