Santiago Carrillo

Santiago Carrillo Solares (born January 18, 1915), Spanish politician, was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1960 to 1982.

Related Topics:
January 18 - 1915 - Spanish - General Secretary - Communist Party of Spain - 1960 - 1982

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Born in Gijón, Asturias province, Carrillo is the son of the prominent Socialist leader Wenceslao Carrillo and was already as a 13-year old a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He took part in the unification of Socialist and Communist youth leagues in 1934, forming Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas. He became a member of the PCE in 1936. During the Spanish Civil War he led the Communist forces in Madrid and showed an intense pro-Soviet approach.

Related Topics:
Gijón - Asturias - Socialist - Wenceslao Carrillo - Spanish Socialist Workers' Party - 1934 - Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas - 1936 - Spanish Civil War - Communist - Madrid - Soviet

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In November 17 1937 Carrillo was elected Councilor for Public Order in the Defense Council of Madrid. According to Francoist and other sources, a week later he ordered the summary execution of over 2,000 officers from the rebel Franco's army, captured during the siege of Madrid. This action supposedly took place in Paracuellos del Jarama and Torrejón de Ardoz, where the dead were buried in a common gravehttp://www.axess.se/english/archive/2003/nr8/currentissue/essay.php.

Related Topics:
November 17 - 1937 - Paracuellos del Jarama - Torrejón de Ardoz

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After the military collapse of the Republican Government, he fled to Paris and tried to organise the party. Carrillo spent 38 years in exile, most of the time in France, but also in the USSR and other countries.

Related Topics:
Republican Government - Paris - France - USSR

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He became the General Secretary of the PCE in 1960, replacing Dolores Ibárruri (Pasionaria), who was given the post of party president. Carrillo enforced the party's position among the working class and intellectual groups, and averted several attempts of removal instigated by the Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist and pro-democracy factions. In 1968, when Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, Carrillo began to distance the party from Moscow.

Related Topics:
1960 - Dolores Ibárruri - Working class - Marxist-Leninist - Stalinist - Czechoslovakia - Moscow

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He returned secretly to Spain in 1976 after the death of long-time dictator Francisco Franco and was arrested by the police, but was released within days. Together with Communist comrades Georges Marchais of France and Enrico Berlinguer of Italy, he launched the Eurocommunist movement in a meeting held in Madrid in March 2 1977. More wary and open-minded than many party comrades, Carrillo's activities were instrumental in the successful outcome of the political transition to democracy in Spain.

Related Topics:
Spain - 1976 - Francisco Franco - Georges Marchais - France - Enrico Berlinguer - Italy - Eurocommunist - Madrid - March 2 - 1977 - Democracy

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Carrillo was elected to the Congreso de los Diputados (Congress of Deputies), the lower house of the Spanish Parliament (Cortes), in the first democratic elections in 1977, shortly after the legalization of the PCE (April 9, 1977) by the government of Adolfo Suárez. Carrillo was reelected again in 1979 and 1982, but was forced to leave his post as party leader on November 6, 1982 due to the poor party perfomance in the ballots. The new General Secretary, the much younger Gerardo Iglesias, a member of the "renovators" wing, was at odds with him from the start.

Related Topics:
Congreso de los Diputados - Spanish Parliament - 1977 - April 9 - Adolfo Suárez - 1979 - 1982 - November 6 - Gerardo Iglesias

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On April 15, 1985 Carrillo and his followers were expelled from the PCE and the next year, in 1986, they formed his own political group, called the Workers' Party of Spain-Communist Unity (PTE-UC). This tiny, leftist party was unable to attract voters, so in October 27 1991 Carrillo pledged to disband it. Subsequently, the PTE-UC merged into the ruling PSOE, but Carrillo declined to be given the PSOE membership considering his many years as Communist militant.

Related Topics:
April 15 - 1985 - 1986 - October 27 - 1991

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