Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja to be amputated without anaesthesia due to the scarcity of resources available at their position and he succumbed shortly after to gangrene. For his actions in battle, Primo de Rivera was commended for the Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand, awarded posthumously in 1923. Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja (Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) 30 July 1879 - Mount Arruit, Morocco, 5 August 1921) was a Spanish soldier, brother of the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja and uncle of Falange’s founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera. He entered the Cavalry School in
Miguel Primo de Rivera that the parliament had been brushed aside. As he travelled through Spain, his emotional speeches left no doubt that he was a Spanish patriot. He proposed to keep the dictatorship in place long enough to sweep away the mess created by the politicians. In the meantime, he would use the state to modernize the economy and alleviate the problems of the working class. Primo de Rivera began by appointing a supreme Directory of eight military men, with himself as president. He then decreed martial law and fired civilian politicians in the provinces, replacing them with middle-ranking officers. When members of