Events of Yeste (Spanish: Sucesos de Yeste) is a colloquial name given to the armed confrontation between Guardia Civil and local agricultural workers and farmers which took place near and in Yeste on May 29, 1936. It was the second-bloodiest incident of this type during the lifetime of the Second Spanish Republic; it left 18 people killed and 29 heavily wounded. Though widely reported by the media, the carnage did not have a major political impact; both the Left and the Right were anxious to prevent unwanted would-be consequences. During the official investigation, criminal charges were prepared against 29 individuals, but due to outbreak of the civil war, no one was sentenced. In historiography the incident is referred either against the background of repression against the working class, or in relation to breakdown of public order during the spring of 1936.
Background
The municipality of Yeste is located in the county of Sierra del Segura, in the Albacete province. At the time it was part of the Murcia region; now it forms part of the New Castile and La Mancha region. Because of its mountainous character and peripheral location, bordering La Mancha, Murcia and Andalusia and away from major communication routes, it remained an extremely remote and poor community; Yeste was its only urban settlement, with some smaller villages scattered around. Like many counties of the region, it was marked by uneven land distribution, with presence of large rural estates on the one hand and numerous small-holdings belonging to local farmers on the other; there were also numerous landless agricultural workers, the jornaleros, living in the area. Its economy was largely dependent upon 2 commodities: olives and timber.
In line with its policy of heavy investments in infrastructure, mostly roads and hydro-electricity, in 1929 the Primo de Rivera regime commenced construction of the reservoir on the Segura river. Following the fall of the monarchy the new republican government continued the works as part of its Plan Nacional de Obras Hidráulicas. With the Fuensanta dam completed in 1933, the reservoir affected both the olive and the timber industry. Numerous plots were cut off from communication and transport of timber became extremely difficult. In July 1933 the farmers affected demanded construction of new road or other estates being offered for swoop. The demand, officially filed by the local ayuntamiento, was rejected by Dirección de Obras Públicas. It is usually suspected that the decision was enforced by Edmundo and Antonio Alfaro Gironda, two major landholders in the area, whose possessions would have been affected. Both were members of Partido Republicano Radical; Edmundo served in the Cortes and Antonio in the Diputación Provincial.
Following the electoral triumph of Popular Front in February 1936 new provincial Albacete authorities tried to address the problem by making some state landholdings accessible, yet it barely improved the position of local farmers and jornaleros, living in the neighbourhood of the Segura reservoir. However, both rural and urban proletariat started to view the electoral victory as the beginning of a massive social change, possibly bordering revolution. Increasingly frequently groups of rural workers declared taking justice into own hands. In the Albacete province cases of seizing land or logging on private estates were increasingly frequent, e.g. in Almansa, Alcaraz and Villamalea. The best known was the case of Bonete of March 1936, which gained notoriety due to confrontation with Guardia Civil and death of one serviceman.
Antecedents
With the spring weather conditions setting in, rural workers from villages depending upon timber were working on two public estates made accessible by the provincial authorities, known as Dehesa de Tus and La Solana del Río Segura. They cut down some 9,000 pine trees and approached limits of the estates marked. Then, following incoming news about farmers occupying private property in other locations of the province, some time in mid-May a large group of males, numbering between 50 and 80, commenced logging of pine trees on the estate known as Umbría del Río Segura, on the southern bank of the water reservoir. The estate was not public but the property of Antonio Alfaro, who purchased it in 1917. The males themselves were mostly dwellers of the La Graya village, on the right bank of the Segura; they would later claim that the estate has traditionally belonged to the village until it was fraudulently taken over “por parte de los caciques”. During over a week, some 11,000 pine trees have been cut.
The Alfaro brothers alerted the authorities, and the news reached the newly appointed civil governor, Manuel Maria González López; he was member of the presidential Izquierda Republicana party, held few civil governor jobs in 1932–1933, and assumed the Albacete office in March 1936. González López decided to send Guardia Civil reinforcements to Yeste, the place which normally hosted only a very small detachment. At the same time Jefatura Hidrológica Regional, the local branch of state body responsible for hydrological services, also alerted the governor. According to their claim, massive logging was likely to have gross adverse effect on local hydrological regime, including operations of the Fuensanta dam. The governor contacted the mayor of Yeste and briefed him on developments and the intention to deploy Guardia Civil. The mayor thanked for intervention and on May 27–28 pledged full co-operation with the forces of order.
On May 27 a detachment of Guardia Civil were sent from Yeste to La Graya; it consisted of a corporal and 6 agents. They were greeted with hostility; anticipating trouble the corporal sent one man to Yeste requesting reinforcements, but the serviceman was apprehended on his way and held as a hostage. However, the commander in Yeste and the alcalde got wind of the developments and made it to La Graya, where the mayor, Germán González Mañas from PSOE, tried to pacify the locals. He left during the evening assuring the Civiles, who would stay in La Graya during the night, that the situation was under control. However, the house hosting the detachment was surrounded by the dwellers who appeared preparing for an assault. A few warning shots dispersed the crowd. On May 28 the Yeste Guardia Civil commander sergeant brigadier Felix Velando with approval of the governor sent to La Graya reinforcements, which consisted of a sergeant, 2 corporals, and 14 agents. This force detained 6 individuals considered key troublemakers, with the intention to transport them to Yeste the following morning.
