José Antonio Primo de Rivera José Antonio Primo de Rivera José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquess of Estella, (April 24, 1903 – November 20, 1936), often referred to as José Antonio, was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"), later Falange Española de las JONS. He was the eldest son of military dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera. Imprisoned before the start of the Spanish Civil War, he was accused of conspiracy and military rebellion against the Government of the Second Spanish Republic and was sentenced to death and
José Antonio Primo de Rivera to life imprisonment but this was rejected by the majority of government ministers (the two ministers from Izquierda Republicana voted against the death sentence. The sentence was carried out on November 20 by local authorities in Alicante. It is said by some that the Republic offered the Nationalists a prisoner exchange involving Primo de Rivera and a son of the Republic's president Francisco Largo Caballero and that Franco turned down the offer. Others contend that it was the Republican government who rejected the deal of the Nationalists and that General Franco approved several failed commando raids on the Alicante prison