José Enrique Varela José Enrique Varela Iglesias , 1st Marquis of San Fernando de Varela ( April 17 , 1891 in San Fernando , Cadiz , Spain – March 24 , 1951 in Tangier , Spanish Morocco ) was a Spanish military officer and Carlist noted for his role as a Nationalist commander in the Spanish Civil War . Early career . Varela started his military career as an enlisted man and fought in the colonial wars in the Rif for three years starting in 1909 . He rose to the rank of sergeant and then enrolled at infantry school in Spain and graduated as a lieutenant . Returning to Morocco , he distinguished himself in action and King Alfonso XIII awarded him the Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand , Spain ' s highest military award , on two separate occasions . He rose to the rank of captain by merit and participated in several campaigns in the Morocco war , the principal one being the joint Franco - Spanish amphibious landing at Alhucemas in 1925 . This landing altered the course of the Morocco War and hastened its end . Shortly thereafter he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and to colonel at the end of the war . During the early thirties he was assigned as a member of a military mission that spent time in Germany , Switzerland , Belgium and France to broaden their military knowledge . With the coming of the Republic , he participated in the abortive José Sanjurjo uprising in 1932 for which he was imprisoned . He was released and joined the Carlists and organized the militia or the paramilitary units of the Carlists , the Requetés , into the formidable military organization that it became in the Spanish Civil War . Disguised as a priest , Uncle Pepe , he traveled along the Pyrenean villages organizing the people and readying them for war . He actively participated in the planning for the rising that started the Spanish Civil War . In April , 1936 , the government found out about his plotting and imprisoned him . The Civil War . In jail in Cadiz when the rising started , he was released on July 18 , and helped secure Cadiz for the insurrection . He participated in many of the campaigns of the War including , Seville , Cordova , Malaga , Extremadura , Tagus Valley , Alcázar , Madrid , Jarama , Brunete , Teruel and the Ebro . In the Franco regime . Ending the war with the rank of major general , he was appointed minister of war in Franco ' s August 1939 government and was considered a representative of the Carlist faction there . During his ministry the Spanish army was purged of a small number of officers and NCOs who were considered politically unreliable . Following the fall of France in 1940 and Hitler ' s subsequent overtures to Franco , Varela was a leading opponent of Spanish entry into the war on the Axis side , although he did endorse the volunteer Blue Division ' s participation on the Eastern Front . As tensions between Carlists and Falangists within the government rose during 1942 , Varela suggested to Franco that Carlists were underrepresented and proposed several schemes for a reorganization of the cabinet . Violence between the factions broke out at the Basilica of Begoña on August 16 , 1942 , when Falangists attacked a Carlist crowd with grenades , causing many injuries and possibly several deaths . Varela , who was inside the church at the time , took the initiative against the Falangists and portrayed the incident as an attack on the army and a possible assassination attempt in telegrams to officials throughout the country , displeasing Franco . In the following cabinet reshuffle in September , Varela was replaced as army minister by General Carlos Asensio Cabanillas . In 1945 Franco appointed Varela as high commissioner of Spanish Morocco . Franco subsequently granted Varela a posthumous marquisate title as Marquis of San Fernando de Varela .