Confrontation
- early hours of May 29: some Civiles moved from La Graya to Yeste to inform local command that the detainees would be transported during the morning hours
- 8 AM: 16 Guardia Civil servicemen and the detainees left La Graya for Yeste, almost immediately surrounded by hostile crowd which demanded liberation of those arrested. The distance between La Graya and Yeste is some 12 km; the convoy proceeded among insults
- morning hours: news about detention were already known in the area, and militant locals from some other villages were approaching the road between Yeste and La Graya
- later morning hours: Velando approached the alcalde and asked him to pacify the crowd. The alcalde refused, noted that belligerent hundreds could not be detained, and claimed there was no point trying unless the detainees were set free. Eventually the Guardia Civil commander agreed. He was assured that when set free, the detainees would be monitored by the alcalde and his men and would show up for interrogation. Velando hurried from Yeste down the road to pass the orders to the convoy, already approaching up the road from the Segura
- around 10:30 AM: the convoy was some 2 km away from Yeste, accompanied by increasingly militant and hostile crowd, when it was reached by Velando, descending from the opposite direction. In an extremely heated moment, Velando ordered his men to free the detainees. After this happened, the Civiles proceeded towards Yeste. At the next curve along the mountainous road, at the spot known as La Cervera, they were confronted by aggressive crowd armed with various improvised tools, including bludgeons and hooks. Following the first scuffle numerous servicemen were wounded and fell; one was killed with a hook and the locals took his rifle. At this point the Civiles opened fire. According to later investigation, they kept firing for around a minute
- 10:30 until 12: the crowd dispersed on the slope of the hill, both up and down the road. In chaos and conditions of close combat, the Civiles kept firing and pursuing their opponents. An unspecified number of locals, possibly between 6 and 12, have been shot. The servicemen sustained new injuries, but no fatalities
- 12 until 3 PM: the Civiles kept clearing the area until they reached Yeste; one of the locals was shot at the outskirts of the city
- afternoon: the forces of order kept combing the city looking for the assailants. There was no combat recorded, yet some sources claim that there were locals maltreated, tortured or perhaps killed. Those detained were being placed under guard in premises of the Yeste castle, which started to serve as temporary prison
- evening: Guardia Civil reinforcements, requested earlier, arrived from Albacete, led by the provincial GC commander, Ángel Molina Galano
- night hours and May 30–31: tens of people were arrested. Detainees were being interrogated, often brutally and possibly using tortures. Corpses of the locals killed were gathered and following makeshift procedures, including cursory forensic inspection by local medical staff, they were hurriedly buried in a shallow common grave at the outskirts of the city
Aftermath
The news about dead and wounded has been passed on to the civil governor shortly afterwards, though it is not clear exactly when. Nationwide press published first information already on May 30, though with few details, some of them erroneous, and only estimate death toll. The civil governor, accompanied by some officials, arrived in Yeste on June 2, 1936, which marked the beginning of the official investigation. At the same time José Prat, Amancio Muñoz de Zafra (both PSOE) and Antonio Mije (PCE) arrived in Yeste and carried out interviews with the city dwellers. The carnage was also discussed at close meetings of various parliamentary groupings; the intention was to work out the strategy how to handle the issue during the parliamentary session scheduled on June 5, when the Yeste carnage was to be discussed in the chamber. Before that, the prime minister Casares Quiroga entrusted the Supreme Tribunal judge, Gerardo Fentanes Pontela, with the mission to investigate the issue.
The Cortes session dedicated to the Yeste massacre lasted less than an hour and was surprisingly brief compared to days spent on debates in 1933, when the chamber discussed the Casas Viejas carnage. It was the result of the strategy adopted by both the Left and the Right. The Popular Front groupings were anxious not to weaken the position of the Casares government, supported by the alliance. Hence, its representatives put the blame on individual Guardia Civil commanders, and declared the landholders, especially the Alfaro brothers, “responsables morales”. CEDA politicians remained mute, apparently anxious not to trigger an onslaught on the entire formation of Guardia Civil; this might have led to escalation and demands to abolish the entire service, perceived by the Right as one of the last remaining pillars of law and order in the increasingly bolshevized Spain. The Republican MP, former Minister of Public Works, claimed that during his tenure he drafted a plan to address the Segura reservoir issue, but it has not been acted upon by the following cabinets. Finally, the Minister of Interior Moles Ormella declared that thorough investigation would be carried out and would-be culprits among the servicemen sanctioned. However, the press followed the case during some 2 weeks, until mid-June.