Betances sympathized with anarchists like Angiolillo, and hated monarchists like Cánovas, but this alone would not justify direct action from Betances into taking Cánovas' life. Betances did state at the time, however, that "in Spain there is only one true retrograde and reactionary leader, and he is precisely the one who confronts Cuba with a policy of '(spending in a war up to) the very last man and the very last "peseta",' the one who tries to suffocate all efforts that her patriots do to free her, and that man is Antonio Cánovas del Castillo."