José Castillo (Spanish Civil War)

José del Castillo Sáez de Tejada or José Castillo (29 June 1901, Alcalá la Real – 12 July 1936, Madrid) was a Spanish Police Guardia de Asalto (Assault Guard) lieutenant during the Second Spanish Republic. His murder by four Falangist gunmen on July 12, 1936 led to a sequence of events that helped precipitate the Spanish Civil War.

José Castillo was the son of a lawyer of liberal political views. His mother came from an aristocratic family and was distantly related to General Miguel Primo de Rivera (Spanish dictator 1923–30). After attending school in Granada, Castillo entered the Infantry Officers' Academy in Toledo, in 1919. After graduation he became a junior officer in the 1st Regulares (Moroccan colonial troops). He saw active service in the Rif War, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. In 1925 he transferred to a Peninsular regiment of regular infantry,

Following the overthrow of the Monarchy in 1931, José Castillo was appointed to the newly raised Assault Guards, a para-military force intended to maintain security in urban areas and provide a counterweight to the long established and conservative Guardia Civil. Officers of the Asaltos were selected for their perceived loyalty to the new Republic.

Castillo was a member of the Union Militar Republicana Antifascista (UMRA), an anti-fascist organization for military members, and also worked in training the militia of the socialist youth. In April 1936, he commanded the Assault Guard unit which forcibly put down the riots that broke out at the funeral of Guardia Civil lieutenant Anastasio de los Reyes; for this, he was marked for death by the Falange. (The Guardia de Asalto were generally in favor of the Republic, the Guardia Civil more connected to what was to become the insurrectionary right-wing opposition.)

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