Federico Trillo
Federico Trillo-Figueroa Martínez-Conde (born 23 May 1952 in Cartagena, Spain) is a former Spanish Politician of the People's Party, who has served as President of the Congress of Deputies, Minister of Defense and Ambassador of Spain to the United Kingdom. His father, also named Federico Trillo, was a politician during the reign of caudillo Francisco Franco. He has a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid. He is married with five children. Trillo entered into the Navy's Legal Corps as  first of his class in 1974 where he was posted in the naval prosecutor's office of the Maritime Zone of the Mediterranean, later he was posted in the Directorship of Military Naval Construction. In 1979, he passed the competitive examination for Counsel of the Council of State. He retired from the navy as a Judge-Advocate Mayor in 1989 in order to enter politics. In 1983 he entered the legal staff of the "Alianza Popular" ("People's Alliance"), then headed by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, where he actively participated in the restructuring of the party, refashioning it as the People 's Party. He has been a member of the national executive since 1986. Trillo has been elected deputy for the province of Alicante since 1989. From 1989 and 1996, he was vice-president of the Congress of Deputies. On 27 March 1996 he was elected president of the Congress of Deputies, a position he maintained until the end of the sixth legislature in 2000. On 27 April 2000 Prime Minister José María Aznar named him Minister of Defense for Aznar's second government. In July 2002, he ordered an attack on Perejil Island, which had been occupied for days by  Moroccan soldiers. The Yakovlev 42 crash in Turkey on 26 May 2003, in which 62 Spanish soldiers died while returning from Afghanistan marked the end of his tenure as the Minister of Defense. Three of his subordinates were sent to prison for falsifying the identification of 30 of the bodies. A judge found no grounds to implicate Trillo, and Trillo repeatedly refused to accept political or criminal responsibility. Trillo is the author of many books on law and judicial and political thought. His most recognized works are: "El poder político en los dramas de Shakespeare" (Political Power in Shakespeare's  Dramas) and "Pregones y Semblanzas". He collaborated in the founding of the Association for Studies for Social Progress. He is a member of the Spanish Commission of Military History, and a member of Opus Dei.