Jose Enrique Varela (17 April 1891-24 March 1951) was a General of Francoist Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Varela served as Francisco Franco's Minister of War from 1939 to 1942, preceding Carlos Asensio Cabanillas.
Biography[]
Jose Enrique Varela was born in San Fernando, Cadiz, Spain on 17 April 1891, and he joined the Spanish Army in 1904. Starting in 1909, he fought in colonial wars in the mountainous Rif region of Morocco, and King Alfonso XIII of Spain awarded him the Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand for his distinguished service. After leading the 1925 Franco-Spanish amphibious landing at Alhucemas during the Rif War, he was promoted to Colonel, and he took part in Jose Sanjurjo's abortive 1932 uprising. He became a member of the Carlist Requetes after leaving prison, and he assisted in the capture of Cadiz at the start of the Spanish Civil War. He ended the war with the rank of Major-General, and he represented the Carlist faction in Franco's government as Minister of War in Franco's August 1939 government. During World War II, Varela opposed entering the war on Nazi Germany's side, but he supported sending the Division Azul to fight against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. In 1942, he was fired during a purge of Carlists from the government, and he was made High Commissioner of Spanish Morocco in 1945. He later served as Captain-General of Madrid, and he died of leukemia in 1951.