José Antonio Primo de Rivera City Hall of Guadalajara removed a memorial to the founder of Falange under cover of darkness. 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
Miguel Primo de Rivera to resign two days later. Primo de Rivera retired to Paris, where he died a month and a half later at the age of 60 from fever and diabetes on 16 March 1930. In the early 1930s, as most of the western world, Spain fell into economic and political chaos. Alfonso XIII appointed General Dámaso Berenguer, one of Primo de Rivera's opponents, to govern. But the monarch had discredited himself by siding with the dictatorship. Social revolution fermented in Catalonia. In April 1931, General José Sanjurjo informed the King that he could not count on the loyalty of the armed