Manuel Díaz Criado

Manuel Díaz Criado (1898 – 7 July 1947) was a Spanish infantry officer. With a reputation as a brutal sadist, he was during the Spanish Civil War responsible for the arrest, sexual abuse, torture and execution of thousands of people in the regions of Andalucia and Extremadura who opposed the Nationalist military uprising. The crimes frequently extended to the relatives and the associates of those targeted.

Early life and career He was born in Seville and was the eldest of five children of Manuel Díaz Gavira, a civil administrative chief. He joined the army and was posted to the Spanish Legion in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. In 1925, he was promoted to captain. Already for his bullying nature, he gained the nickname Criadillas ('bull's balls'). He associated with right-wing elements trying to subvert left-wing officials associated with the Spanish Second Republic. After the spread of revolutionary strikes across Spain in 1931, the civil governor of Seville, José Bastos Ansart, was concerned about local state order being overwhelmed and instigated a paramilitary force, the Guardia Civica, made up of members of local landowners' clubs. After arms were collected, Diaz Criado led the force, and four prisoners who had been taken in the Parque de María Luisa were shot dead with the cover of the Ley de fugas. The law that allowed prisoners to be shot while they escaped, and its ramifications were long-lasting.

On 15 August, he survived a serious car accident. Wanted by the authorities, he was hidden by a female prostitute, Doña Mariquita, who later recalled the favour when she was persuaded by relatives of Diaz Criado's prisoners to help save them. In January 1933, a bomb was placed at the door of his family home in Seville, but it failed to go off. In May 1936, he was arrested for organising an attack against President Manuel Azaña the previous year. It had been overseen by the virulent extremist Mauricio Carlavilla, who had spread old conspiracy theories in the right that Jews and Freemasons were destroying Spain's past glories. Diaz Criado had been implicated in the assassination attempt on Azaña on the orders of the secretive Unión Militar Española, a group created after the coup attempt by General José Sanjurjo y Sacanell that was made up largely of disaffected high-ranking military personnel, a group of which he had been a member. He was also believed to have been involved in assassination attempts on two members of the Congress of Deputies: the law professor Luis Jiménez de Asúa and Francisco Largo Caballero. Carlavilla escaped to Portugal, but Diaz Criado was arrested in Alcalá de Henares. He was not charged.

Later life He spent the final part of his career as an active soldier in Jaén, initially at the front and later in the transfer and the custody of prisoners. In March 1940, he was appointed military commander of Andújar. In 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and was awarded the cross of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild. He died in Seville on 7 July 1947, survived by his wife, Julia (née Benitez Lago), and son.

Legacy Later Francoist revisionist historians attempted to remove his contribution from memorials. Few photographs of him exist. In Seville, from July to November 1936, 8000 people were killed by Nationalists. Contemporaries who knew Diaz Criado estimated that he had overseen the deaths of 11,000 people. Antonio Bahamonde suggested the number was as many as 20,000.