Federico Gómez de Salazar

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gómez de Salazar and the second or maternal family name is Nieto.

Federico Gómez de Salazar y Nieto (September 29, 1912 – January 24, 2006) was a Spanish military officer who fought for the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War. He was Governor-General of Spanish Sahara when Morocco organized the Green March in 1975, and chaired the Supreme Council of Military Justice which tried the Spanish Armed Forces personnel who participated in the 1981 coup attempt.^[1]

Federico Gómez de Salazar y Nieto
Birth name	Federico Gómez de Salazar y Nieto
Born	(1912-09-29)September 29, 1912 Toledo, Spain
Died	January 24, 2006(2006-01-24) (aged 93) Madrid, Spain
Allegiance	Nationalist Spain
Service / branch	Spanish Army
Years of service	1929–1982
Rank	Lieutenant general
Unit	Regulares Blue Division
Commands	Armored Division No. 1 "Brunete" I Military Region [es]
Battles / wars	Spanish Civil War World War II
Awards	Military Medal Grand Cross of the Royal and Military Order of San Hermenegild
Spouse(s)	Maria Jesus Girón
Children	2
Relations	José Antonio Girón (father-in-law)
Other work	Governor-General of Spanish Sahara (1974–1976)

Biography

Gómez de Salazar entered the General Military Academy of Zaragoza in 1929, where he was trained by General Francisco Franco, obtaining the rank of ensign in 1932 and that of lieutenant in 1933. He was promoted to captain on March 24, 1937, being assigned to the Group "Ceuta" Nº 3 of the Regulares.

He participated in the Spanish Civil War, in which the Military Medal was granted to him for conduct displayed in the Regulares. He also fought on the Eastern Front of World War II, in the ranks of the Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division), or the 250th Infantry Division of the German Wehrmacht; he was assigned to the 262nd Regiment.

In 1944 he was promoted to the rank of commander, obtaining the diploma of General Staff of the Army in 1946, and later, the diploma of General Staff of the Navy. In 1957 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and in 1965 to colonel. He was promoted to general in 1970, major general in September 1973 and to lieutenant general in May 1976.^[2]

Gómez de Salazar was named Governor-General of Spanish Sahara in June 1974. He achieved great public notoriety when, on 6 November 1975, he faced the Green March; the event, organized by King Hassan II of Morocco, saw approximately 350,000 unarmed Moroccan civilians invading the territory.^[3] There he would have to organize a preventive defense, estimating that in case of violence there would be about 30,000 casualties, taking responsibility after an emergency evacuation and demilitarization operation after the signing of the Madrid Accords, process that would conclude in January 1976.^[4]

In 1976, back in Spain and being assigned to the General Staff, Gómez de Salazar presided over the Council of War which tried the defendants belonging to the clandestine Military Democratic Union (Unión Militar Democrática, UMD), held at Hoyo de Manzanares (Madrid) from 8 March. In January 1977 he was appointed Captain General of the I Military Region [es] (Madrid), a position in which he remained until September 1978.

On 23 September 1981 he joined the Tribunal set up by the Supreme Council of Military Justice to try the participants of the 1981 Spanish coup d'état attempt (Case 2/81), having to assume its presidency due to illness of previous President, Lieutenant General Luis Álvarez Rodríguez, and continued in the role until he moved to the reserve, on 3 March 1982.^[5]

Units and destinations

Among the units in which Gómez de Salazar served are the 37th Infantry Regiment, the Regulares of Ceuta, the General Staff of the 31st Division, the Central General Staff, the military attachés of the Spanish embassies in Turkey, Greece and Iran, the Infantry Regiment of Badajoz and the Higher School of the Army. Likewise, he was chief of the General Staff of the Captaincy General of Canary Islands and head of the División Mecanizada «Brunete» n.º 1. In the field of military teaching he worked as a professor at the Infantry Academy, the General Staff College and the Naval War College.

Marriage, offspring and death

He was married to Maria Jesus Girón, daughter of José Antonio Girón, with whom he had two children, and died in Madrid on 24 January 2006, at the age of 93.

References

1. Aguilar, Miguel Ángel (28 January 2006). "Federico Gómez de Salazar, un general para dos ocasiones". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 August 2020.
2. "Reseña Biográfica" (in Spanish). ABC. 27 January 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
3. Hamdaoui, Neijma (31 October 2003). "Hassan II lance la Marche verte". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). Archived from the original on 3 January 2006. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
4. "La Marcha Verde, 35 años de la pérdida del Sáhara español" (in Spanish). RTVE. 6 October 2010. Archived from the original on 18 August 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
5. "Federico Gómez de Salazar, general gobernador en el Sáhara durante la Marcha Verde" (in Spanish). El Mundo. 26 January 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2020.