Juan Modesto

Juan Modesto Guilloto León (El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, 1906 – Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1969) was a Republican army officer during the Spanish Civil War.

Early life
He originally worked at a sawmill before joining the Spanish Army. He served in Morocco, becoming a corporal of the Legion.

He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1930, and he was placed in charge of the Milicias Antifascistas Obreras y Campesinas (MAOC) of Madrid in 1933, which constituted a paramilitary force for the Party. He organized the Sindicato de Oficios Varios y el Socorro Rojo (dealt with relations with the Socorro Rojo Internacional).

Spanish Civil War
When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, he participated in the assault of Cuartel de la Montaña, and fought in the Madrilenian Mountain Range. He was one of the heads of 5th Regiment (commanding it from October 1936). He fought in Talavera de la Reina and Illescas (September 1936), the defense of Madrid and the Second battle of the Corunna Road, as well as in the Battle of Jarama (February 1937).

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the popular army and commander of 5th Army Corps, participating in the battles of Belchite, Brunete (July) and Teruel (January 1937 and December 1938). On 26 August 1938, he was promoted to colonel and became head of the Army of the Ebro.

After the fall of Catalonia to the Nationalist army, Negrín named him general and head of the Central Army on March 2, 1939.

Exile
After the Casado's coup, on March 6 he left Spain in an airplane. Then he went to the Soviet Union, whose government recognized his military rank.

During World War II, he served with the Red Army and the Bulgarian Communist forces. Defeated in the struggle with José Díaz for control of the PCE, he went to Prague.

Modesto wrote a book about his experience during the war in the 5th Regiment, titled Soy del Quinto Regimento (English:I am of the Fifth Regiment), published in Paris in 1969.