Domènec Batet: Difference between revisions

Domènec Batet i Mestres
Domènec Batet photographed in 1931.
Born	(1872-08-30)August 30, 1872 Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain
Died	February 18, 1937(1937-02-18) (aged 64) Burgos, Castile and León, Spain
Allegiance	Spain (1887–1931)  Spanish Republic (1931–1937)
Years of service	1887–1936
Rank	General
Battles / wars	Cuban War of Independence Events of October the 6th Spanish Civil War
Awards	Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand

Domènec Batet i Mestres (Spanish: Domingo Batet Mestres. Tarragona, August 30, 1872 – Burgos, February 18, 1937) was a Catalan military man who became general of the Spanish Army.^[1]

Starting as a lieutenant, Batet quickly escalated ranks during the Cuban War of Independence. After the Disaster of Annual, as a colonel, Batet took part in the investigation of the defeat taking part in the drafting of the Picasso Files. During the Second Spanish Republic, Domènec Batet was designated chief of the IV Organic Division in Catalonia and crushed the Catalan Uprising of October the 6th. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Batet remained loyal to the Republic and was deployed in Burgos, where his subordinates betrayed him and captured him for the Nationalists. After months of captivity, Franco ordered the execution of Batet.^[2]

Domènec Batet i Mestres started his career in the Spanish Army as a volunteer lieutenant in the Cuban War of Independence. During the war he won condecorations and was promoted multiple times, he also developed a pacifist ideology.

After that, during the Rif War, as a colonel he was one of the instruction judges that wrote the Picasso Files, a report directed by Juan Picasso González that pointed out the corruption of the African deployed Spanish officers, including Francisco Franco.^[2][3]

Shortly after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, Domènec Betet was deployed in Catalonia as chief of the IV Organic Division. In that position Batet was always deferent with the Generalitat of Catalonia, treated well the soldiers and promoted the use of the Catalan between them.^[2]

In 1932, Batet led the repression of the general strike of the Alt Llobregat. Instead of using terror tactics, ordered by Manuel Azaña, he acted quickly and avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

Its most important action during the Republican years was the successfully suffocation of the Events of October the 6th, general disturbances and uprising generated by the extreme left, under the banners of a Revolutionary Committee, all along the Spanish Republic, against the legal government of Alejandro Lerroux, head of the Radical Party. The uprising was fuelled by multiple issues, the most important: the inclusion of anti-republican ministers of the CEDA, a right wing Spanish political party (winner of the last elections, but not acepted by the left), and the cancellation of the Law of Contract of Cultivation (Llei de Contractes de Conreu). Approved by the government of Lluís Companys, itself only a regional government without legal power to enact this kind of law, and banned by the Spanish government this law protected the peasants and the decision of cancelling it infuriated the Catalanist leftist parties, not including socialist.^[4]

On October 6, 1934 a general strike collapsed Barcelona, organized by the left, as in the rest of Spain large cities, an initial step to proletary revolution, and the next day, Lluís Companys decided to declare a Catalan Republic using the general disturbances as an opportunity, with the legal forces occupied restoring law and order all along the country. Numerous heavily armed squads of Catalan leftist political parties occupied the streets of Barcelona and numerous other towns supporting the initiative and capturing public offices. On the other hand, all military and police forces remained loyals to the legal central government, excluding Mossos d'Esquadra, Generalitat own police force. Lluís Companys also telephoned Domènec Batet who asked for a written request, and refused to obey his orders, remaining loyal to the legal government. While Companys wrote the request, Batet prepared the troops and attacked the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya, after receiving sustained fire from the Mossos inside it, requiring surrender to Companys, and avoiding confrontation with the revolted militias, who also avoided to attack their forces due the technical superiority of the Army, Guardia Civil and Guardia de Asalto troops, and their fast deployment. Batet surrounded the building and shot a few warning shots with a howitzer, using inert projectiles, after some hours of useless rifle shooting and wait, getting Companys inmediate surrender. ^[5][6]

Acting efficiently, Batet minimized the casualties and used the minimal force (but including a large number of wounded and a few deaths) to fulfill the Spanish government orders, using Generalitat scarce popular support and its internal dissensions. According some moderm sources, in order to avoid further fights against his own people Batet asked to be redeployed somewhere else. [[Niceto Alcalá-Zamora] granted him his petition. Another ones attribute this new assignment to some sort of punishment by the new Frente Popular government, most probably, due his former observance of the law against the left illegal insurrection, being assigned to Burgos, after his tenure as Head of Military Staff, attached to the President of the Republic .

On June 13, 1936 Batet was transferred to the Organic Division of Burgos, where the general Emilio Mola, leader of the Nationalist faction, was also deployed. When the Spanish Civil War started, Batet was betrayed by his own men and they imprisoned him. While Mola, who respected Batet as a military man, was the leader of the Nationalists, Batet was kept in prison. When Franco became the Generalissimo of the Nationalist forces he ordered to execute Batet, according leftist sources in retaliation for the Picasso Files, where Batet accused Franco of corruption during the Rif War.^[2][3]

"El general de Tarragona que acabó con la falsa 'República catalana' proclamada ilegalmente en 1934", by Manuel Villatoro, ABC, October 5th, 2017. ABC History

• Gonzàlez, Arnau; López, Manel; Ucelay, Enric; (ED.) (2014). 6 d'octubre. La desfeta de la revolució catalanista de 1934 (in Catalan). Barcelona: Editorial Base. ISBN 978-84-16166-19-0. {{cite book}}: |last4= has generic name (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Finestres, Jordi; López, Manel (2014). Entre la revolució i l'estelada (in Catalan). Barcelona: Sàpiens. ISSN 1695-2014. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Francesc Macià
• Mossos d'Esquadra
• Joan Prim i Prats