Domingo Batet

Domènec Batet i Mestres (; August 30, 1872 – February 18, 1937) was a Spanish military man who became general of the Spanish Army.

Starting as a lieutenant, Batet quickly escalated ranks during the Cuban War of Independence. After the Disaster of Annual, as a colonel, Batet took part in the investigation of the defeat taking part in the drafting of the Picasso File. During the Second Spanish Republic, Domènec Batet was designated chief of the IV Organic Division in Catalonia and crushed the Catalan Uprising of October the 6th. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Batet remained loyal to the Republic and was deployed in Burgos, where his subordinates betrayed him and captured him for the Nationalists. After months of captivity, Franco ordered the execution of Batet.

Biography

Early military career

Domènec Batet i Mestres started his career in the Spanish Army as a volunteer lieutenant in the Cuban War of Independence. During the war, he received decorations and was promoted multiple times. He also developed a pacifist ideology.

After that, during the Rif War, as a colonel he was one of the instruction judges who wrote the Picasso Files, a report directed by Juan Picasso González that pointed out the corruption of the African deployed Spanish officers, including Francisco Franco.

The Catalan uprising

Shortly after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, Domènec Betet was deployed in Catalonia as chief of the IV Organic Division. In that position Batet was always deferent with the Generalitat of Catalonia, treated the soldiers well and promoted the use of the Catalan language between them. In any case, Niceto Alcalá-Zamora transferred him to Burgos.

Spanish Civil War and execution

On June 13, 1936, Batet was transferred to the Organic Division of Burgos, where the general Emilio Mola, leader of the Nationalist faction, was also deployed. When the Spanish Civil War started, Batet was betrayed by his own men and they imprisoned him. While Mola, who respected Batet as a military man, was the leader of the Nationalists, Batet was kept in prison. When Franco became the Generalissimo of the Nationalist forces he ordered the execution of Batet, according to leftist sources, in retaliation for the Picasso Files, where Batet accused Franco of corruption during the Rif War.