Sanjurjo y Sacanell, José

Born Mar. 28, 1872, in Pamplona; died July 20, 1936, near Lisbon. Spanish politician. Lieutenant general (1925).

Sanjurjo took part in military operations against Cuban insurgents and in the Spanish-American War of 1898. He served in Morocco from 1909 to 1926 and received the title of marqués for his participation in the suppression of the Rif Republic. He supported Primo de Rivera’s military coup in 1923. Sanjurjo was director general of the civil guard (gendarmerie) from 1928 to 1932. When the revolution began in Spain in April 1931, he adopted a neutral position. Sanjurjo was sentenced to death for leading a revolt against the republic in Sevilla on Aug. 10, 1932, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. After being pardoned in 1934, he emigrated to Portugual. Sanjurjo died in an airplane crash on a flight to Morocco to assume the command of army units that had risen against the Spanish Republic.