1. Santiago Jose Carrillo Solares was a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain from 1960 to 1982.
24 Facts About Santiago Carrillo
1. 2.
Santiago Carrillo was exiled during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, becoming a leader of the democratic opposition to the regime.
3.
Santiago Carrillo later embraced Eurocommunism and democratic socialism, and was a member of the Congress of Deputies from 1977 to 1986.
4.
In 1932, Carrillo joined the Executive Commission of the Socialist Youth and became editor of its newspaper, Renovacion.
5.
In 1933, as the Socialist Youth was becoming more radical, Santiago Carrillo was elected as General Secretary.
6.
Santiago Carrillo was accompanied on the visit to Moscow by Leandro Carro and Juan Astigarrabia.
7.
On 7 November 1936 Santiago Carrillo was elected Councillor for Public Order in the Defence Council of Madrid, which was given supreme power in besieged Madrid, after the government left the city.
8.
Santiago Carrillo denied any knowledge of the massacres in his memoirs but some historians like Cesar Vidal and Pio Moa maintain that Santiago Carrillo was involved.
9.
Santiago Carrillo's father, Wenceslao, a member of the PSOE, was among those who led the coup and was a member of Casado's Junta.
10.
Santiago Carrillo then wrote an open letter to his father describing the coup as counter-revolutionary and as a betrayal, reproaching him for his anti-communism, and renouncing any further communication with him.
11.
Santiago Carrillo spent 38 years in exile, most of the time in France, but in the USSR and other countries.
12.
In 1944 Santiago Carrillo led the retreat of the communist guerrillas from the Aran Valley.
13.
Santiago Carrillo became the General Secretary of the PCE in 1960, replacing Dolores Ibarruri, who was given the honorary post of Party Chairman.
14.
In 1968, when the Soviets and Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia, Santiago Carrillo distanced the party from Moscow.
15.
Santiago Carrillo fought for the total independence of the party from the Soviet Union and for a peaceful return to democracy in Spain.
16.
Santiago Carrillo returned secretly to Spain in 1976 after the death of long-time Spanish Francisco Franco.
17.
Santiago Carrillo disguised his bald head with a wig provided by Eugenio Arias, Picasso's barber.
18.
Santiago Carrillo was entered from France in the Mercedes of millionaire communist sympathizer Teodulfo Lagunero.
19.
Santiago Carrillo was re-elected in 1979, but the failed right-wing coup d'etat attempt on 23 February 1981 reduced support for the PCE, as Spanish society was still recovering from the trauma of the Civil War and subsequent repression and dictatorship.
20.
Fear of another military uprising increased support for moderate left-wing forces in the 1982 elections, in which Santiago Carrillo held his parliamentary seat.
21.
Santiago Carrillo was forced to leave his post as party leader on 6 November 1982, owing to the party's poor electoral performance.
22.
Subsequently, the PTE-UC merged into the ruling PSOE, but Santiago Carrillo declined PSOE membership considering his many years as a communist member.
23.
On 20 October 2005, Santiago Carrillo was granted an honorary doctorate by the Autonomous University of Madrid.
24.
Santiago Carrillo had retired from public life at the time of his death at his home in Madrid at the age of 97 on 18 September 2012.