page_title: José María Sentís Simeón
section_title: Carlist: climax
hierarchical_section_title: José María Sentís Simeón / Carlist: climax
caption_attribution_description: Español: Reunión anual de los carlistas en el cerro de Los Ángeles en Madrid. En lugar del príncipe Carlos Hugo, asistió la princesa Irene.Nederlands: Jaarlijkse bijeenkomst van Carlisten op de Los Angeles berg bij Madrid. In plaats van prins Carel Hugo is prinses Irene aanwezig
context_page_description: José María Sentís Simeón was a Spanish politician, official and military. He is best known as General Director of Prisons for 8 months in 1942–43 and as civil governor of Guadalajara and Palencia, also during the early Francoism. In 1964–67 he served as the Cortes deputy. Throughout most of his life he was an active Carlist, in 1962–65 serving as Secretario General of Comunión Tradicionalista. He retired from the army in the rank of a colonel.
context_section_description: Sentís was second only to Valiente, the Jefe Delegado. Though his role was largely technical and theoretically boiled down to co-ordinating work of Junta Nacional, it vested him also with real powers, e.g. those related to handling the party finances, especially that he entered also Comisión Especial de Estudios Económicos and planned the budget for 1963. He entered also Comisión Permanente, another coordinative body. However, the Hugocarlista strategy employed in their bid for control in the organization relied on constant structural changes, with new bodies being created in order to dilute power. A new scheme, effective since 1963, confirmed Sentís as general secretary but tended to relegate Traditionalists to prestigious position of little power and put followers of the prince on key behind-the-stage jobs.
  Sentís did not seem aware of the ongoing power struggle. Naturally conservative, he negotiated return of the Siempre group. Loyal to Don Javier he served as a link between him and the increasingly marginalized Zamanillo, though he also denounced the latter suspecting him of secret talks about dynastic reconciliation with the Juanistas; the affair contributed to final expulsion of Zamanillo. The Hugocarlistas considered Sentís a rotten reactionary and "lugarteniente de Valiente", but they needed him to credit their strategy of courting Franco and as a person with links to the regime, especially as Carlos Sentís was at the time the manager of EFE, much needed in Hugocarlista media strategy. Indeed, in 1964 Sentís contributed to public image campaigns promoting Carlos Hugo and his wife Irene, inadvertently strengthening the Hugocarlistas at the expense of Valiente and the Traditionalists. During informal talks with the head of Falange Solís the Hugocarlistas suggested that Sentís be appointed to the Cortes; indeed in 1964 he was nominated member of Consejo Nacional del Movimiento, which ensured a 3-year-term in the parliament.
  The year of 1964 marked the climax of Sentís' role in the party. Later that year chief architects of Hugocarlista bid were replaced with new, even more radical leaders, who decided to abandon the initial caution and launch an open progressist campaign. Though Valiente and Sentís were dubbed "jefes nacionales carlistas", in fact it was Carlos Hugo and his entourage who were pulling the strings; they considered the time ripe for purging the party executive from the Traditionalists. Riding another wave of structural remodeling, in 1965 they abolished the role of Secretary General altogether. Dismissal was disguised as sort of an honorary retirement and Sentís was invited to take part in the meeting of Carlist jefes with Don Javier in Puchheim. The claimant addressed Sentís with an effusive letter, thanking him for great contribution and vaguely suggesting the need to make room for the young; this was also the line advanced by the Hugocarlistas themselves. As Sentís remained a rather passive member of the executive his ousting did not come as a big surprise and initially generated little controversy within the organization. Hugocarlistas were cautious to burn his entire correspondence and change the office door locks.
caption: Carlist gathering, Cerro de Los Ángeles near Madrid, mid-1960s
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark II", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Artist": "camera S70", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Rating": "0", "Image Tag 0x4749": "0", "Image ExifOffset": "2234", "Image XPAuthor": "camera S70", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "3/10", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:03:03 13:15:24", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:03:03 13:15:24", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "-6641/8337", "EXIF ApertureValue": "32231/6447", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "25781/8133", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "103/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF FocalLength": "100", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3253", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2200", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}