Valentín Galarza Morante

Colonel Valentín Galarza Morante (1882 in El Puerto de Santa María – 1951 in Madrid) was a Spanish officer and right wing politician. He was associated with the monarchist tendency within the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista and was critical of the Falange.

An early supporter of José Sanjurjo, he had been involved in his failed 1932 rebellion, although there was no adequate proof to bring prosecution. Following the uprising he became involved in attempting to secretly recruit senior officers for future action and one of those he targeted was his friend Francisco Franco. He became a founder member of the Unión Militar Española and kept the group in touch with the conspiracies already undertaken by Juan Antonio Ansaldo and Juan Vigón. As a consequence of his wide circle of contacts he became part of the conspiratorial group of officers around Franco and Emilio Mola. He was vital to Franco personally as he was the general's link man to the UME.

In 1934, he was at the centre of a coup plot when plans were put in place for Ansaldo to fly General Sanjurjo back from exile in Portugal. The plan was for Sanjurjo to link up with Juan Yagüe and to lead a coup. However whilst the plotters waited at Pedro Sainz Rodríguez's house word came through from Franco that the right was not yet ready and for the plan to be aborted. Galarza however remained a central figure in the conspiracies and, based as he was in the War Ministry in Madrid, he was central in passing messages between the generals in the immediate run-up to the Spanish Civil War.

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