Juan Antonio Ansaldo

Juan Antonio Ansaldo y Vejarano (1910–1958) was a Spanish aviator and monarchist activist and conspirator. A great admirer of Charles Maurras and Action Française, he flirted with various shades of far right politics before and during the Spanish Civil War.

Monarchism
A member of Ramiro de Maeztu's Acción Española, Ansaldo was a devoted follower of the monarchist general José Sanjurjo. By 1932 Ansaldo's holiday home in Biarritz was playing host to various leading monarchists, and this group grew close to the Unión Militar Española, which was planning to overthrow the republican government.

In 1934 Ansaldo was at the centre of a coup plot when it was arranged for him to fly Sanjurjo back from exile in Portugal. The plan was for Sanjurjo to link up with Juan Yagüe and to lead a coup. However whilst the plotters waited at Pedro Sainz Rodríguez's house word came through from Francisco Franco that the time was not right and so Ansaldo's mission was abandoned. He was again called into action in July 1936 when it appeared that Franco was wavering in his command and General Emilio Mola ordered Ansaldo to pick up Sanjurjo from Portugal and fly him to Morocco to relieve Franco of his command. The plan was again abandoned however when Franco returned to action a few days later.

Fascism
Although a monarchist, Ansaldo was drawn to the violent action and adventurism of fascism and as such maintained close links with such groups. He helped to fund both the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista and the Movimiento Sindicalista Española in the early 1930s, personally favouring the latter movement, which owed more to Blackshirts of Italian fascism in its character. With both these groups floundering he turned his attentions instead to the Falange and formally joined the group in early 1934. He became jefe de commandos and took charge of the so-called Falange de la Sangre militian squads engaged in responding to the leftist attacks. In this capacity Ansaldo became noted for his extreme violence, not only preventing any socialist activity in Madrid on May Day 1934 but also for his proclaimed intention of killing any of his own men suspected of betraying the Falange. Because of his violent character he was expelled from Falange.

Sanjurjo crash
In late July 1936 Ansaldo was finally called upon to transport his mentor for real from his exile in Estoril. Flying only a small biplane, the flight hit difficulty when Sanjurjo, who was a very heavy man to begin with, insisted on carrying a large amount of luggage with him. Unsuited to being so heavily weighed down the plane crashed just after take-off, killing Sanjurjo. Ansaldo, however, survived the crash, despite suffering extensive injuries. The incident was to Franco's advantage as one of his two main rivals to power, the other being Mola, was eliminated.

Later years
Following the Civil War Ansaldo continued his career in the Spanish Air Force and had risen to the rank of colonel by 1940. By this time Ansaldo had become firmly estranged from Franco and was involved in a futile conspiracy with Eugenio Vegas Latapie to restore the monarchy. He was exiled from Spain in 1945 after Franco launched a purge of leading monarchists. His disillusionment with the Franco regime was reflected in his 1951 memoir ¿Para que... (For What?) in which he criticised El Caudillo for betraying the war against the republicans by not restoring the kingdom.