Antonio Aranda

Antonio Aranda Mata (1888, Leganés – 1979, Madrid) was a military officer who fought on side of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.

During the Morocco wars Aranda earned an outstanding record as an engineer and geographer. He participated in the suppression of the Asturias Revolt of 1934 and rose to the rank of Colonel. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, in 1936, he was in command of the Oviedo garrison, which raised in revolt against the Republic and won the Siege of Oviedo. For his efforts Aranda was awarded the Cross of San Fernando and promoted to the rank of General. Aranda participated in several further engagements during the Spanish Civil War including the Battle of Teruel and Battle of the Ebro. In 1939, following the war, his troops occupied Valencia where he was promoted to the rank of Captain General.

Immediately following the war Aranda was appointed as the head of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1941 he participated in several clandestine actions in favor of the monarchy that resulted in irritating the government of Francisco Franco. He was one of a group of pro-British monarchist generals to secretly receive money from British Intelligence MI-6.[1] He was briefly imprisoned in 1947 for two months. The government, recalling that Aranda had supposedly been a freemason before the war, promulgated a law forcing him into early retirement in 1949.[2] There is still doubt about whether Aranda actually was a mason but that was one of the excuses Franco used for Aranda's removal.[3] In 1976, after Franco's death, King Juan Carlos I promoted Aranda to the rank of Lieutenant General.