Fernández de Villa-Abrille was head of the II Organic Division of the army, based in Seville and in command in Andalusia, at the time of the July 1936 coup that led to the Civil War. He was aware of the conspiracy of the rebels days before. Thus, when the Commander of the General Staff, José Cuesta Monereo - following instructions from the rebel general, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano - drew up a plan with which 4,000 men were mobilized to carry out and consolidate the coup in the province of Seville, General Fernández did not join the uprising; but neither he nor many of the officers under his command showed any resistance to the coup, nor to the repressive actions that Commander Antonio Castejón Espinosa initiated in different neighborhoods of Seville.