José Antonio Primo de Rivera death (although his sentence was commuted). Franco appointed his own brother-in-law Serrano Suñer to replace him. The reign of Francisco Franco nurtured a convenient cult of personality around the dead figure of Primo de Rivera whom Falangists dubbed "El Ausente" (The Missing One). The founder of Falange was anointed a martyr of the "crusade against Marxism." Notwithstanding the apparent veneration by the Francoist State, it remains true that the Missing One's demise had removed a dangerous opponent: Primo de Rivera had been Marquess, a doctor of civil law, a political thinker; Franco owned no comparable pedigree, no comparable education and
Fernando Primo de Rivera Primo de Rivera (1741–1813), 21st Count of Sobremonte: he was a Spanish general under the Spanish Resistance against Napoleon Bonaparte. He served in several wars, including the 1848 and 1866 Madrid insurrections and the second Carlista War. When forces under his command in the second Carlist War captured Estella, he was named Marquess of Estella. He was the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines from 1880 to 1883. In 1897, he again became the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines. He temporarily suspended hostilities in the Philippine Revolution through negotiations with Emilio Aguinaldo in the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and acted briefly as